UNews - ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection

Lasting Images - Painters Eleven

trevor.kenney — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 21:32:29 +0000

In 1952, painter Alexandra Luke organized the first Canadian exhibition of abstract painting to be assembled on a national scale in Canada. In the brochure for the show, titled Canadian Abstract Exhibition, she wrote, "Painting should not stop with the already discovered beauty but continue searching."

Due to what the viewing public misunderstood as childish and insincere, abstract painting in Canada struggled to gain acceptance, especially in comparison to the nationally supported work of the Group of Seven, CP Rail's propagated images of the picturesque and traditional forms of landscape and portrait painting.

Kazuo Nakamura, Grey Day, 1954. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Purchased in 1988.

The abstract exhibition toured Canada in 1953, however it received mixed reviews. At a panel discussion at the Art Gallery of Toronto called Why Should We Buy Canadian Paintings?, writer and critic George Robertson suggested that department stores should be encouraged to sell original Canadian paintings using typical merchandising methods. Future Painters Eleven member William Ronald was in attendance, and his design work for the Robert Simpson Company prompted an exhibition of abstract and non-objective paintings at Simpson's department store. The subsequent show, titled Abstracts at Home, was meant to persuade the general public that abstract expressionist painting was just as much at home within the everyday as in an art gallery, and the exhibit featured works from various artists displayed in furnished rooms typical of modern living.

Harold Town, Reds, Greens, Browns, 1956. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Gift of Jim Coutts, 2010.

The promotion was a success for the store and the seven participating artists, resulting in a discussion to show their work together as a group. After agreeing to invite four other like-minded artists, it was decided that a meeting would take place at Luke's studio to discuss the idea of a large group exhibition of their works. At the historic meeting, Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Hortense Gordon, Tom Hodgson, Alexandra Luke, Jock Macdonald, Ray Mead, Kazuo Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town and Walter Yarwood decided to call themselves Painters Eleven, and from Feb. 12-28, 1954, at the Roberts Gallery in Toronto, the largest crowds ever drawn to the gallery viewed work from some of the most influential artists in history.

The Painters Eleven legacy lives on in the form of artwork now held in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; an example of their influence and success. Unfortunately, after being acquired by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1978, the same cannot be said for Simpson's department store.

William Ronald, Back Thru Autumn, 1954. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Gift of Avrom Isaacs, 1986.

Chad Patterson
Museum Studies Intern, ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Gallery

This story first appeared in the Legend. To view the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - Roloff Beny

trevor.kenney — Tue, 17 May 2011 21:42:42 +0000

Through the museum studies internship program, I am both entrusted with the responsibility and granted the opportunity to co-curate an exhibition for the Helen Christou Gallery.

During the research and planning phase for the 1950s exhibition, I came across Arctic Vertical by Roloff Beny, and was disappointed that I couldn't include this drawing because it was produced in the 1960s. What I love about this piece is that it reminds me of works both by Vincent Van Gogh, in its parallel echoing strokes, but also of Piet Mondrian's works, which are stripped down to simplified geometric forms.

Roloff Beny, Arctic Vertical, 1964 From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Bequest of the artist, 1989.

Discovering works like this one is one of my favourite aspects of participating in the Museum Studies Internship program. I am continually amazed at the beautiful works that find their home in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection.

Roloff Beny was born in Medicine Hat in 1924 and then spent a large portion of his life living abroad working as a photographer. His formal training took place at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Toronto, the Banff Centre for the Arts and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Iowa. Beny is best known for his photographic work later in his career, but earlier he explored a wide range of media. The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge acquired many of Beny's prints, drawings and paintings, as well as works by other significant artists from his personal collection, when Beny bequeathed his entire art collection to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ upon his death in 1984.

David Smith, Museum Studies Intern

A sense of place

trevor.kenney — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 20:04:36 +0000

Born and raised in southern Alberta, Jim Coutts has been collecting art since he was 17. As the former secretary to two prime ministers, Coutts travelled extensively and looked at art around the world, but his collection has a clear western Canadian theme.

After recently donating more than 200 pieces to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection, Coutts paints his own picture of life on the Prairies.

Jim Coutts eyes the long, ruler-straight road approaching his Nanton property with a discerning gaze – analysing the qualities of available light, interpreting the natural contrast between the earth and the sky, and considering composition of the image in his mind's eye.

Jim Coutts, photo by Jaime Vedres.

"The grass blows a little in the wind, giving some movement to a hill in the distance, and the land just keeps drawing you out to it," says Coutts, describing an image from memory. "I find this space absolutely enchanting. Some people think it's boring because you drive and drive for hours and they feel there's nothing there, but there's a great deal there and it's the vastness and simplicity that makes it so hauntingly beautiful."

