Thematic dossier | Dossier thématique

Obscured Brilliance: ’s Modern Stained Glass Heritage John Leroux is an architect and art historian > John Leroux based in Fredericton. He has won many awards for architectural and public art projects throughout , and he has taught at the University of , St. Thomas University, and the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. A uminous, bold and ever changing, stai- contributing columnist for the Canadian Architect Lned-glass windows are an architectural magazine, he is also the author of six books on paradox within the Modern Movement. Although dynamically exploited by New Brunswick architecture, including: Building influential modern masters ranging from New Brunswick: an Architectural History (Goose Frank Lloyd Wright to Le Corbusier and Lane, 2008), St. Andrews Architecture: 1604- Wallace Harrison, stained-glass windows 1966 (Gaspereau Press, 2010), and Glorious often seem a throwback architectural Light: the Stained Glass of Fredericton (Gaspereau element, a relic of centuries past. The Press, 2011). The latter is the first time in longstanding connection of stained glass Canada that a fully illustrated history of a city’s with medieval cathedrals and Victorian stained glass has been published. domestic parlours seems a long way from the heroic modernist experiments that pushed the boundaries of structure, materials, technical systems, and spartan industrial design. Carefully composed fragments of coloured glass set in lead can seem incompatible with the massive planes of clear plate glass and soaring curtain walls that typify the modernist visual language.

Despite their association with the pre- modern, heroic and innovative modern- ist stained-glass windows did at times transcend the derided realm of “applied ornament.” The sweep of natural light as it enriches interior space aligns stained glass with a key architectural pursuit of modernism, as stated so forcefully by Le Corbusier: “Architecture is the masterly, correct and magnificent play of masses brought together in light.”1 At their best, modern stained glass approaches are exceptionally dynamic creations that radically transform with the changing light, angle of the sun, time of day, and weather conditions. When carefully designed, stained-glass windows rendered the extremely import- ant element of modern architecture—the building skin—exuberant and alive. FIG. 1. Stair landing window at 96 Secretary Lane, 1897. | John Leroux

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Where traditional stained glass often con- of windows; as eminent British glass artist presented in its stained-glass windows, cerned itself as much with narrative and John Piper called it, “more and more in resides in churches, in private homes, in illustrative roles as it did with its luminous the simultaneous creation of a light-filled educational and government buildings, and decorative qualities, modern stained architectural unit.”7 in places of commerce, and even deep in glass regularly freed itself from the lim- the woods. Far from a city shackled by its its of descriptive elements and scenes. Although it is seldom celebrated, the city Victorian past, the illuminated wealth of American architect Frank Lloyd Wright of Fredericton contains some of the fin- its enduring postwar glass presents the (1867-1959) was a pioneer in making this est stained glass in eastern Canada. These multifaceted ideological and spiritual/ conceptualizing leap. And while he openly are exceptional artworks, although many secular character of Fredericton—a city appreciated the great rose windows of sit virtually unknown, their designers striving for a new progressive face at a the mediaeval European cathedrals,2 he and craftsmen largely unidentified. This time of rapid change. felt that for his own contemporary assess- oversight is most palpable with regards ment, “nothing is more annoying to me to the city’s twentieth-century modern Arts and Crafts Glass than any tendency toward realism of form glass; not surprising in a city so closely in window-glass, to get mixed up with the tied with Loyalist roots and nineteenth- Buoyed by its ascendency in Great Britain, view outside. A window pattern should century architectural tradition. the Gothic Revival made its way to British stay severely ‘put.’”3 North America in the mid-nineteenth Akin to the commitment to new materi- century, with Fredericton being a focal Paradoxically, the new generation of als and measured ornament in Canada’s point. By the 1850s and 1860s, many new modern architects and glaziers still postwar architecture, the diversity of churches housing symphonies of stained remained typically grounded in materi- themes contained in Fredericton’s mod- glass and decorative Gothic delights filled als and techniques that had existed for ern stained glass is remarkable, ranging the streets of New Brunswick. These a thousand years; although therein laid from religious and historical subjects to included magnificent British-made win- the challenge… Wright inferred that the a bestiary of animal figures, stylized por- dows at Fredericton’s St. Anne’s Anglican proper use of architectural glass was not traits, and abstract fields of colour and Parish Church (1846-1847) and Christ only a responsibility, it was loaded with pattern. This glass embodies the para- Church Cathedral (1845-1853), both unlimited possibility, calling “glass and dox of being a visual legacy connected monuments of North American Gothic light—two forms of the same thing!”4 to past centuries, as well as at times a Revival. It was not long before the fer- direct aesthetic refutation of traditional vent religious use of coloured glass spread Echoing Le Corbusier’s devotion to light, craft practices, all the while needing to to the domestic and institutional spheres. Wright also felt that “light is the beauti- physically express the soul and character The eclectic and ornamental splendour fier of the building,”5 and he laid out his of this particular place. Perhaps more so of the late Victorian era revelled in the clarion call: than the typical decorative or narrative exuberant (and at times excessive) use of forms of the city’s pre-modern stained stained glass in dining rooms, parlours, Let [the architect] work, now, with light dif- glass, Fredericton’s modernist examples stairway landings, and entry vestibules fused, light refracted, light reflected—use seek to create transcendent visual and in the houses of the wealthy as well as light for its own sake—shadows aside. The spatial experiences by the transmission those of the middle classes. Glazed panels prism has always delighted and fascinated of light through colour. abounded, flaunting social virtues, histor- man. The machine gives him his opportun- ical scenes, lavish patterns, and extrava- ity in glass. The machine can do any kind Fredericton’s identity has always been cen- gant colouration. of glass—thick, thin, colored, textured to tred on its political position as the provin- order—and cheap. A new experience is cial capital, as well as its major role as a While much of Fredericton’s late-nine- awaiting him.6 centre of higher education, religion, and teenth-century stained glass was text- culture. The city has consistently punched book Victorian graphic indulgence, By the end of the Modern Era, stained above its weight in literature and the fine instances of clever restraint were begin- glass artists and designers were striving to arts, and its beautiful site along the Saint ning to be seen. A large Queen Anne make their works part of the architecture John River has made for surroundings of Revival house at 96 Secretary Lane, itself and less about the simple decoration visual richness. This aesthetic spirit, as behind the Provincial Legislature, has a

