DOCSLIB.ORG

Abstraction and Libidinal Nationalism in the Works of John Boyle and Diana Thorneycroft

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Abstraction and Libidinal Nationalism in the Works of John Boyle and Diana Thorneycroft Western University Scholarship@Western Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository 6-25-2015 12:00 AM Abstraction And Libidinal Nationalism In The Works Of John Boyle And Diana Thorneycroft Matthew Purvis The University of Western Ontario Supervisor Dr. Cody Barteet The University of Western Ontario Joint Supervisor Dr. Christine Sprengler The University of Western Ontario Graduate Program in Visual Arts A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the equirr ements for the degree in Master of Arts © Matthew Purvis 2015 Follow this and additional works at: https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd Part of the Contemporary Art Commons Recommended Citation Purvis, Matthew, "Abstraction And Libidinal Nationalism In The Works Of John Boyle And Diana Thorneycroft" (2015). Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository. 2931. https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/2931 This Dissertation/Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by Scholarship@Western. It has been accepted for inclusion in Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository by an authorized administrator of Scholarship@Western. For more information, please contact [email protected]. ABSTRACTION AND LIBIDINAL NATIONALISM IN THE WORKS OF JOHN BOYLE AND DIANA THORNEYCROFT (Monograph) by Matthew Purvis Graduate Program in Visual Arts A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts The School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies The University of Western Ontario London, Ontario, Canada © Matthew Purvis 2015 Abstract This thesis examines the work of Canadian artists John Boyle and Diana Thorneycroft. It analyzes their imagery in aesthetic, political, and strictly materialist terms using the theoretical work of Wilhelm Worringer, Wyndham Lewis and Gilles Deleuze. Both artists have appropriated elements of Canadian history (historical figures, cultural archetypes and aspects of material culture) to create art works that are alienating and abstract. With Boyle, this has involved constructing a wall of noise to operate as a territorial marker, one that both parodies and reinforces the traditions of the nation. His art has been one devoted to nonsense, nihilism and a deliberate short-circuiting of communication. This is invested in advocacy for a Canadian nationalism that is both mournful and absurd. For Thorneycroft, it has meant a shift away from the production of absurd tableau dealing with Canadian nationalism, to an attempt to encounter the crimes of the country's history with empathy. However, her formal means have consistently short-circuited her attempt to create a morally therapeutic art. Keywords John Boyle, Diana Thorneycroft, Canadian art, history in art, Wyndham Lewis, George Grant, nationalism, abstraction, Gilles Deleuze, sexuality, London Regionalism, dolls, dioramas, photography, painting, Group of Seven, Jonathan Bordo, Wilhelm Worringer, Dennis Burton. ii Acknowledgments I would like to acknowledge my supervisors, Dr. Cody Barteet and Dr. Christine Sprengler, for their assistance in reviewing my text at various stages of its creation. I would also like to thank James Patten of the McIntosh Gallery for providing me with access to archival documents and introducing me to local collectors in London. Without his assistance, this might have been a rather different work. Thanks also to the McKays, who generously allowed me to view and study Boyle's Elsinore in their home. This work became central to my thesis. Additionally, I extend my thanks to Amy Furness of the Art Gallery of Ontario archives for her help in providing me with a wealth of primary sources that were fundamental to my research. iii Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... ii Acknowledgments.............................................................................................................. iii Table of Contents .............................................................................................................. iiv List of Figures ................................................................................................................... .vi Introduction ..................................................................................................................... .viii 0.1 Introduction ............................................................................................. .........ix 0.2 Abstraction, satire, art ........................................................................... .........xiii 0.3 Outline................................................................................................... .........xxi Chapter 1 .................................................................................................................... ….....1 1.1 Extinction of the sign ............................................................................... .........1 1.2 The pictorial paradox .............................................................................. ........11 1.3 Husk and objectivation .......................................................................... .........13 1.4 Love in the fourth dimension ................................................................. .........17 Chapter 2 .................................................................................................................. ….....29 2.1 Beavers ................................................................................................... .........29 2.2 Satire and tradition ................................................................................. .........35 2.3 Americanadians...................................................................................... .........44 2.4 Neo-imperialism and the decline of nationalism ................................... .........47 2.5 ParaCanada ............................................................................................ .........54 2.6 Orphans .................................................................................................. .........62 Chapter 3 .................................................................................................................. ….....68 3.1 Loving Canada ....................................................................................... .........68 3.2 Naked History ........................................................................................ .........76 3.3 Decoys I – Nature-morte ........................................................................ .........83 iv 3.4 Decoys II – Trauma/arousal ................................................................... .........93 3.5 The automation of empathy and vicarious victimhood ........................ .........103 Conclusion ............................................................................................................. ….....118 Bibliography .......................................................................................................... ….....122 Curriculum Vitae ................................................................................................... ….....136 v List of Figures 1. Tom Thomson, The Jack Pine (1916-17) 2. Edwin Holgate, Nude in The Open (1930) 3. Prudence Heward, Girl Under a Tree (1931) 4. John Boyle, Yankee Go Home - The Rape of St. Catharine (1973) 5. John Boyle, Yankee Go Home – Elsinore (1974) 6. John Boyle, Yankee Go Home - Reclining Beaver (1974) 7. Dennis Burton, Niagara Rainbow Honeymoon No. 1 – The Bedroom (1967) 8. Dennis Burton, Niagara Rainbow Honeymoon No. 4 (1968) 9. Diana Thorneycroft, Group of Seven Awkward Moments (Beavers and Woo at Tanoo) (2008) 10. Thomas Davies, A View of Montreal in Canada, Taken from Isle St. Helena in 1762 (1762) 11. Diana Thorneycroft, Group of Seven Awkward Moments – Algonquin Park (2007) 12. John Boyle, Toward Paisley (1976) 13. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Prostitute (2008) 14. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Burning Braids (2008) 15. Goodridge Roberts, Adolescent (1924) 16. George Reid, The Story (1890) 17. John Boyle, Arthur at the Lacrosse Game (1965) 18. John Boyle, Chromatic Aberrations (1988) 19. Diana Thorneycroft, Untitled (witness) (1998) 20. John Boyle, Canadology: The Perpetual Motion Machine (1992-93) vi 21. John Boyle, Killing Time in St. Catharines (1967) 22. John Boyle, Untitled (penis#13) (1975) 23. John Boyle, The Peregrinations of A Young Artist In Canada (undated) 24. John Boyle, The Port Dalhousie Stories (1987) 25. John Boyle, The Canadology – Pink Puffin (1990) 26. The Heart of London exhibition catalogue (1968) 27. John Boyle, Ark of the Continent (1990) 28. John Boyle, Ark of the Continent - Decoy (1993) 29. John Boyle, Batoche – Gabriel. (1974-75) 30. Diana Thorneycroft, Group of Seven Awkward Moments - Northern River (2008) 31. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Father Sylvestre (2009) 31. Diana Thorneycroft, Doll Mouth - (choir girl) (2004) 32. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Night, Pine Island (2008) 33. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - View from Mount Cashel, St. John's Harbour (2008) 34. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Indian Home (2011) 35. Diana Thorneycroft, A People's History - Quintland (2010) Due to copyright restrictions, these images may not appear in the bound edition of the thesis. vii Introduction 0.1. Introduction My thesis examines London born painter John Boyle and Winnipeg based photographer Diana Thorneycroft. Boyle enjoyed notoriety in the late
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Borderline Research
    Borderline Research Histories of Art between Canada and the United States, c. 1965–1975 Adam Douglas Swinton Welch A thesis submitted in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art University of Toronto © Copyright by Adam Douglas Swinton Welch 2019 Borderline Research Histories of Art between Canada and the United States, c. 1965–1975 Adam Douglas Swinton Welch Doctor of Philosophy Department of Art University of Toronto 2019 Abstract Taking General Idea’s “Borderline Research” request, which appeared in the first issue of FILE Megazine (1972), as a model, this dissertation presents a composite set of histories. Through a comparative case approach, I present eight scenes which register and enact larger political, social, and aesthetic tendencies in art between Canada and the United States from 1965 to 1975. These cases include Jack Bush’s relationship with the critic Clement Greenberg; Brydon Smith’s first decade as curator at the National Gallery of Canada (1967–1975); the exhibition New York 13 (1969) at the Vancouver Art Gallery; Greg Curnoe’s debt to New York Neo-dada; Joyce Wieland living in New York and making work for exhibition in Toronto (1962–1972); Barry Lord and Gail Dexter’s involvement with the Canadian Liberation Movement (1970–1975); the use of surrogates and copies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1967–1972); and the Eternal Network performance event, Decca Dance, in Los Angeles (1974). Relying heavily on my work in institutional archives, artists’ fonds, and research interviews, I establish chronologies and describe events. By the close of my study, in the mid-1970s, the movement of art and ideas was eased between Canada and the United States, anticipating the advent of a globalized art world.