Born in High River and raised in Nanton, 80 kilometres south of Calgary, Coutts is as much a product of southern Alberta as the grasses that blanket the Porcupine Hills. Growing up in a rural community, Coutts remembers endlessly long summer days spent racing bicycles down the streets of his hometown.

"During the summer, I always had stuff to do. I was very busy – in my own mind at least," says Coutts, allowing nostalgia to creep in. "The thing about memory is that it improves over time, and events get better and better the more you remember them."

But the memory of his grandfather, W.H. (Bill) Allan, looking longingly at a homestead he'd given up, remained unchanged.

"As a young boy, I would go into his field with him in the summers," says Coutts. "We would walk over to the old homestead from that field, which was just across the road. He always told me he never should have given up that property and, although I didn't understand it, I could tell that it was a painful memory for him."

Allan was one of many settlers who, searching for a better life, travelled thousands of miles across Canada in the early years of the last century. He farmed a quarter section of land near Nanton before losing the property during the 1920s and moving his family into town. Visiting the property as a child resonated with Coutts, who felt an attachment to the land he couldn't explain at the time. He now believes the homestead provides him with a sense of place but is also symbolic of the difficulties of prairie life.

"We look at beautiful things and we see only the good," says Coutts. "We forget that our ancestors and our forebears stumbled and fell and picked themselves up and kept going. Part of our history is the history of struggle."

While crops sometimes failed, the prairie soil proved fertile ground for art and culture. At the age of 12, Coutts caught the attention of Dorothy Dowhan, a local newspaper editor with friends in the artistic community, and started visiting art galleries, theatres and even gardens as her guest.

"Dorothy took a great interest in young people and would spot individuals who were showing interest in wider subjects," says Coutts of the woman he describes as a mentor. "She had a lot of friends, and I met some very interesting people through her."

Respectful of its history, the new Coutts homestead faces west to the Porcupine Hills, foothills of the Canadian Rockies, which are often topped in snow even as the gardens bloom. The original buildings scattered across this sweep of prairie represent a coming home for this southern Alberta boy.

It was Dorothy who gave a then 17-year-old Coutts his first piece of art.

"Dorothy gave me a little oil by John Cook – who's still around and still painting – when I went to university," says Coutts, who hung the picture in his dorm room while completing a law degree at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta.

Armed with a single painting and an appreciation developed over years and years of looking, Coutts began buying art on his own.

"I'd been going to galleries for 10 years and I just kept looking," explains Coutts. "Toward the end of my university days I would splurge and buy a print for $50. Gradually I became a bit of a pack rat."

Collector is more accurate. Hesitant at first, Coutts soon began collecting with determination and ferocity, qualities he would demonstrate in his professional life as well.

"I studied law because I thought I could get a job when I finished," admits Coutts. "I didn't know what I wanted to do, but I was very interested in public life."

Admiring the progressive politics of provincial Liberal leader, Harper Prowse, Coutts entered the political scene in 1953 with a desire to affect change. Ten years later, Coutts was made secretary to Liberal Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson and was on the front lines of Canadian politics.

"I enjoyed being in the fray," says Coutts, who worked with Pearson for three years before going to Harvard ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ to complete his MBA. "Politics is always drama. There's always something happening and it seemed important but it was also a kind of entertainment."

Canadians saw profound change in those three short years: medicare, the pension plan, old-age security, the National Economic Council and the new Canadian flag were all introduced.

"It was a very short period when a great deal of good was done for this country," says Coutts proudly.

After completing his MBA, Coutts started a consulting firm where he was working when Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau appointed him principal secretary in 1975. He worked with Trudeau for six years before leaving to run in a byelection, which he lost by 200 votes.

Homestead photos by Andy Hakin.

Through it all, Coutts diligently continued collecting art.

"You get to like things and think you need things," says Coutts. "You also train your eye so that while once in a while you buy a bad picture, generally, you buy things that you like and most are really good. In the beginning I didn't believe there was any theme to it, but over the years I acquired a good deal of western Canadian art."

The art in the Coutts collection is united by its subject matter: endless skies over empty fields, faded grain elevators contrasted against brilliant sunsets, soaring birds floating in wild winds, all depicting the variety of the southern Alberta landscape.

Understanding that the images in his collection represented more than an affinity for prairie scenery, Coutts returned to southern Alberta in 1988 and reclaimed his grandfather's homestead. With a keen eye for detail, Coutts set to work, turning the soil once broken by his grandfather into a prairie garden and bringing his own vision for the property to life.