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FIG. 2. Stair landing window at 31 Lansdowne FIG. 3. Front door window at 57 Rookwood Avenue, c. 1925. | John Leroux. Street, 1915. | John Leroux. unique stairway landing window that instances of this was the popularity of bungalows that blend fine craftsmanship is unusually clean and innovative for its the Craftsman bungalow house between and materials, along with comparatively 1897 date, with an ordered palette of 1905 and 1925. By the early twentieth cen- open and unfussy layouts compared to red, blue, green, and yellow glass, clear tury, the democratic ideals of the British their neighbours from previous decades. bevelled circles and an off-centre crescent Arts and Crafts movement had spread The bungalows have low-pitched shel- moon (fig. 1). As a pictorial exercise, it has throughout North America, while the tering roofs with wide eaves and exposed more in common with a 1950s Paul Rand California Arts and Crafts homes designed wood rafters/braces, deep porches with logo than with the typical designs of the by the Greene brothers and the horizon- square columns, interior stained wood day, and hints at compositional themes tal Prairie houses of Frank Lloyd Wright paneling and simple rectangular trim, that will emerge in the glass of the first inspired construction across the continent. and leaded/stained-glass windows. The half of the twentieth century. This architectural approach found wide- latter were calculated and controlled, spread acceptance in the new Craftsman with areas of clear or opaque frosted Emerging Modern style, which takes its name from a widely white glass in a generally rectilinear pat- Approaches circulated American magazine published tern, and compositional contrast attained from 1901 to 1916 appropriately titled by curved or coloured highlights. Hand- As the twentieth century was entering The Craftsman. One of the houses’ most painted or etched glass was virtually full swing, housing was becoming visible features was their prominent use abandoned. more standardized throughout Canada. of stained glass, usually showing a dis- Improved communications led to a decline tinct geometric simplification compared Within the suite of recurring Craftsman of local vernacular approaches, thanks to earlier Victorian patterns, hinting at bungalows along Lansdowne Street at partly to large-circulation printed media the coming Art Deco style. Fredericton’s East end, the 1915 example that disseminated new architectural fash- at 31 Lansdowne has a stairway land- ions, decorative designs, and construc- Fredericton’s downtown neighbourhoods ing window (fig. 2) with an affinity to tion methods. One of the most familiar feature a number of one-and-a-half-storey the renowned stained-glass designs

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FIG. 4. One of a pair of Star of David windows at the rear of the Sgoolai Israel Synagogue, 1934. | John Leroux. FIG. 5. Salvation Army chapel glass block windows, Neil Stewart, architect, 1964. | John Leroux.

