to have been Oscar Cahén, a gifted European émigré who became well known as an illustrator for a number of national magazines. Stylistically speaking, Kazuo Nakamura's abstract works were far more subdued than those of his colleagues, and he also created figurative paintings. In Canada's conservative art world, their first exhibition was met with confusion and disdain, typical of new art movements throughout history. By their third exhibition, in 1957, they had established abstract expressionism in Canada. Painters Eleven attained U.S. exposure with a successful exhibition in 1956 with the American Abstract Artists at the Riverside Museum in New York City, and were praised by the influential critic Clement Greenberg on a visit he paid to the group in Toronto in 1957. In the Canadian press, the group's most ardent supporters were art critic Robert Fulford and [art writer] Pearl McCarthy of the Globe and Mail. Eventually, the group's numbers were reduced by death and defection (Cahén was killed in a car accident in 1956, Ronald resigned in 1957) and the group formally disbanded in 1960. Influence Painters Eleven are credited with making English Canada's art-buying public more accustomed to abstract expressionist painting. Their influence on the next generation of Canadian artists was immense, and their art is now a prominent feature in public galleries and corporate and private collections throughout Canada and in many international collections. The largest collection of their works can be found at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario. Some of the group's members, notably Jack Bush, William Ronald and Harold Town, went on to greater success in the 1960s and 1970s. Jack Bush was given a major exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 1976, Harold Town in 1986 and Kazuo Nakamura in 2004. Works by the group's members are now fetching higher prices at Canadian fine art auctions. The last surviving member of the group, Tom Hodgson, a former Olympic canoeist and a dedicated abstract expressionist, died in 2006. Selected group exhibitions 2010: Museum London, London, Ont. 2010: Moore Gallery, Toronto, Ont. 2009: (Painters Eleven exhibition with works in animation) Christopher Cutts Gallery, Toronto 2007: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont. 2003: Thielsen Gallery, London, Ont. 1999: Drabinsky Gallery, Toronto 1994 and 1995: Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Ont. 1984: Cambridge Art Gallery and Library, Cambridge, Ont. 1979: Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, Ont. 1978: The Gallery, Stratford, Ont. 1976: Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ont. 1975: