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Vie des arts

Summaries of the Articles

Numéro 44, automne 1966

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Éditeur(s) La Société La Vie des Arts

ISSN 0042-5435 (imprimé) 1923-3183 (numérique)

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Citer cet article (1966). Summaries of the Articles. Vie des arts, (44), 97–103.

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tbe Canadian carrefour BY GILLES HÉNAULT Apart from artist-architect collaboration, it is of interest that once In the world of art, Canada is a carrefour, a sort of meeting place a building is completed, the owners automatically search out the of the great aesthetic currents of Europe and America, a part of the art vendors. An interesting example is the C.I.L. collection. But Paris-New York-San Francisco axis. Long the disciples of a pictur­ company officials also call on the artists when it comes time to esque provincialism, Canadian painters have for the past 20 years decorate their offices. The works of our avant-garde artists required been pushing into the international art scene and for them it is a new architecture to contain them. stimulating and challenging at the same time. The early period of Canadian art, dating from the 1920s, had been If there is a common denominator uniting Canadian artists, it is one of landscape work for the most part. But in the 1940s, Pellan perhaps their sincere desire to work toward a transformation of their began taking a modern look at the world of art and artists began environment and the creation of a new human space. Insofar as the grouping themselves with him, just as others were grouping them­ matter of the integration of art and architecture is concerned, it will selves about Borduas. The Peilan influence was felt by Albert be necessary for society to consider the artist as a citizen with the Dumouchel and Leon Bellefleur and that of Borduas (and Riopelle) right to consider a transformation. In effect, it is a question of by such people as Jean Paul Mousseau, Marcel Barbeau and whether society wants to endorse a new creativity or go on rejecting Fernand Leduc. it as a sort of capital sin. In the evolving Canadian art scene, two indépendant, and wholly The artist has long been accused of isolationism. This is no longer isolated, names require mention. They are Jean Paul Lemieux in valid, however, because he is now anxious for art to invade the Quebec and Alex Colville in Sackville. In 1954, there was a rennais- public place. He wants truly to be a part of the life of his city. sance in English-Canadian tradition. As the shadow of the Group of Seven began fading, several artists rallied behind Jock Macdonald, editorial BY ANDRÉE PARADIS among them Harold Town, William Ronald and Jack Bush in Toronto. Jack Shadbolt in Vancouver was also contributing hugely The problems of communication in Canada are not a myth. to the renaissance. They are a reality and one with which we are constantly at odds. In There were important names on the art scene — people like the area of artistic information, we have just begun to lay the Jacques de Tonnancour and Albert Dumouchel, Jean McEwen, groundwork. Hence, we believe that, on the eve of Expo 67, a look Charles Gagnon and Edmund Alleyn. The phenomenon of the at the horizons of Canadian painting seems appropriate. period after 1956 belonged to the young artists who, about 1959, First of all, the artist, no matter where he may be in the country, proved it was possible to produce lyric painting in cold abstraction. interests us. On the following pages may be found examples of the The enthusiasm for new disciplines soon caught Guido Molinari, pictorial activity of our country. The record is incomplete, of course, Claude Tousignant, Jean Goguen, Yves Gaucher, Jacques Hurtubise. since, according to William Townsend, there are some 500 Canadian There was a similar phenomenon in Saskatchewan about I960. artists. We do not at the moment have the means of contacting them The exciting new years were now producing people like Kiyooka, all and some, regrettably, will be overlooked. Lochhead, Jaque, Tascona, Morton. It was an era of pure clear color Our correspondents in the various geographic areas have been with examples of the new quality by Charles Gagnon, Lise Gervais, free to make their own selections in the artistic field and none has Arthur McKay, Takao Tanabe and Ronald Bloore. had the opportunity of looking at the national selection. This Coughtry and Urquhart, whose first important works appeared explains, at least in part, the repetition and even the incomplete in 1957, also represent the young generation. Burrell Swartz, Louis inventory. We have tried, insofar as this is possible, to avoid a de Niverville, Kittie Bruneau, Carol Fraser, Jan Menses, George catalogue imitation by asking our analysts to group their painters Swinton and William Kurelek are producing valid figurative works. by affinity. Of interest, too, are such young-generation artists as Michael Snow, Having said this, our readers will be pleased to note that Canadian Joyce Wieland, Greg Curnoe, Gary Lee Nova and John Chambers. painting is very much alive and has enjoyed considerable success. Much has changed in art since the early years and the Canadian Living in close proximity to the United States, we are becoming painter is a good example of the new age. more and more aware of the artistic vitality of the American scene. Though we are faithful to the European tradition, notably in the east, our artists from Quebec, the Maritimes, Ontario and the west art in the maritimes BY LOUIS ROMBOUT nevertheless are feeling the effects of the dynamism of New York. It has long been argued that the art of the Maritime provinces In 20 years, New York has become a veritable artistic capital. The could only be considered within the context of a regional naturalism painters of the world meet there. and that the artist, by definition, was the interpreter of his milieu On the other hand, Canada emerges as one of the young countries only. Art critics and museums have over the years failed to properly which has done the most to develop its own artistic potential over evaluate the artistic riches of the area. Actually the changes which the past 20 years. The effort, however, must be intensified and we have occurred have considerable significance and eventually may would foster any effort which would lead to superior achievement. have some important repercussions. At the conference on the visual arts held in Toronto last March, To some extent the first big art exhibition from the Atlantic the fact was deplored that our artists receive such little publicity in Provinces sponsored by the National Gallery of Canada in 1962 was Canada and abroad. A number of recommendations were made to regional. But even here, in a show entitled Six East Coast Painters correct this situation. (Brittain, Colville, Harris, Humphrey, Ross and Wainwright) the For example, it was suggested that radio and television be used as first signs of change could be felt. These signs have since become a means of spreading artistic information and stimulating an interest facts in the living art of the Maritimes. in art. In this instance, it was also suggested that the artists them­ The new spirit in art is reflected in the many new art galleries that selves should participate in the programs. Again, it was felt that art have sprung up. Among the interesting galleries are the Beaverbrook could be encouraged through books, newspapers, magazines, Art Gallery in Fredericton, N.B.; Memorial Art Gallery, St. John's, records and films. Nfld.; Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, P.E.I.; the Art It is not necessary to emphasize the importance of art in the life of Gallery of the University of Moncton, Moncton, N.B. These have a nation. Canada has already recognized it by providing the public joined the existing group of centres, among them the Dalhousie with museums and by helping artists through art councils and art University Gallery at Halifax, N.S., the New Brunswick Museum at publications. It now remains for us to fight ignorance, egotism, Saint John, N.B., and the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison Uni­ false pretentions and mediocrity. versity, Sackville, N.B. Many of the new artists from abroad have Excellence is available — but it has its price tag. teaching jobs. The University of New Brunswick has its University Art Centre and Bruno Bobak and his wife, Molly Lamb Bobak, were ten years of painting in Canada BY JEAN-RENÉ OSTIGUY called upon. The paintings of Borduas, Pellan, Riopelle, McEwen, Shadbolt, A number of young artists, born and educated in the area, however, Binning, Town and Ronald have contributed heavily to the creation continue to work there. There are, for instance Forrestall in Frederic­ of a new architecture and a new Canadian urbanism and the new ton; Kashetsky in Saint John; Roussel in Moncton; Tiessen in ambiance in the country may be attributed in large measure to Sackville; Saunders in Truro; Fraser in Halifax; and Pratt in New­ painting. foundland. They are known nationally.

97 At the moment, there are as many styles and forms of expression as terious human horizon. There was a solitude and desolation here that there are artists and the latter have become numerous. Among them was to remind us of the Quebec painter, Jean Paul Lemieux. Leon are sculptors, engravers and painters, some working in solitude, Bellefleur became serious about his career only in 1954 and by 1959, others in the big cities. The most isolated one is probably Christ his work was showing strong structural form. Then, too, there was Pratt who lives at St. Catherine's Bay in Newfoundland. Carol Jean Dallaire who was to emerge as one of the most important of Fraser, of Nova Scotia, is an artist who must not be ignored. There is Canadian painters. (He died a few months ago.) considerable vigor and vitality in her expressionist canvasses. Most Among the automatists were Mousseau and Ferron, Letendre and of the artists are in New Brunswick. Colville, who left the university, Alleyn. Several shows were held in the first five years of the decade. is working in Sackville. The Fine Arts Department of Mount Allison Fernand Leduc and Marcel Barbeau broke away from the group and University counts among its professors Lawren P. Harris, Pulford, were among the pioneers of the plastic movement. In 1954, Belzile, Poklen and Silverberg. The Bobaks have attracted a number of young Jauran, Jerome and Toupin were among the plasticians. Then came artists, among them Bridget Tool and Marjorie Donaldson. the cubists and the "dynamic space'' of 1956. In 1959, a second plastic wave appeared as abstract art. The most important movement Jive great painters of quebec BY JACQUES FOLCH-RIBAS in the School of Montreal in this decade was in the field of lyric abstraction, a form of expression that made a "cool" province of Five great painters set the fuses for the post-war explosion in Quebec. The names that stand out here are those of McEwen, Mal­ Quebec art and in their works were reflected the conscious and tais, Gervais, Filion, Masse, Matte, Jaque, Mongeau and Charbon­ unconscious feelings and sentiments of the Quebec people. Two of neau. them, Pellan and Borduas, had an enormous influence. Fortin did At the same time, certain painters, such as Roberts, Cosgrove, not and Lemieux is, in a sense, a mystery. The fifth, Riopelle, is now Muhlstock, Surrey and Fortin have gone on with their work, dis­ beyond the point of influence. regarding the enormous pressures from the abstract world. It was Pellan who opened the greatest number of doors to Quebec painting. This was natural enough since he is a seeker, a man with plastician art in montréal BY F. ST-MARTIN an insatiable thirst for learning. He was able to give outside in­ Plastic art, an original concept that has undergone a vital period fluences a Quebec dimension as strong as that found with Marc of development over the past 11 years, has given Montreal a Aurèle Fortin — as strong and yet more real. Unlike Fortin, however, dynamic reputation in international art. Pellan ventured out in all directions, leaving his mark wherever he Soon after Borduas left for New York in 1953, a number of went. He went from surrealism to expressionism and, in 1956, young painters, anxious for a radical new revival, focussed their introduced something that had never been known in Quebec art — attentions on the pioneers of abstract art. Rallying around art sensuality and carnal expression. Pellan is the sum of everything critic Rodolphe de Repentigny, the plastic artists approved a mani­ that painting has produced in the post-Picasso period and it is all festo and formally launched their movement in 1955. This was when viewed within a North American, Quebec context. Toupin and Belzile exhibited their first irregular formats and Fernand There has been so much discussion surrounding Borduas that he Leduc and Jerome their first geometric abstracts. should not be restricted to the world of painting. He reached out Montreal's plastic artists have since achieved notable success in beyond the artist fringe to include many intellectuals who owe their world art. Among the international shows in which they participated important positions in the present-day Quebec to his influence. His have been the Festival des Deux Mondes et Spoleto, the Geometric life was an example to all and his painting is the living proof. Abstraction in Canada show in New York, the Guggenheim Inter­ Fortin's work and his life are complex and rich in a very rare way national Exhibition, the Paris Biennial and The Responsive Eye and are difficult to explain in words. He managed to maintain show which launched the optic movement in New York last year. his freshness and his candor even at an advanced age. (He was born in 1888.) guido molinari Jean Paul Lemieux, like Fortin, is true to the Quebec heritage. Molinari exhibited his first works at the Place des Artistes in 1955 Lemieux tells of a time gone by, of a kind of life that has been when certain color-conscious painters were turning away from forgotten and yet is always present. He is the Marcel Proust of automatism. Preoccupied with the task of developing his own Quebec painting. symbolic means of expressing his feelings of reality, he engaged in With Riopelle, freedom is the keynote, a quality which he un­ structural research with the pen and again in oils in black and white. doubtedly inherited from the automatists, and he has projected He represented Canada at the Fourth Guggenheim International himself free-style into the art explosion he launched. His canvasses Award Exhibition in 1964 and at The Responsive Eye show in New vibrate and the vibrations are in constant combat. But throughout York in 1965. He will be represented at the Canadian Pavilion of his works there is perfect orchestration. Expo 67 by a 1964 work entitled, Espace Orange, Bleu. claude tousignant quebec painting: 1950-1960 BY GUY ROBERT Claude Tousignant's first contact with American painting in 1955 It is not easy to set aside the recent history of art in Quebec and sent him off on a search for a pure simplification of expression and consider, quite apart from the general story, the phenomenon of the it soon became evident that his efforts at a new formal approach 1950s. But if the lines can be drawn to separate the decade that began were really an affirmation of the spatial quality of painting. After in 1950, it is because of one particular fact: that this was the period much experimentation, he has now dedicated himself to a circular in which the various movements affirmed themselves. format in which his multiple bands explore a structure which tends Little by little, the art of Quebec had dissociated itself from the to ignore the elements and puts special emphasis on the vibrant picturesque and the anecdotal and the European influences of the qualities of the color. It was this aspect of Tousignant's work which early part of the century were beginning to reflect themselves in a went on exhibition in New York last year and also at the last new articulation among our artists. biennial in Sao Paulo. Pellan was one of the personalities of the era. He had spend 14 fernand leduc years in Europe, well-immersed in the plastic adventure overseas. Fernand Leduc, who joined the automatists in France after leaving During the period under discussion, he ended his stay at art school art school in Montreal, is recognized in Montreal as the artist who in Montreal. He left for Paris in 1952 and was exhibited at the Musee has achieved the greatest success in the matter of assimilating National d'Art Moderne in 1955. His first Canadian retrospective was European influence while still preserving the particular dynamics of held in 1960-1961. Quebec painters. He is now engaged in a deep study of the negative- Then there was Borduas, prior to 1950 the central figure in the positive, as evidenced by his recent exhibition at the Montreal most profound revolution ever seen in Quebec. He went into exile Museum of Contemporary Art. There is considerable subtle and first in New York and then in Paris. Borduas died abroad in I960 but even unexpected harmony in his work. his work continues to be one of the most forceful influences on Que­ bec art. A Canadian retrospective was held in 1962. marcel barbeau Riopelle, dissatisfied with the artistic climate of Quebec, went first Marcel Barbeau, who studied under Borduas and subsequently to Europe and then to New York. In 1948, he finally settled in Paris. became one of the pioneers of the automatist movement, has ex­ He works enormously and his work is finding a niche thanks to the plored many fields, among them calligraphy, neo-dadism and the support of important collectors and good response from the critics. negative-positive. He has recently joined the retinal movement and While Riopelle was establishing an international reputation as a was exhibited at the East Hampton Gallery in New York. But in the Canadian transplant in the School of Paris, other important artists catalogue of the recent Retinal and Perceptual Art exhibition at the were working in the Montreal region. Albert Dumouchel, for exam­ University of Texas, he wrote, "I am an intuitive painter. I have no ple, became the master of Canadian engraving. In another area, theme which I develop. I have a certain feeling with respect to my Jacques de Tonnancour began his explorations of a secret and mys­ approach . . . rather than a clearly-defined conception."