of Scottish architect Charles Rennie and he frequently referred to his stained mainly clear, leaded patterned French Mackintosh (1868-1928). Mackintosh’s glass as “light screens.” His designs were doors of his celebrated Hollyhock House geometric and floral-based windows often geometric abstractions of natural of 1921 in Los Angeles. from the turn of the twentieth century elements such as hollyhocks, butterflies, were revolutionary, changing the path and his famous “tree of life.” His bold In the late 1920s and early 1930s, the flam- of modern stained glass through their yet reverential style is characterized by boyant Art Deco style provided a Jazz Age serenity and flowing organic outlines. basic geometric ornament expressed in flourish of colour and geometrical simpli- The Lansdowne window harkens to the repeating shapes of rectangles, chevrons, city to architecture and to stained glass. glazed Ladies’ Luncheon Room divider at and simplified organic forms, often set Although Art Deco made few inroads into Mackintosh’s Ingram Street Tea Room in in horizontal bands of repeating case- New Brunswick due to the poor economy Glasgow (1900), whose vertical lead lines ment windows. The c. 1925 Craftsman of the day and the generally conservative and gently coloured panes are punctu- bungalow at 57 Rookwood Avenue in approach to design in the province, where ated by gentle curves and smaller seed- Fredericton shows a strong Wright influ- it did appear, it was often subtle and like green organic forms. ence. Its darkly stained front door proudly served only as partial embellishment. The features a simple yet sophisticated two- rear façade of Fredericton’s 1934 red brick Working in a singular development of by-two-foot bevelled glass window with synagogue on Westmorland Street fea- the Arts and Crafts approach, Frank a forty-five-degree arrangement and tures a pair of high circular openings with Lloyd Wright transformed the very com- symmetrical chevron pattern (fig. 3), Stars of David, set irregularly with white, plexion of modern architecture, and was a reserved New Brunswick version of pink, and violet stained glass (fig. 4). perhaps the twentieth century’s great- Wright, if you will, as they are kindred Their slight flattening and daring colour est innovator of architectural stained spirits to the forty-five-degree geometry choice is a subtle, but distinct, instance glass. For him, stained glass was con- and overall restraint of his repeating of 1930s decorative sensibility influenced ceptually tied to the architectural set- “tulip” windows at his 1912 Geneva Hotel by Art Deco. A further instance of local ting as part of a complete environment, in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, as well as the stained glass, barely visible to the public,

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FIG. 6. Classroom annex stairwell glass block FIG. 7. Dalles de verre detail, St. Dunstan’s Catholic FIG. 8. Man of Science sculpture, UNB, Claude windows, former Fredericton High School, William Church, Charles Versteeg Studios, 1965. | John Leroux. Roussel, 1963. | John Leroux. Lake, architect, 1961. | John Leroux. the familiar Jewish symbols and their High Modern Expression To that effect, the University of New delightful colours give notice that not all of Integral Stained Glass Brunswick’s Fredericton campus is home religious stained glass in Fredericton is to an exterior dalles de verre sculpture Christian-based. One of the most distinct material con- called Man of Science (fig. 8). Formally nections between stained glass and abstract and figurative at the same time As postwar architecture adopted new modern architecture was the emer- within its flat steel mounting frame, Man materials and minimal ornament, a newly gence of dalles de verre in early-twen- of Science depicts a cement Henry Moore- favoured wall typology was the period’s tieth-century Europe, and later in North ish figure raising up a solid sphere in one embrace of large structural glass block America. Dalles de verre is French for hand, with deep red and orange flashed surfaces. Fredericton’s former Salvation “slabs of glass,” a technique introduced glass radiating from it. The human form Army Headquarters (1964) features three in France during the late 1920s that util- is lined with white, yellow, and brown vertical strip windows of green, blue, izes thick glass slabs, hammer-cut and dalles, a counterpoint to the multicol- and clear glass block at the chapel walls purposefully chipped to enhance light oured and variegated dalles de verre (fig. 5). They present a beautiful diffused refraction, all set in an epoxy matrix or background. Originally situated between light that echoes a Bauhaus sensibility as resin grout (fig. 7). The use of chunkier the University’s late 1950s science build- well as the slenderness of early church lan- glass (up to one inch thick) produces ing and the 1829 administration build- cet windows. Analogous to this approach deeper colour effects than the thinner ing,8 this eight-foot-tall sculpture was are the clear ribbed and yellow glass block traditional lead came stained glass, espe- created in 1963 by New Brunswick artist walls at the 1961 former Fredericton High cially when illuminated by strong natural Claude Roussel (1930--), who completed School classroom annex between George light. Dalles de verre windows are usu- a number of freestanding dalles de verre and Brunswick Streets (fig. 6). They bathe ally modern in feel and structurally solid, sculptures during that period. As one of the busy stairwell with light and spot col- with a fiery intensity of colour. New Brunswick’s most successful artists our, yet are resilient and tough, requiring and a pioneer of modern Acadian art,9 virtually no maintenance or upkeep. Roussel fused sculpture and visual art