    [Show full text]
  • Franklin Carmichael's Representation of The
    TRANSCENDENTAL NATURE AND CANADIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY: FRANKLIN CARMICHAEL’S REPRESENTATION OF THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE by NICOLE MARIE MCKOWEN Submitted to the Faculty Graduate Division College of Fine Arts Texas Christian University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS May 2019 TRANSCENDENTAL NATURE AND CANADIAN NATIONAL IDENTITY: FRANKLIN CARMICHAEL’S REPRESENTATION OF THE CANADIAN LANDSCAPE Thesis Approved: ______________________________________________________________________________ Major Professor, Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite, Kay and Velma Kimbell Chair of Art History ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Frances Colpitt, Deedie Rose Chair of Art History ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Meredith Munson, Lecturer, Art History at University of Texas, Arlington ______________________________________________________________________________ Dr. Joseph Butler, Associate Dean for the College of Fine Arts Date ii iii Acknowledgements I would like to express my gratitude to my committee chair Dr. Mark Thistlethwaite and my committee members Dr. Frances Colpitt and Dr. Meredith Munson for their time and guidance throughout the writing of this thesis. I am also grateful to all of the faculty of the Art History Division of the School of Art at Texas Christian University, Dr. Babette Bohn, Dr. Lori Diel, and Dr. Jessica Fripp, for their support of my academic pursuits. I extend my warmest thanks to Catharine Mastin for her support of my research endeavors and gratefully recognize archivist Philip Dombowsky at the National Gallery of Canada, archivist Linda Morita and registrar Janine Butler at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, and the archivists at the Library and Archives Canada for their enthusiastic aid throughout my research process. Finally, I am indebted to my husband and family, my champions, for their unwavering love and encouragement.
    [Show full text]
  • FOR RELEASE: Sunday Morning Papers, October 29, 1950 WASHINGTON, October 28: David E
    NE'.VS RELEASE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART WASHINGTON, D. C. FOR RELEASE: Sunday morning papers, October 29, 1950 WASHINGTON, October 28: David E. Plnloy, Director of the National Gallery of Art, announced today that an exhibition of Canadian paintin.tr would be on view at the National Gallery from Sundayj October 29 to December 10, 1950. In expressing his appreciation, on behalf of the Trustees and Officers of the Gallery, to the Director and Trustees of the Notional Gallery of Canada for the loan of the exhibition, Mr. Finley commented on the large number of able and original Canadian painters "who have interpreted their own country, and especially its landscape, with the deep feeling that comes only with a love of one's native land." "The work of many of these artists is widely appreciated in the United States," Mr. Finley continued, "but, with the exception of the exhibitions held recently in Boston and Richmond, there have been few opportunities for the .imorican people to become acquaint­ ed with the great body of Canadian painting." National Gallery of Art -2- The eighty-seven paintings included in the exhibition have been assembled, from public and private collections, by the National Gallery of Canada. As stated by the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, The Rt. Hon. Vincent I/lassey, the purpose of the exhibition is "to show the main trends in Canadian art during the last fifty years," while it includes "a small group of works from the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries to serve as an his­ torical background." Eight of the paintings are in this earlier group.
    [Show full text]
  • Highway Wherever: on Jack Chambers's 401 Towards London No.1
    MATTHEW RYAN SMITH Highway Wherever: On Jack Chambers’s 401 Towards London No.1 ≈ The story behind Jack Chambers's painting 1 01 Towards London No. 1 (1968-69) is something like this: Chambers left London, Ontario for a meeting in Toronto. As he drove over the Exit 232 overpass near Woodstock, he glanced in his rear-view mirror and was struck by what he sa w behind him. He returned later that night and the next morning with a camera to photograph the area. The result is an archive of images taken above and around a banal overpass in Southwestern Ontario, later used as source material for one of Canada's most important landscape paintings. Chambers was born in l 93 l in London, Ontario, the gritty and spra wling half way point between Detroit/Windsor and Toronto. Inthe late 1950s and 1960s, Chambers and other local artists-including John Boyle, Greg Curnoe, Murray Favro, Bev Kelly, Ron Martin, David Rabinowitch, Royden Rabinovwitch, Walter Redinger, Tony Urquhart, and Ed Zclcnak-centralizcd the city of London in their artistic and social activities. As the 60s drew to a close, art historian Barry Lord wrote in Art in America that London was fast becoming "the most important art centre in Canada and a model for artists working elsewhere" and "the site of 'Canada's first regional liberation front."' In effect, the London Regionalism movement, as it became known, dismissed the stereotype that the local was trivial, which lent serious value to the fortunate moment where the artists found themselves: together in London making art about making art in London.