98 roy kiyooka richard lacroix After spending some time in the principal cities of Canada, Roy Questions of style hold little importance for Richard Lacroix. Kiyooka chose to settle in Montreal, not only because the artist is Rather he is concerned with a rapport between the public and the respected in that city but because Kiyooka himself discovered an work. He wants contact with the public, wants to know it, build it affinity with the artists of the post-plastics school. Kiyooka, one of and fill its needs. With this in mind, he founded the Atelier Libre the founders of the Emma Lake Workshop in Regina, where he met de Recherches Graphiques and is working on the organization of an Barnett Newman) is a confirmed romantic who believes that, engraving guild. For Lacroix, art is essentially a game. insofar as is possible, all painting should reflect a feeling of order among things that are on the surface. jean lefebure paterson ewen "If the role of art is to oblige man to reflect on his destiny, to look beyond what we call normal, the work of art itself is the mani­ For Paterson Ewen, a graduate of the School of Art and Design festation of a comprehension simply overflowing with intelligence." of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts wjio was at one time involved in automatist activities, painting is essentially a pictorial projection jean paul mousseau of psychological problems in which formal structures acquire a symbolic function not unlike that of the poetic process. After a It was almost 10 years ago that Jean Paul Mousseau began first non-figurative period, inspired by cubism and by Kandinsky, working in an architectural context. He does not believe any longer he turned his attentions to an abstract kind of imagery. "Paint­ in the individual workshop and in future his work will be done in a ing," he proclaims, "should necessarily be non-sculptural." factory-setting and in collaboration with other people. The role of the painter today, he says, should be one of color specialist in the mario merola field of such modern-day things as automobiles, architecture and For several years now, Mario Merola has devoted himself to fabrics. The painter should be considered a color scientist and adapting pictorial elements to architecture. He dedicated himself should make every effort to have industry regard him as such. particularly to relief work after having won first prize in a national competition for a mural for the Canadian Pavilion at the Brussels henry saxe Exhibition of 1957. He is now preparing for Expo 67 a four-section "The forms on a canvas should decide the natural limits of the fountain surrounding a black basin. His main ambition at the frame and should not, because of tradition, be square or rectangular, moment is to develop the means of accentuating the tactile aspect unless one is going to imitate Albers who works on a square in of his work. a square." Jacques hurtubise Jacques Hurtubise has been beset since his graduation from art new art and young painters BY CLAUDE JASMIN school in Montreal in I960 by the two major problems that con­ Even the least assiduous person, observing the kind of art that is front all of Quebec's artists today — the need for emotional affirma­ in the making now, will admit that art changes. In Quebec over the tion and the desire to produce a more rigorous and abstract pictorial past few years, there have been several efforts to defy established structure. He won the grand prize for painting awarded by the aestheticism — even the established aesthetics won in what seem province of Quebec in 1965 and in the same year represented like recent battles. Canada at the biennial at Sao Paulo. He also had a one-man This article comments on the young artists, those between 20 exhibition in New York last July. and 30 years of age, but it is necessary first to mention the work of Henry Saxe, Gino Lorcini and Hugh Leroy. All three were exhibited gino lorcini this year in the better Sherbrooke street galleries, indicating that the For Gino Lorcini, art is not a language and a work of art rebellion that drives the new young artists is well-supported by emphasizes the non-verbal aspects of all objects. Using color in the older artists. extremely parsimonious fashion, he attemps to multiply the possible For some young artists, their work has been a shattering break variations inside a base structure that is strictly orderly. Simplifying with the past. If Serge Lemoyne is gestual like Georges Mathieu, to the extreme his structural elements in primary geometric forms, for example, he also brings a new excitement and a new sense of he submits them to an endless play of reflections. freedom to his work. It was a phosphorous Lemoyne that emerged at the Galerie Libre, with ultra-violet lighting in tubes of neon. montréal today BY YVES ROBILLARD This search for lighting was also apparent for a show of graphics pierre dupras at the Galerie Innovation at the museum. There are numerous workers in the luminous field, among them a young man named "One day, I deeply shocked an honest collector by telling him Chartier who is particularly interested in the diapositive. that he could hang my canvasses in any way he chose and could Boisvert, Connolly and Cornellier are the same age and have seen thus recompose my mural several times over. What is so extra­ similar studies and experiences. Yet there is considerable difference ordinary about that ? A square, a circle, a geometric figure, a color between them. They have succeeded in making themselves known plan — they are things that remain beautiful however they are and have exhibited together on occasions. The recent graphics of observed." Serge