"It seems to me the more attractive and exciting and imaginative and creative a place is in your mind, the more painful it is to be away from it," says Coutts, who is grateful for the opportunity to return each summer to the community he knew as a child.

The new homestead is very much an expression of Coutts himself. Set on the vast, flat canvas of the Prairies, buildings are scattered across the land – the original homestead; a chicken house, now a guest suite; a barn; and an old ice house and granary, moved from Coutts's mother's neighbouring property. Each structure provides a seemingly effortless organization to the landscape where gardens flourish, and the plots and paths are carefully carved in such a way to welcome visitors and encourage exploration.

His approach has been bold and the transformation remarkable, but Coutts has not forgotten the struggles of life on the Prairies.

"When you look at the place now with the gardens, grasses and trees and the beauty depicted in the photographs and paintings, that's one thing," says Coutts. "But for many years, for those who came first, it was a very difficult and painful place to live."

Respectful of its history, the new Coutts homestead faces west to the Porcupine Hills, foothills of the Canadian Rockies, which are often topped in snow even as the gardens bloom. The original buildings scattered across this sweep of prairie represent a coming home for this southern Alberta boy.

"A piece of you will always stay wherever it is that you came from, and you also carry a piece of that landscape with you," explains Coutts. "Fortunately, I've been able to return to the place that means so much to me."

This story first appeared in SAM Magazine. For a look at SAM in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - Iain Baxter&

trevor.kenney — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 18:02:37 +0000

Iain Baxter& is known as one of Canada's foremost conceptual artists. Born in England in 1936, Baxter&'s family moved to Canada a year later, and he spent most of his early career in Vancouver. From 1966-78, Baxter& and artist Ingrid Baxter formed the art collective N.E. Thing Co., which explored the boundaries between corporate advertising, mechanized production and fine art.

Baxter& went on to produce work in a wide variety of media, including drawing, painting, sculpture, photography and film. He is a Professor Emeritus at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Windsor, Ontario while continuing his artistic practice, and in 2003 was designated an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Iain Baxter&, Selections from Reflected Paris Beauty Spots, 1980 | From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Purchased from the artist, 1985.

In 1980, Baxter& travelled to France to create work for an exhibition held at the Canadian Cultural Centre Paris, entitled Reflets sur polaroid de grains de beauté parisiens (Reflected Paris Beauty Spots).

Baxter& carried a small mirror through Paris and took Polaroid photographs of it, angled to reflect key landmarks and architecture around the city. Baxter& then photographed the original Polaroids against the body of a model, highlighting the contrast between the historical buildings and human flesh.

For the 30th anniversary of Baxter&'s premier Parisian exhibition, the Canadian Culture Centre Paris mounted a retrospective of Baxter&'s work entitled Canadian Perspective, displaying the original Reflected Paris Beauty Spots series (now held in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection) and other

works spanning five decades of Baxter&'s prolific career.

For a look at the March issue of the Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - Daly & Pepper

trevor.kenney — Thu, 16 Dec 2010 17:59:08 +0000

Kathleen Daly (1898-1994) and George Pepper (1903-1962) met while studying art at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris, and married in 1929.

Based in Toronto for most of their creative careers, Daly and Pepper travelled and painted together extensively. Both are well known for their depictions of the people and lifestyle of Canada's northernmost territories, where they lived among their subjects throughout the 1960s.

George Pepper, Horse’s Head From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Bequest of Kathleen Daly Pepper, 1995.

At the time of her death, Daly donated over 40 artworks by herself and Pepper to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection.

For a look at the full issue of the December Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Kathleen Daly, Eskimos Gather for the Dance From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Bequest of Kathleen Daly Pepper, 1995.

George Pepper, Untitled (Eskimo Girl) From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Bequest of Kathleen Daly Pepper, 1995.

Lasting Images - Mary Shannon Will

trevor.kenney — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 21:38:15 +0000

Mary Shannon Will was born in Ithaca, New York, and studied at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of New Mexico in Albuquerque and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Iowa. Upon moving to Canada, Will taught at the Emily Carr College of Art & Design in Vancouver.

Will is known for her diverse artistic practice, working in a variety of media including printmaking, painting and ceramics. Today, the artist divides her life and work between Calgary and New Mexico.

Mary Shannon Will, Untitled, 1971. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Gift of the artist, 1999.

In 1999, Will donated 45 artworks to the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection, spanning the breadth of her career from 1968 through 1993. This gift included ceramic pieces, paintings, drawings and archival materials associated with her practice.