    [Show full text]
  • John Boyle, Greg Curnoe and Joyce Wieland: Erotic Art and English Canadian Nationalism
    John Boyle, Greg Curnoe and Joyce Wieland: Erotic Art and English Canadian Nationalism by Matthew Purvis A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Affairs in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Cultural Mediations Carleton University Ottawa, Ontario © 2020, Matthew Purvis i Abstract This dissertation concerns the relation between eroticism and nationalism in the work of a set of English Canadian artists in the mid-1960s-70s, namely John Boyle, Greg Curnoe, and Joyce Wieland. It contends that within their bodies of work there are ways of imagining nationalism and eroticism that are often formally or conceptually interrelated, either by strategy or figuration, and at times indistinguishable. This was evident in the content of their work, in the models that they established for interpreting it and present in more and less overt forms in some of the ways of imagining an English Canadian nationalism that surrounded them. The dissertation contextualizes the three artists in the terms of erotic art prevalent in the twentieth century and makes a case for them as part of a uniquely Canadian mode of decadence. Constructing my case largely from the published and unpublished writing of the three subjects and how these played against their reception, I have attempted to elaborate their artistic models and processes, as well as their understandings of eroticism and nationalism, situating them within the discourses on English Canadian nationalism and its potentially morbid prospects. Rather than treating this as a primarily cultural or socio-political issue, it is treated as both an epistemic and formal one.
    [Show full text]
  • Download Guide
    TEACHER RESOURCE GUIDE FOR GRADES 5–12 LEARN ABOUT MODERN CANADIAN LANDSCAPES & THE GROUP OF SEVEN through the art of TOM THOMSON Click the right corner to MODERN CANADIAN LANDSCAPES & THE GROUP OF SEVEN TOM THOMSON through the art of return to table of contents TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE 1 PAGE 2 PAGE 3 RESOURCE WHO WAS TIMELINE OF OVERVIEW TOM THOMSON? HISTORICAL EVENTS & ARTIST’S LIFE PAGE 4 PAGE 9 PAGE 12 LEARNING CULMINATING HOW TOM THOMSON ACTIVITIES TASK MADE ART: STYLE & TECHNIQUE PAGE 13 READ ONLINE DOWNLOAD ADDITIONAL TOM THOMSON: TOM THOMSON RESOURCES LIFE & WORK IMAGE FILE BY DAVID P. SILCOX EDUCATIONAL RESOURCE MODERN CANADIAN LANDSCAPES & THE GROUP OF SEVEN through the art of TOM THOMSON RESOURCE OVERVIEW This teacher resource guide has been designed to complement the Art Canada Institute online art book Tom Thomson: Life & Work by David P. Silcox. The artworks within this guide and images required for the learning activities and culminating task can be found in the Tom Thomson Image File provided. Tom Thomson (1877–1917) is one of Canada’s most famous artists: his landscape paintings of northern Ontario have become iconic artworks, well-known throughout the country and a critical touchstone for Canadian artists. Thomson was passionate about the outdoors, and he was committed to experimenting with new ways to paint landscape. He had several friends who shared these interests, such as A.Y. Jackson (1882–1974), Lawren Harris (1885–1970), and J.E.H. MacDonald (1873–1932); a few years after his premature death, these friends helped establish the Group of Seven, a collection of artists often credited with transforming Canadian art by creating modern depictions of national landscapes.