Tousignant at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art remind one of Boisvert's work. With Cornellier and Connolly, there yves gaucher are new avenues of exploration in Montreal. "By implicating the interaction of the environment on the In the pop art field, things are dull. There were some good shows, organism as the direct or indirect source of all experience, a new like that of Ronald Chase at the Galerie Libre and another by Alan form is thus constituted because of the fact that from this environ­ Glass at the Galerie du Siècle. But the New Realism field does not ment come the forces of resistance and equilibration that confront seem to attract many artists. Lemoyne also showed some paintings the energy of the organism." of domestic articles and Normand Hudon some collages (St. Helen's Island and Waddington Galleries). Also to be noted are Use gervais Audrey Taylor's junk art at the Galerie du Siècle and Charles "What I learned from the automatists was not so much a concept Gagnon's show at Gallery XII. In a first exhibition at the Galerie de of painting, nor even a theory, but rather a personal feeling of la Masse, Lemonde showed a very personal kind of work. Lemonde exigence toward the work at hand. Why do colors and forms and makes use of the "distinguished" eroticism of Playboy and Lui. matter have more importance for me than words, sounds and figures ? Basically, this is not important. What is important is to feel at ease in front of a blank canvass, to feel pleasure in giving it art tn toronto BY PAUL DUMAS color. This joy of painting helps compensate for the anguish I feel Cliches die hard. For many people, Toronto is still Toronto the in the face of the unknown." Good, the citadel of Anglo-Canadian puritanism. Reality, however, is another thing. Toronto is changing and developing. It is today a goguen cosmopolitan city, 20 per cent of whose population is made up of It is the basic objective of all of Goguen's canvasses to try to neo-Canadians. Situated on the shores of Lake Ontario, which sepa­ make us see certain aspects of a universe in perpetual motion. Each rates it from the United States, it submits freely to the influences canvass is a flight into a glowing world of color-energy, into a new that come from across the border. space-time dimension. In effect, it is this color-energy which is the A progressive city, Toronto is justly proud of its university which basic element that controls the form the canvas takes. It is con­ is one of the most important in Canada and of its Institute of stantly being revealed by the forms that contain it. Medieval Studies, founded by the eminent Frenchman, Etienne

99 Gilson. But for the lover of art, too, Toronto, has much to offer. the prairies BY ANDRÉE PARADIS The Royal Ontario Museum of Archaeology is the largest centre of Before looking for the constants in art in Alberta, Saskatchewan its kind in Canada and its Chinese collection is the most important and Maniroba, let me first recall the name of the man who, in our in the world outside China itself. The Toronto Art Gallery, one of way of thinking, best represented the artistic aspirations of the the principal museums of the country, has valuable ancient and prairies — the lamented Donald W. Buchanan. modern collections. Modest and reserved, this humanist, poet, art critic and photo­ On the architectural level, Toronto went avant-garde with its grapher provided us with a wealth of beauty from these provinces, so boldly-conceived new City Hall and soon a monumental bronze different from each other and yet bound together by a common sculpture by Henry Moore will be erected. One of the most inter­ destiny. Buchanan was the living proof that a man can see beauty in esting urban panoramas is afforded by the majestic thoroughfare the smallest things if only he knows how to look at them. known as Avenue Road. Has the situation changed much in the three years since Clement Toronto has long played an important role in Canadian painting. Greenberg published his notes on a tour of the prairies in Canadian In 1919, a group of young artists, the Group of Seven, broke away Art? There are changes of detail and nuance but otherwise not much from established artistic tradition to practice a more authentic form change. Of the five painters of Regina, however, Ronald Bloor has of Canadian expression. They were Lauren Harris, A. Y. Jackson, settled in Toronto and Kenneth Lochhead and Ted Godwin are Fred H. Varley, Franklin Carmichael, Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. Mac- teaching at the School of Fine Arts of the University of Manitoba. Donald and Franz Johnston. Tom Thompson died before the group Douglas Morton and Arthur MacKay remain faithful to Regina, was formed. Some of their works and of their friends, notably Saskatchewan. Thompson and David Milne, are among the most important in Canadian art. Calgary: The Group of Seven spawned a legion of imitators, some of The individual interested in the evolution of art on the prairies is whom later became members of the Canadian Group of Painters. struck first by the rapid transition from traditional to a new and There were the critics, however, who complained of a lack of joy, a revolutionary art. In Calgary, George Wood, curator of the gallery of situation that began to be remedied with the appearance of a group the Alberta College of Art, is recognized as a disciple of Bonnard, a of young Toronto painters who called themselves The Innocents. post-impressionist often influenced by abstraction. Spicket Ronald, Among them were Michael Forster and Dorothy Ivens. like the Stampede, identifies himself with his city. There was new life in Ontario painting