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FIG. 9. St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, Lenz and FIG. 10. Interior view of St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, looking west toward the enormous Crucifixion Taylor architects, 1965. | Courtesy of the collection of the window. | John Leroux. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, P342-7445.

with modern architecture. In 1964, he corner site, a preceding architectural twin of this technique in the 1960s, such as at won the Royal Architectural Institute of that is completely identical right down to St. Dunstan’s. Canada’s Allied Arts Medal for recogni- the design, colour choice, and dimension tion of outstanding creative achievement of the stained-glass windows. It is one St. Dunstan’s main entry is surrounded in the arts connected to architecture.10 of Canada’s rare pairs of matching high by a colourful abstracted design in dalles Roussel’s work emerged into public view modernist buildings in different cities.11 de verre representing the Christian Mystic in the 1950s and 1960s, when the mod- Vine (fig. 12) conceived and crafted by ernist aesthetic dominated visual art, as Intensely integrated with the architec- dalles de verre specialists Charles Versteeg well as public and private buildings. tural expression, St. Dunstan’s features a Studios of Toronto.12 The particular glass remarkable program of modern stained system was carefully chosen as it offers A more architectural and religious ally to glass, including richly figured dalles de the somewhat dark entry vestibule a Roussel’s sculpture, St. Dunstan’s Catholic verre as well as conventional assem- glowing, colourful sense of playfulness Church anchors Fredericton’s downtown blies of pure coloured glass. One of the and sparkle, not far removed from the intersection of Brunswick and Regent world’s finest modern churches is First ubiquitous stand of kaleidoscopic votive Streets. The large building with its rich Presbyterian in Stamford, Connecticut candles that flicker and flame near the stone and brick cladding, steeply gabled (1958), designed by American architect entries of Catholic churches. The seeming roof and three-sided copper-clad bell Wallace K. Harrison (1895-1981). Its wor- randomness of the fractured pieces and tower is a striking example of modern ship space is an entire volume of triangu- the irregular thickness of the grout only ecclesiastical architecture and soar- lar slabs of concrete and dalles de verre accentuate the organic metaphor of the ing forms (figs. 9-10). Opened in 1965, from floor to ceiling, arching completely Mystic Vine. St. Dunstan’s was designed by Lenz and around those seated within (fig. 11). Taylor of Hamilton, Ontario. The firm Its effect is profound and spectacular, Above, a lofty window towering over the also designed Hamilton’s St. Eugene’s and this widely published design had a St. Dunstan’s choir loft shows a heroic Catholic Church (1962) on a comparable resounding effect on encouraging use image of Christ on the cross below a fiery

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FIG. 11. Interior view of First Presbyterian Church, FIG. 12. Main entry door dalles de verre “Mystic Vine” window surround, St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, Stamford, Connecticut, Wallace K. Harrison, Charles Versteeg Studios, 1965. | John Leroux. architect, 1958. | John Leroux. red sun, with a pair of peacocks at his the rage, and it still offered the sense of evokes calm and control, using punctuat- feet (fig. 13). This powerful window is one diffused, coloured light washing over the ing rectangles of two alternating shades of the tallest in New Brunswick, domin- interior space. While many instances saw of blue coloured glass astride a field of ating the church’s western wall with its this approach done to the point of ban- clear sheets of rectangular glass (fig. 15). brilliant colour, vertical mass and reach, ality, this suite of glazing (designed by The effect is sublime and unpretentious and unapologetic symbolism. A lustrous Lenz and Taylor) is the best example in at the same time—an important outcome figurehead of the front façade, it is a the province, and the silhouette effect on as it looks out over a relatively unsightly masterwork of Versteeg, who designed, the carved Stations of the Cross is nothing parking lot. built, and installed (with his son, Eric) short of startling. Up close, the skilfully these enormous walls of glass—as well carved wooden stations’ detail and tex- As one of the finest high modernist struc- as their identical twins at St. Eugene’s ture are easily appreciated as sculptures tures in the city, St. Dunstan’s is a perfect several years before. of worth, but when seen from a distance instance of the integration of architec- their transformation into mysterious and tural space, glass design, shimmering The side walls of St. Dunstan’s display a tortured black shadowy forms is deeply effects, and carefully controlled natural multicoloured field of textured stained enhanced by their incongruous rainbow- light, all leading to a palpable atmosphere glass rectangles ranging from smaller toned background of light. of Christian spirituality. It is avowedly an squares of deep red to larger forms in allied arts project with sensibilities that orange, blue, white, and yellow (fig. 14). The huge north-facing vestry window at permeated much of the institutional and This Mondrian-like effect became fash- St. Dunstan’s is minimalism done to per- religious architecture of Canada during ionable in churches through the 1950s, fection. Sharing the same geometrical the 1960s, where collaboration between 1960s, and 1970s as it was an easy and spirit as Frank Lloyd Wright’s early leaded the architectural and visual art/craft disci- inexpensive way to cover large areas windows that usually embraced minimal plines (i.e., architect and artist) was key to with stained glass. It aligned with the colour and small shapes in fields of clear humanizing such a monumental space. In abstract, non-figurative art that was all glass, the vestry’s regimented window St. Dunstan’s case, stained glass was the