    [Show full text]
  • Elements & Principles of Design
    CANADIAN ART: The Late 1800’s Canadian artists working in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s painted landscapes in a fairly realistic style. They painted what they saw without expressing any feeling or emotions. This style of painting landscapes with a soft, quiet, tame, and inviting appearance originated in Europe. These landscapes were full of realistic details and natural colours, but they lacked personal expression. Homer Watson John A. Fraser September Afternoon, Eastern At the Rogers Pass, Summit of the Townships 1873 Selkirk Range, B.C. 1886 CANADIAN ART: THE GROUP OF SEVEN The Group of Seven was founded in 1920 to develop a new style of Canadian painting with a distinct Canadian identity. These artists painted what they saw, but added imagination and feeling. They were especially interested in expressing the wild, untamed spirit of the Canadian wilderness in their paintings. The artists often travelled into the wilderness to make sketches in the open air. They wanted to capture the atmosphere, the effects of light, and the spirituality and ruggedness of the northern Canadian landscape. In order to accomplish this, their style was also rugged, expressive, and powerful. THE GROUP OF SEVEN PAINTING STYLE a)Colours: bold and vibrant or bold and dark/dull high contrast between lights and darks b) Shapes/Forms: simplified with few details almost 2 dimensional abstract c) Brushstrokes: thick paint application (impasto) often visible (not blended) Franklin Carmichael Lake Wabagishik 1928 Mirror Lake 1929 Arthur Lismer A September Gale, Georgian Bay 1921 Bright Land 1938 J.E.H. MacDonald The Solemn Land 1921 Mist Fantasy 1922 F.H.
    [Show full text]
  • Speaking Clown to Power: Can We Resist the Historic Compromise of Neoliberal Art? GREGORY SHOLETTE
    03_Cronin pg27-54 11/19/10 12:48 PM Page 27 Speaking Clown to Power: Can We Resist the Historic Compromise of Neoliberal Art? GREGORY SHOLETTE Clowns always speak of the same thing, they speak of hunger; hunger for food, hunger for sex, but also hunger for dignity, hunger for identity, hunger for power. In fact, they introduce questions about who commands, who protests.1 he transformation of the postwar welfare or “Keynesian” state economy into its current, neoliberal form has dramatically altered the relationship Tbetween labour, capital, and the state. As noted in the introduction to this book, globalization, privatization, flexible work schedules, financial schemes, and hyper-deregulated markets have plunged many individuals into a world of precarious labour, in which one’s very sense of “being” is in a constant, yet indeterminate state of risk. In one stroke, the 2008 global financial meltdown illuminated the details of risk society—painfully for many (profitably for a small group of others). Not surprisingly, some look to culture for a modicum of critical insight if not an entirely different vision of life and labour. The work of artists, it is alleged, provides self-knowledge and sometimes utopian alter- natives precisely because cultural creativity is said to be a unique form of sen- suous, nonproductive, self-directed, and therefore “autonomous,”labour. Art appears to exist separately from the “cultural pollution”of everyday commerce. But given that art is also a form of labour, is it not also affected by the recent changes in
    [Show full text]
  • The Jack Pine: Preserving the Northern Ontario Landscape Through Painting, Music, and Short Film Roxane Prevost
    Document généré le 27 sept. 2021 02:55 Intersections Canadian Journal of Music Revue canadienne de musique --> Voir l’erratum concernant cet article The Jack Pine: Preserving the Northern Ontario Landscape through Painting, Music, and Short Film Roxane Prevost Volume 36, numéro 2, 2016 Résumé de l'article Dans ses notes de programmes, la compositrice canadienne Jocelyn Morlock URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1051596ar explique qu’elle a été inspirée par le tableau de 1916-17 de Tom Thomson, DOI : https://doi.org/10.7202/1051596ar représentant un pin gris s’agrippant à un affleurement rocheux au bord de l’eau, pour la composition de sa pièce solo pour piano intitulée The Jack Pine Aller au sommaire du numéro (2010). Un peu plus tard, Julian Beecroft a réalisé un court métrage au sujet du Parc Algonquin sur la musique de Morlock. Cet article examine quelques correspondances entre les transitions de couleurs et la façon dont la musique Éditeur(s) illustre avec succès certaines scènes du court métrage. Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des universités canadiennes ISSN 1911-0146 (imprimé) 1918-512X (numérique) Découvrir la revue Citer cet article Prevost, R. (2016). The Jack Pine: Preserving the Northern Ontario Landscape through Painting, Music, and Short Film. Intersections, 36(2), 35–45. https://doi.org/10.7202/1051596ar Copyright © Canadian University Music Society / Société de musique des Ce document est protégé par la loi sur le droit d’auteur. L’utilisation des universités canadiennes, 2018 services d’Érudit (y compris la reproduction) est assujettie à sa politique d’utilisation que vous pouvez consulter en ligne.