some years later with Edmonton: another group known as Painters Eleven, formed in 1953 and It would seem that artistic development in the albertan capital is consisting of Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Tom Hodgson, Hortense slower than elsewhere but an explosion in the sense of quality may Gordon, Alexandre Luke, Ray Mead, J. W. G McDonald, Kazuo be anticipated. John MacGillivray, director of the Art Centre and a Nakamura, William Ronald, Harold Town and William Yarwood. man of good taste, is seeking to create the proper climate, and the Graham Coughty has never quite stopped being a figurative Focus Gallery has encouraged a co-operative group of artists. Some artist. The abstract trend has affected certain painters of the Canadian names to remember are those of Douglas Haynes, Jean Richards, Group such as York Wilson and Peter Haworth. Robert Hedrick Detta B. Lange and John B. Taylor. looks at abstract art as a formal discipline. Tony Urquhart is trying to effect a conciliation between sculpture and painting. John Regina: Meredith is one of the most promising of Toronto's young painters. The capital of Saskatchewan, home of the architect Wiens and of There is much diversity in contemporary painting. One sees the the grear friend of artists, Nora McCullough, National Gallery excellent work of people like Peter Deutsch, the French artist representative, impresses the visitor. There is an element of boldness Francois Thepot, Ken Danby, Willis Romanow and Christiane in a city that will receive a Delaunay exhibition. The Norman Mac­ Pfluq) and one realizes that, like in Montreal, everything is kenzie and Emma Lake galleries have played an important role in possible now in art. art development. In the summer, New York artists visit Emma Lake and live with the Canadians. Painters like John Ferren, Will Barnett, Barnett Newman and Herman Cherry have run workshops. three toronto artists BY ARNOLD ROCKMAN Saskatoon: It was here that Eli Bornstein started one of our serious art There are many ways of classifying artists and their work. We may publications, The Structurist. Among the young painters, Donald contrast romantic with classical, see all works as falling neatly into Otto Rogers is still influenced by the Americans and the British but boxes labelled idealist, realist an expressionist, or we may use the he has enough personality to eventually break away. Henri Bonli has more popular stylistic labels which enshrine the accidents of art the clairvoyance and initiative of a Borduas and is obsessed with history under the names of impressionism, mannerism, baroque, pure creation and total expression. cubism, purism, pop, op and the like. More ty accident than design, the three Toronto artists I have chosen fall quite neatly along a line whose opposite ends may be painting in Winnipeg BY ILLI-MARIA HARFF labelled perceptual and conceptual. Dennis Burton seems to me With the opportunity for exhibiting at two commercial galleries, primarily a perceptual artist. Michael Snow is over-ridingly concep­ the Fleet Gallery and the Yellow Door Gallery, as well as the new tual in his approach. Don Jean-Louis falls somewhere in the middle. school of Art Gallery III in the University of Manitoba and the Burton is a draughtsman in the grand tradition. Morally speaking, Winnipeg Art Gallery, the work of local artists is made readily many of his recent works must be regarded as obscene — if we define accessible to the public. the word as describing any exaggerated expression of sex or violence No one style of painting characterizes Winnipeg artists. There is, in which the part is substituted for the whole. While demonstrating at the moment, no strong school or group tendency but rather a his virtuoso handling of most painterly and "post-painterly" styles, number of very individual personalities working in a variety of Burton uses his subject matter as a departure point for witty and styles. If there is an arbitrary grouping, there are those painters whimsical safaris into a bushland of bare skin and intimate feminine directly influenced by their surroundings. The painters, Ivan Eyre, apparel. He succeeds in making perversity into a fine art. Esther Warkov and George Swinton, fall into this particular group. When Snow first began to use his walking woman in I960, he was Their work mirrors the mood and atmosphere of this part of Canada. completely unaware of the similarity between his own procedures The Winnipeg Aft Gallery has acquired through the Mary H. and those of pop artists in New York and London. An extension of Acheson bequest four paintings and 12 drawings by Eyre as well as a the walking woman theme on a much larger scale than anything piece of sculpture by this artist donated by the MacLaren Advertising Snow has done before will be seen at Expo 67 in both the Ontario Co. Ltd., which yearly sponsors a show of local artists. Pavilion and in the International Carrefour. In his most recent work, The work of the Saskatchewan-born Eyre, a University of Mani­ he continues to demonstrate his virtuosity by working in any toba teacher, shows the strongest impact of the prairie scene. In his medium and in any idiom, yet all his work is quite obviously most recent paintings, the prairie remains the main subject but his stamped with his own trademark because of the familiarity of the forms are more stylized and angular. He continues to transform motif. nature rather than interpret it and moral issues continue to underly In the case of Jean-Louis, I believe that his great strength lies in his particular surrealism. the exact matching of his rare vision to the medium of linear drawing. Esther Warkov's recent work has expanded