Collection: Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre (1928–2021) is best known for her vibrantly bold paintings and public interventions, but she also produced an extraordinary body of print work, including several prints made at Open Studio in the 1970s. Letendre collaborated with one of Open Studio's founders, Richard Sewell, on eight screenprints produced between 1972 and 1979, which exhibit the same intense use of colour, line, and saturation found in her paintings.

Reflecting on working with Letendre, Sewell noted, “Rita knew exactly what she wanted to print, whether in scale or colour, and she was cautiously open to subtle changes in texture or blends. Her sense of colour was near absolute, and she was a great believer in ‘registration’, her work celebrated where one shape, tone, or colour precisely touched its neighbouring shape, tone, or colour. Letendre’s consistency across prints, paintings, and murals was strongly unusual and unique.”