    [Show full text]
  • Tom Thomson's Paintings Are Frequently Reproduced As Icons of Canadian Nationalism
    'OURIDEAL OF AN ARTIST': TOMTHOMSON, THE IDEAL OF MANHOODAND THE CREATIONOF A NATIONALICON (1 9 17-1 947) by Ross DOUGLASCAMERON A thesis submitted to the Department of History in conformity with the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Queen's University Kingston, Ontario, Canada September, 1 998 Copyright 6 Ross Douglas Carneron, 1998 National Library Bibliothèque nationale I*B of Canada du Canada Acquisitions and Acquisitions et Bibliographie Services services bibliographiques 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Wwa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada The author has granted a non- L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive licence allowing the exclusive permettant a la National Library of Canada to Bibliothèque nationale du Canada de reproduce, loan, distribute or sell reproduire, prêter, distribuer ou copies of this thesis in microform, vendre des copies de cette thèse sous paper or electronic formats. la forme de microfiche/nlm, de reproduction sur papier ou sur format électronique. The author retains ownership of the L'auteur conserve la propriété du copyright in this thesis. Neither the droit d'auteur qui protège cette thèse. thesis nor substantial'extracts fiom it Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels may be printed or othemise de celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés reproduced without the author's ou autrement reproduits sans son permission. autorisation. Tom Thomson's paintings are frequently reproduced as icons of Canadian nationalism. His best known works, such as "A Northern River," "The Jack Pine," and "The West Wind," have been reproduced in such various forms as postage starnps, coins, coasters and posters.
    [Show full text]
  • Industrial Algoma and the Myth of Wilderness: Algoma Landscapes and the Emergence of the Group of Seven, 1918-1920
    INDUSTRIAL ALGOMA AND THE MYTH OF WILDERNESS: ALGOMA LANDSCAPES AND THE EMERGENCE OF THE GROUP OF SEVEN, 1918-1920 by Allan John Fletcher B.A., The University of British Columbia, 1977 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES THE DEPARTMENT OF FINE ARTS ART HISTORY We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard the University of British Columbia November, v 1989 © Allan Fletcher, 1989 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. 1 further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives. It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department of The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date QCTOGCfr <3, tiff- DE-6 (2/88) ii ABSTRACT In the summer of 1988, casting around for a thesis topic, I chanced on some photographs which stunned me. They were pictures of various sites in the Algoma territory, a region which up to that time I, like many Canadians, knew only from idyllic paintings by J. E. H. MacDonald and other members of the Group of Seven. The discrepancy between the two sets of images was startling. What the camera revealed: railyards, dockyards, cities and towns, dammed rivers, cavernous mines, mountains of slag, razed forests, huge smelters and gigantic milling operations was in striking contrast to the untouched northern wilderness depicted in works like The? Solemn Land.
    [Show full text]
  • Jack Chambers Fonds CA OTAG SC055
    E.P. Taylor Research Library & Archives Description & Finding Aid: Jack Chambers Fonds CA OTAG SC055 Finding aid prepared by Judith Rodger, 1995–1996 Finding aid modified and description prepared by Amy Marshall With assistance from Gary Fitzgibbon, 2002/2009 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto, Ontario, M5T 1G4 Canada Reference Desk: 416-979-6642 www.ago.net/research-library-archives Jack Chambers fonds Jack Chambers fonds Dates of creation: [ca. 1920]–1991, predominant 1961–1978 Extent: 5323 photographs 1.66 m of textual records and graphic materials 147 drawings 6 segments of film 3 audio discs 2 boxes of objects 1 model Biographical sketch: John Richard Chambers (1931–1978) was a Canadian painter and experimental filmmaker. Born in London, Ontario, he received his first art training there at H.B. Beal Technical School. After graduation in 1949 he left to study art in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He returned to London in 1952 to study at the University of Western Ontario before leaving to travel in Europe the following year. During his travels in France, Jack Chambers met Picasso, who advised him to continue his studies in Spain. In 1957 he spent the summer in England where he met Henry Moore. Soon afterward he began his studies at the Escuela Central de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, graduating in 1959. His first exhibition was at the Lorca Gallery in Madrid in 1960. The following year he returned to London, Ontario. In Spain he had met Olga Sanchez Bustos, whom he married in Canada in 1963. They had two children, John (b.
    [Show full text]