into mural-like dimen­ He awaits a public patron with enough imagination to see that his sions. She paints on canvases of varying size and then fits these work is in fact ideally suited to the mural decoration of an archi­ together into a complete formation. Her subject matter is drawn tectural setting. Even though his work is usually carried out on small from her surroundings, her home, city, family and friends. The scale, a superhuman scale is implicit in almost every one of Jean- Canada Council and the National Gallery recently acquired some of Louis' drawings and paintings. her paintings. Swinton's deep interest in Eskimo art has taken him into the most In Victoria, the artists often gather at Maxwell Bates' and here a northerly parts of Canada. His paintings and water colors show the variety of discussions are held. Participants are such people as prairie and the north country as an endless space of strength and Herbert Siebner, Allistair Bell, Flemming Jorgensen and the sculptor beauty. His style is expressive and interpretive, the forms sometimes Elza Mayhew. more, sometimes less, abstracted. Among Winnipeg's painters working in an abstract manner are of good use of museums JEAN-PAUL MORISSET Tony Tascona, Bruce Head, Frank Mikuska, Don Reichert and BY Kenneth Lochhead. Each of them works with different media and in We feel far removed today from the royal collections and the a variety of styles. religious treasures that were the forerunners of our present-day museums. But are we really that far removed from them? Have we succeeded in creating museums in keeping with the developing art in british Columbia BY JACQUES DE ROUSSAN society and civilization? The question of whether or not there exists a school of painting in First of all, museums don't grow in fields like flowers. Theoreti­ British Columbia is one which depends for an answer on the defini­ cally, they try to answer specific needs. But these needs are complex. tion given the term school. If the term is defined as meaning an They are in a constant state of change. Museums are constantly uninterrupted succession of painters providing a continuity and looking for a balance, which social evolution constantly tends to vitality to their art without reference to either regional or outside compromise. In essence, they navigate that narrow course between influences, then there is certainly a school of painting on Canada's comfortable tradition and the irrisistible appeal of new techniques. west coast. The indisputable main centre is Vancouver, with Victoria They must see a work of art for itself and then regard it within an running a completely independent second. historical context. Is there a final answer to the question, "What is a museum?" There Vancouver: are, of course, many definitions of a museum and no single definition Emily Carr (1871-1945), who lived in Victoria, was the pioneer will do. It should be a depository for works of art, as some have of pictural art in British Columbia and kindled a flame that shows said, and there should be catalogues and indexes and people who can no sign of dying. With her must also be mentioned such landscape dispense information whenever and wherever it is needed. and portrait pioneers as W. P. Weston, Thomas Fripp and Charles Perhaps, however, a museum should try first to be a place of Scott, who founded the Vancouver School of Art in 1925. rendez-vous. There are all sorts of reasons why people might go to a Among those west coast artists who are today widely recognized museum. The reasons are not important. What is of prime impor­ all over Canada and outside (mainly in the United States) are those tance is that people do visit the art centres. It is not necessary to who attained their stature between the two last wars. The group search out the panoramas of art, or to be in tune with one school or includes Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith; B. C. Binning and John another. A visit to a museum should perhaps mean a visit with a Korner. In a general way, each had his own personal experience to friend — a Chardin maybe, or one of his friends. record and worked in isolation, absorbing little of outside influences. The third set of painters is the most diversified and the most abstract. It came to light after the last war and the artists, profiting the montréal scene BY REA MONTBIZON by new developments in the field of communication, felt the full In our hair-splitting over the latest trends, we seldom pause to influence of international ideas. Among them are people like Don look at art as an expression of our human condition. But with time Jarvis, Peter Aspell and Lionel Thomas. No longer concerned with for reflection, one is surprised to find oneself beyond the potential the isolation their predecessors knew, these men have frequent ornament for the mantlepiece or wall decoration. travelling shows and focus their efforts on Toronto and New York I have chosen three Montreal artists to illustrate my point. They The new generation of artists is completely international in are Anne Kahane, Louis Jaque and Brother Germain Bergeron, orientation. It thinks in terms of New York and London and only c.s.c., mentioned in order of their Montreal exhibitions in April, slightly of eastern Canada and it is familiar with all concepts of May and June, respectively. Kahane is primarily a wood carver, modern pictural art, such as hard edge, pop art and op art. It has a Louis Jaque a painter and Bergeron — well, Bergeron is a bricoleur. very personalized approach to art and is well attuned to the universal Anne Kahane, whose wood sculptures and graphics were seen at concept. In this group are such people as Brian