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FIG. 14. Side wall windows along nave, St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, Lenz and Taylor architects, 1965. | John Leroux.

FIG. 15. Vestry window, St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, Lenz and Taylor architects, 1965. | John Leroux.

essential element to the towering build- commands the sharp roofline at the ing, attesting to Le Corbusier’s “magnifi- northeastern end, more than making up cent play of masses brought together in for the poorly executed biblical-scened light” dictum.13 stained glass along its aisles.14 Rising like a colossal arrow shooting skyward, the Grace Memorial Baptist Church (1965) window band effectively makes the roof at the edge of downtown Fredericton is feel like it is floating. Designed by mas- a noteworthy, yet overlooked, example ter stained-glass craftsman Paul Blaney of a mid-century modern church, featur- of Saint John in the late 1990s and ing a laminated Douglas-fir beam struc- installed between 1998 and 2004,15 the ture, steeply gabled roof, and minimalist chevron window has a strong heraldic FIG. 13. Dalles de verre Crucifixion window, St. Dunstan’s Catholic Church, Charles Versteeg stained wood surfaces. Incorporated sev- quality with its minimal palette of red Studios, 1965. | John Leroux. eral decades after the church opened, a and white trimming on a deep rich blue dramatic contemporary chevron window background (fig. 16). Blaney recalls the

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FIG. 17. Class of 1936 memorial window triptych, Edwin Jacob Chapel, Sir Howard Douglas Hall, UNB, Molly Lamb Bobak & Shades of Light, 1989. | John Leroux.

FIG. 16. Chevron window (above salvaged and relocated 19th-century rose window), Grace Memorial Baptist Church, P&B Stained Glass Studio, 1998-2004. | John Leroux. red and white bands being metaphors for baptism, while the rising white dove and yellow cross are typical Christian symbols16; although the specific colours also relate to the exact palette of the nineteenth-century rose window below, rescued from the Congregation’s previous nineteenth-century church that was closer to downtown.

Like the St. Dunstan’s windows, the col- oured glazing at Grace Memorial is front FIG. 18. Nashwaaksis United Church chancel window, P&B Stained Glass Studio, 1972. | John Leroux. and centre as the most prominent archi- tectural element of the building, speak- ing to the public through means that are deeply to the dazzling stained-glass win- to the architecture and often more fig- both sacredly appropriate and artistically dows at St. Dunstan’s. urative and narrative in expression. It has progressive. While Blaney’s glazing is not experienced somewhat of a return to a of the high modernist era per se, hav- Late Modern and Post- subordinate spatial status of glass as arts ing been installed thirty years after the Modern Stained Glass and crafts, or as a post-construction inte- inauguration of the church, its surround- grated painting or artwork, with less of ings certainly are. The architecture was Following the heroic collaborative archi- a far-reaching effect on the space itself. without question the leading influence tectural/stained glass experiments of the More often the work is set/framed within on the spirit, scale, and formal design 1950s and 1960s, recent stained glass has pre-set architecturally determined open- intention of his window, which tie it been more traditional in its relationship ings. This being the case, Fredericton’s

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stained glass of the past thirty years still boasts an abundance of exquisite mod- ern glass by noted artists that pushed the typical limits of composition, colour, and craft.

