Both Ways Now is an early work by senior Canadian artist André Fauteux. Fauteux began using constructed steel in 1970, combining a sense of geometry with a rhythmic lightness. His works have qualities in common with Minimalist practice and demonstrate the influence of British sculptor Anthony Caro, for whom Fauteux worked as a studio assistant in 1974 and 1975. The artist also cites painter Kenneth Noland as an important influence.

In Both Ways Now, Fauteux begins with a rectangular outline. The viewer must move around the piece in order to fully appreciate its impact: through the use of steel of various widths and gently curving line, Fauteux elegantly produces an effect of fluid movement. He thus achieves what curator Karen Wilkin has described as the embodiment of “a continuing conflict between a Platonic sense of the ideal and a modernist appreciation of the unpredictable.”