David Milne

David Brown Milne was an uncompromising modernist visionary. Moving to New York in 1903, he developed a radical, minimalist painting philosophy based on the economy of means and aesthetic compression, earning selection for the landmark 1913 Armory Show alongside Matisse, Picasso, and Duchamp.

Returning to Canada, Milne lived in ascetic seclusion in rural Ontario and the Adirondacks, producing magnificent drypoint prints using multi-plate color techniques and luminous watercolours of Palgrave and Six Mile Lake. Renowned art critic Clement Greenberg championed Milne as among the three greatest Canadian artists of his century.