A distinguished intervention fusing contemporary visual arts and Classical Georgian architecture on the University of New Brunswick (UNB) campus occurred in the form of the stained-glass triptych installed in the existing chapel windows of the 1829 Sir Howard Douglas Hall. Designed in the late 1980s by esteemed Canadian painter Molly Lamb Bobak in her distinctive and graphically energetic crowd-depicting custom, the windows were donated by the class of 1936 in hon- our of their fiftieth reunion. The three panels depict a graduation procession in front of the Sir Howard Douglas Hall FIG. 19. St. Francis window, St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church, Lincoln, building, with Cecil C. Jones, president P&B Stained Glass Studio, 1986-1987. | John Leroux. of the University during the 1930s, in the lead (fig. 17). A secular expression A colourful and self-assured arrange- arms outstretched to them all (fig. 19). in a quietly sacred space, the windows ment of clerestory windows delineates The tales of Saint Francis caring for ani- combine modern subject matter with the the entire worship space of Nashwaaksis mals are well established, but the choice vibrant colour and light typical of trad- United Church (1957). This stained of expressing this symbolic imagery here itional religious stained glass to express glass assembly, created over twenty through local fauna (birds, bear, squirrel, the pomp and history of UNB graduations years—between 1972 and 1992—by Paul beaver, rabbit, mouse, deer, and heron) in a timeless fashion. Blaney, is a symphony of colours and a is playful and enthralling, tying the char- masterwork of linear composition as it acter of the European saint to this very While contemporary churches are often presents the stories of the Gospels and place. diligent guardians of established social biblical excerpts. The related, much lar- values, they have frequently been at ger, mosaic-like windows on either side A pair of thin windows bookend the altar the forefront of contemporary design in of the rear choir pews are remarkable for of Sts. John and Paul Catholic Church Fredericton through their commissioning their gusto, colourful bravado, and sheer in New Maryland (1981) in a beautiful of innovative textiles and stained glass. seventy-square-foot size (fig. 18). This and energetic design that brightens the A number of bold windows that express 1972 pairing perfectly characterizes the stained wood interior (figs. 20A-20B). religious themes in exciting and colour- thrust to Modernity and shifting rituals Designed by émigré Irish artist Nora ful ways can be found in newer churches that were being embraced by churches Gaston and built in 1982 by P & B Stained throughout the city within a wide range in the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s.17 Glass Studio of Saint John, the windows of denominations. Outstanding instan- are sinuous and innovative through their ces can be found at Nashwaaksis United St. Francis Catholic Church in Lincoln expression of fluid line and subject mat- Church, the Catholic Church in New (1984) is an unremarkable building hous- ter. The left window includes a multihued Maryland, and St. Thomas University, ing one of Blaney’s more exceptional haloed eagle at its centre (a symbol of as well as a striking 1969 balcony win- and welcoming stained-glass windows: Saint John), surmounted by tongues of dow added to the 1883 Brunswick Street a wide scene of Saint Francis of Assisi fire and a white bird representing the Baptist Church. surrounded by a cluster of animals, his Holy Spirit. The right window presents

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FIG. 21. “Mary Window,” St. Thomas University chapel, Marjorie Aitken and Shades of Light, 2005. | John Leroux.

a large sword and book as its main ele- ments (symbols of Saint Paul), along with a collection of people as branches of Christ’s Vine, again, all capped by the fly- ing Holy Spirit. Each window also includes motifs of fiddleheads, maple leaves, and patterns from a Mi’kmaq ceremonial jacket, adding locally specific symbols to the universal Christian figures.

The chapel at St. Thomas University (1964) features a large south-facing arched stained-glass panel known as the Mary Window, designed by Marjorie Aitken and crafted in 2005 by local glass artisans Shades of Light. Depicting a noticeably pregnant Virgin Mary holding a “ball of the world” representing red, brown, black, yellow, and white peoples, the win- dow features a range of symbols, includ- ing a fruit tree, shell, fish, moon, swing, boat, veil, child’s pail, trinity circles, and a FIG. 20. Saint John window (20A) and Saint Paul window (20B), Saints John and Paul Catholic Church, New Maryland, Nora Gaston with P&B Stained Glass Studio, 1982. | John Leroux. depiction of Rome (fig. 21). A somewhat

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FIG. 22. Pataki bottle house interior, Longs Creek, James Pataki and others, 1981-1985. | John Leroux.