These works demonstrate Will's vibrant use of colour based in Pop Art sensibilities, her sense of play within the funk ceramics movement on the Canadian prairies during the 1970s, her extension from traditional woman's forms such as jars and utilitarian objects and her complex grasp of the interests in form and composition developed within abstract artistic movements.

Mary Shannon Will, Unfinished Sculpture, 1980. From the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection; Gift of the artist, 1999.

For a look at the full issue of the November Legend in a flipbook format, follow this link.

Lasting Images - October

trevor.kenney — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 17:45:04 +0000

art + people = x

Dr. Mike Mahon

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection continues to grow each year through the generosity of artists and art collectors. Most recently, the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ acquired a gift of over 200 artworks from Jim Coutts, a southern Alberta art collector, politician and philanthropist. Coutts is well known as a supporter of prairie artists, and many of the works comprising this gift depict plains landscapes.

New ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge President, Dr. Michael Mahon, was interested in selecting some works from Coutts' gift for the art + people = x project because of his ties to Canada's prairies.

Mahon grew up in Manitoba and is a long-time Alberta resident, moving to Lethbridge after spending the last decade in Edmonton at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Alberta.

As a lifelong physical activity enthusiast and proponent, Mahon has formed strong bonds to the Canadian prairies, and is anticipating excursions into the coulees that surround our campus.

Selected works from Jim Coutts' gift will be displayed as part of 'A Little History on the Prairies', an exhibition at the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Main Gallery, Jan. 14 to Feb. 25, 2011.

Lasting Images - Ron Moppett

trevor.kenney — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 18:15:47 +0000

Ron Moppett was born in England in 1945 and immigrated to Canada in 1957. He attended the Alberta College of Art and Design and went on to teach and curate at his alma mater as well as the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Calgary and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

Moppett's paintings, drawings and assemblages have been exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and internationally, and his work is represented in many private and public collections including the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Canada Council Art Bank, Glenbow Museum, Musée d'Art Contemporain, The National Gallery of Canada and the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection.

Moppett's work is well known for its exploration of texture, shape and layering, and often features references to popular culture and daily life collaged into abstracted planes. His sculptural assemblage, Match, is currently en route to be exhibited at Vancouver's Contemporary Art Gallery this summer.

Further collage artworks from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection will be exhibited in Collage aux folles, running from June 11 to Aug. 28 in the Helen Christou Gallery.

Lasting Images - Eldon Garnet

trevor.kenney — Mon, 10 May 2010 17:45:13 +0000

Eldon Garnet is an internationally acclaimed Canadian artist known for a multidisciplinary approach to his work. Garnet's photographs in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection explore the ideas of life and death in a sincere and surprising manner.

While some artists prefer to address mortality indirectly, Garnet embraces the idea and makes it a focal point of his work. He creates series of photographs that are aesthetically pleasing for their composition and form but contain images that read to be disturbing. The viewer becomes so drawn into the design aspects of Garnet's images that the content then becomes an unanticipated aftershock.

Garnet is fully aware of this effect and sees his images as an opportunity to, "give everyone what they want while quietly pushing them over an unexpected edge of aesthetic and social expectation."

Once the viewer addresses the content of the work, it is hard not to relate its meaning to the self or the immediate environment.

These works from Garnet's No series use elements – air, water, fire – while others in the same series use animals and the human body to portray meaning. The elements that are seen here can have many meanings attributed to them, some negative and some positive. What they all have in common is that they exist on a fine line between necessity and destruction, bringing the viewer to an interesting, and yet personal, dichotomy.

Garnet is also an accomplished writer, sculptor and filmmaker. He was the publisher and editor of Impulse magazine from the mid 1970s to the 1990s.

Garnet is currently teaching photography, public art and sculpture at the Ontario College of Art & Design.

Roz Jeffery is a Museum Studies Intern in the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ's Department of Art

In The Stillness exhibition opens

trevor.kenney — Fri, 07 May 2010 20:46:32 +0000

The ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge showcases the exhibition, In The Stillness, in the Main Art Gallery beginning Friday, May 7.

Examining the environment that exists between sculpture and viewer, this exhibition features rarely exhibited sculptural work from the ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection.

Though the works span over 25 years of artistic production, similarities can be drawn in the quiet complexity present in the conception and construction of each object.

Artists include Robert Rauschenberg, Alex Wyse, Alan Reynolds and Gordon Ferguson.

The opening reception for In The Stillness runs from 4 to 6 p.m. in the Main Gallery.

For more information on this exhibition, click on this link.

UNews - ��Ѹ�����Դ���߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge Art Collection

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