radical and unusual intention is the trans- of coloured daylight, transforming archi- stacked cordwood house construction parent quality of Mary’s dress, with mul- tectural space. A hidden gem of hand- popularized by a style of hippie “hand- tiple blue shades offering a silhouette of made architecture on the outskirts of made houses” of the 1970s, the camp’s her pregnant female form beneath—the Fredericton shows that the richness and walls were assembled from stacked translucency of stained glass has a literal simple joy of sunlight passing through col- bottles in a mortar bed.19 Although the role here, showing both Mary’s eternal oured glass can also be achieved by more work was carried out by members of the virginity (through the traditional lapis ordinary means than the tables, paper artistic community, the resulting cabin blue) and her human reality. Composed sketches, glass cutters, and lead cames completed in 1985 shares qualities with of simple geometric forms, the window of traditional glaziers. the best folk or naïve art. The walls are focuses on a meditative and reflective informal yet sophisticated, and while they exploration of feminine characteristics, James and Inge Pataki, owners of the started at the floor plate corners (as per combining the worlds of myth and con- well-respected commercial art Gallery 78 typical cordwood construction) via an ad temporary Christian contemplation of in Fredericton, engaged a number of hoc pattern, Pataki soon realized that Mary. their friends, including artists Bruno and with virtually no extra effort or time, Molly Bobak, to help build a summer interesting patterns could be achieved Homemade “Weekend” camp alongside an inlet of the Saint John by varying the white, green, yellow, Stained Glass River at Longs Creek in the early 1980s. and brown bottles. Every section of wall Resourcefully, they took advantage of is different from the others, with pat- There is little doubt that traditional several years of by-products of the typical terned designs of alternating green and stained glass is the product of a challen- art show opening reception (used liquor clear glass courses in chevrons or straight ging craft, requiring years of training, bottles), thus giving the Patakis and their lines, rounded target-like motifs using compositional and technical talent, and collaborators free raw materials to hand- large brown and white jugs surrounded loads of patience. The reward provided shape a unique “stained glass” bottle by rings of coloured bottles, squares of by this discipline is the wonder of beams cabin.18 Using a technique borrowed from “little brown jugs” with green and white

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FIG. 23. Pataki bottle house interior, Longs Creek, James Pataki and others, 1981-1985. | John Leroux.

bottle highlights, and even a smiling (fig. 25). James and Inge’s daughter, guardian jug face with blue bottle eyes Germaine Pataki-Thériault, fondly recalls overseeing the open space (figs. 22-24). life at the camp as being communal with nature and fully aligned with sunrise and A perfect (though more grassroots) sunset (that is, early rising, early to bed), as instance of John Piper’s aforementioned there was no electricity or artificial light… “creation of a light-filled unit,” the camp’s they simply were not needed. walls supersede the expected and mun- dane role of a retreat’s protective parti- It is no exaggeration to say that the Pataki tions. Like a postwar abstract colour-field camp is reminiscent of dalles de verre, painting, the Patakis’ idea was not that both through the thickness of its mortar the carefully designed matrix of coloured matrix and the overwhelming effect of bottles read as a “window,” but rather turning “solid” walls into shimmering as an expressive presence of colour and glass. Although the building itself is spa- light able to permeate the interior. On a tially routine, the light effect through the sunny day the interior effect is magical— bottles becomes even more remarkable an immersive encounter that almost makes than through typical stained glass, due to people feel like they are still standing out- varying thicknesses, varying bottle sizes side surrounded by the trees and water. and shapes, and the combination of dir- FIG. 24. Pataki bottle house interior. | John Leroux. One’s very experience of the structure ect transmission with multiple reflections/ changes entirely according to the intensity refractions. Through resourceful scaven- of light, which is startling and unexpected ging and gallons of sweat, the Patakis considering that on the outside, the camp have built one of New Brunswick’s most is as grey and opaque as a cinderblock exceptional buildings.

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the 1950s and early 1960s, he was essentially the only sculptor in New Brunswick, and he was the first Acadian to pursue a full-time career in modern visual art. He was also the founder and first director of the Université de Moncton’s Département des arts visuels, starting in the mid-1960s.

10. LeBlanc, Yvon, 1964, “Claude Roussel: Allied Arts Medalist,” Journal RAIC-L’IRAC [Royal Architectural Institute of Canada], vol. 41, no. 5, p. 41.

11. It should be noted that this critical link is essentially unknown to both parishes, as all conversations the author has had with either church, their members, or their administra- tion, has not had a single individual knowing of their shared history, let alone the exis- tence of a “twin” in the other province. The Hamilton connection was brought to the author’s attention by a priest in the Saint John Catholic Diocese office.

12. For a biography of Versteeg and illustrations FIG. 25. Pataki bottle house exterior. | John Leroux. of some of his work in Ontario, see [www. sarahhallstudio.com/assets/files/book/lumi- nous_portals.pdf], accessed 2010.

What would the Victorian church build- NOTES 13. Le Corbusier, op. cit.

ers, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, or 14. The side aisle windows were not done by the modernists of the 1960s think of the 1. Le Corbusier, 1923, Vers une architecture Blaney. bottle cabin? Would they see God (as [Towards a New Architecture], London, The Architectural Press, p. 31. 15. Straddling the worlds of traditional artis- light) pouring through the gin and cham- try and modern forms are the many church 2. Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1928, “In the Cause of pagne bottles? Would they see recycling windows throughout New Brunswick by stai- Architecture. VI. The Nature of Materials – ned-glass master Paul Blaney of Saint John resourcefulness and material poetry? Or Glass,” The Architectural Record, July, p. 201. (1933--). A native of London who spent his would they just be perplexed by a house 3. Ibid. early years in Devonshire, he was trained in made of discarded glass and cement? stained glass and lettering at the Bideford 4. Id. : 202. More modestly, can we consider the cul- School of Art in the early 1950s, and moved to Canada in 1963. Having worked in the art tural meaning of Wallace Harrison’s First 5. Wright, Frank Lloyd, 1936, “Organic Architecture,” The Architectural Record, form for over fifty years, Blaney’s style is dis- Presbyterian or the local St. Dunstan’s August. tinct and his craft impeccable. His designs are Church in the same breath as a camp fully grounded in the figurative tradition of 6. Wright, 1928 : 198. made of discarded bottles? What these stained glass, yet matched with a deft sense of 7. Piper, John, 1968, Stained Glass, Art or Anti- colour and composition. Blaney’s windows can diverse approaches share is the sensory Art, London, Studio Vista, p. 60. be found in countless churches throughout power of their visual effects: fostering New Brunswick. 8. “Man of Science” was removed and placed in the simple and honest phenomenon of storage in 1976 to make way for the construc- 16. Author’s interview with Paul Blaney, 2010. light shining through coloured glass that tion of the University’s new Science Library 17. In 1958, German architect and theorist stops us in our tracks and fills our minds that would occupy the site. In the 1990s, the Rudolph Schwartz, praised by Mies van der sculpture was given new life once again as it with wonder. The study of the modern Rohe as “one of the greatest thinkers of our was moved to a new position only fifty metres stained glass of Fredericton reminds us time,” published his monumental treatise, away, aside the Alumni Memorial building, in The Church Incarnate (Chicago, H. Regnery that great architecture and design are an an attempt to become the cornerstone of an Co.), in English for the first time. At the core inspired mixture of material and motiva- unrealized campus outdoor sculpture garden. of Schwartz’s theory was a series of seven tion, giving revelation to form, no matter 9. An avowed multidisciplinarian (painter, sculp- floor plans for churches that are in fact not how elevated, or down-to-earth. tor, printmaker, public art master), Roussel is so much plans as models for organizing the universally considered as the father of modern church in worship. These range from the and contemporary Acadian visual art. During sacred inwardness, through the broken ring,

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the chalice of light, the sacred journey, the dark chalice, the dome of light, and lastly the cathedral of all times. These building plans were dramatic departure from the preudo- colonial norm popular in America, and such books, combined with the widely published open-plan modern churches such as Eliel Saarinen’s First Christian Church (1942) and Eero Saarinen’s North Christian Church (1964), both in Columbus, Indiana, forever altered the American church landscape with their sense of openness and non-traditional materials. Within the proposed changes to the Catholic liturgy during and after the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, there was a move- ment to build new churches and renovate old ones in the “spirit of Vatican II.” These changes were advocated as a means of brin- ging the actions of the Catholic mass closer to the congregation to encourage “full and active participation.” The hierarchy of sepa- ration between the congregation and the priest was greatly eliminated, and this created a move for much more open churches with modern ornamentation.

18. Perhaps only half-jokingly, Bruno Bobak told the author that he had probably consumed half of the alcohol in those same bottles, not all of which would have come from gallery events. A brass plaque beside the Pataki camp entrance claims: “This building was made possible by endangering the lives of the buil- ders . . . and champagne bottles from the opening of the new wing of the Beaverbrook Gallery, Oct. 29, 1983 . . .”

19. The Pataki camp actually has a single corner made of cordwood, as James Pataki origi- nally intended to build a cordwood camp, starting in 1981. Based on a method popu- larized during that time by New Brunswicker Jack Henstridge, who published several illus- trated books on the process, Pataki started down this path, but soon realized that it would require an inordinate amount of work and time, both of which he didn’t have much of as a full-time professional musician with the Brunswick String Quartet. During a fishing trip with Bruno Bobak, Bobak suggested that he employ used coloured bottles instead as they were easy to collect, they were free, they were relatively inert compared to cordwood, and they were ready to be piled compared to cordwood, which needed to be debarked. Pataki immediately started collecting bottles for the better part of the next four years from the , friends and col- leagues, and even drive-in movie theatres. The evidence is in the walls (interview with Inge Pataki, 2013).

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