Fisher, Toni Onley, the Galerie Agnes Lefort, has been taken seriously for many years, Claude Breeze, Takao Tanabe, Jack Wise and Huang Bau-Xi who yet her art has never been quite as serious as it is today. She is a also signs himself Paul C. Wong. humanist and handles the human shape in a sculptural shorthand The public is able to keep track of artistic developments through that precludes detailing and surface superficialities. Her style is such sources of information as the newspapers, the Vancouver Sun massive, her torsi are voluminous and all her figures have a strikingly and the Vancouver Province whose art critics keep their readers similar, somewhat gothical cranium, not unlike the artist's own. Her well-informed. broken, or isolated, humans express existential despair, the universal Art instruction is available for the young at the Faculty of Fine drama of the human condition. Arts of British Columbia which maintains a university gallery The painting of Louis Jaque did not always articulate its spatial showing the works of artists from the area and from outside. The lyricism as intensely as in his last exhibition at the Museum of Vancouver School of Art is another source of education in the arts Contemporary Art in May. I would call his art a "poetry of the and its professorial corps includes no less than 24 artists. Its immaterial." By that I don't mean that it is non-representational, or principal is Fred Amess, a painter himself and a student of Varley. an irrational Dada because it really is neither. Order and logic The only public museum in Vancouver is the Vancouver Art reign supreme in his conceptions of a sublime ethereal world. Louis Gallery. Its director is Richard Simmins and Doris Shadbold has Jaque submits to a rigid discipline, finely blending his pigments and been curator for 14 years. More than 100,000 people visit annually. grading the transitions between his large, interflowing shapes. Special attractions at the gallery this year were a De Tonnancour Brother Bergeron's recent works were shown at the newly- retrospective and a show called Thirty Art Treasures of the Art opened art gallery of Le Gobelet in June and a selection of these Gallery of Toronto. were later shown at the Pointe Claire Cultural Centre. What is this Most of the private galleries are recent ones. The oldest one is bricoleur assembling? From such cold debris as transmission shafts, the Alex Fraser Gallery and the most enterprising the New Design coil springs, bicycle stands, gear wheels and ball bearings, he welds Art Gallery. Among the others are the Studio International, Bau-Xi or solders warm images of a healthy if frivolous humanity. With his Gallery, Canvass Shack and the Mary Frazee Gallery. sparing means, he manages to build vital characterizations of such Victoria: human weaknesses as vanity and pride, self-indulgence and pom- Victoria, political capital of British Columbia where nature is pousness. One is touched here by a healthy elan vital such as one softer and life more serene, is something of a refuge for those artists finds in young folk art before it is blunted by convention. who are uneasy in the centre of the human turmoil. In Vancouvet, everyone lives and works for himself. In Victoria, it is different. There, there are frequent reunions among artists and discussions are primitive art BY C.-L. GAGNON usual. There would appear to be more humanistic and fewer dog­ An exhibition of some 50 works from the biggest island in the matic qualities in Victoria, a fact which still permits the artists as world, New Guinea, was held at the Galerie Lippel on Mackay much individualism both in ideas and in techniques. street until mid-June. Of particular interest were some wood sculp­ Artistic activity centres about the Faculty of Fine Arts of the tures from the Sepik river and Korrowri region. The sculptures were University of Victoria and two small galleries, the Little Gallery and about 80 years old, an interesting fact since, because of termites and Pandora's Box and art notes are carried by the two papers, The the intense humidity of the area, there are few which are more than Colonist and the Victoria Times. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 100 years old. The show included for the most part a collection of is the main centre for exhibitions. It is directed by Colin Graham. rattan masks and such other items as prow figures and statuettes. bans schleeh BY CLAUDE-LYSE GAGNON lewis page M.C. In Portuguese and Italian marble, Hans Schleeh is a poet. Sculptor Lewis Page is the man responsible for the mural which Schleeh, who was born in the Black Forest and who has been decorates the entrance hall of the new concert hall of St. Jean Eudes, living in Canada for some 15 years, addresses his poetry to women, one of the most beautiful in Quebec. The sculptor drew his inspi­ love and women with children. All is soft and feminine in the ration from Air et Variations, a work by Bach. He used large and polished sculptures shown at the Dominion Gallery and rhe poet small metal standards placed horizontally to produce a work which here proves that in marble there is ample scope and movement for becomes highly interesting when there is a play of light. all or his inspirations. therese brassard M.C. ken danby C.L.G. One of the most anticipated exhibitions of the season was that of There is an extraordinary, almost photographic precision, about Therese Brassard who, after an absence of five years, presented a the prairie houses and barns and the grain that appear in the works month-long show of some 30 of her enamels at the Quebec Museum. of Ken Danby, shown at the Galerie Agnes Lefort. Not having been Her works were offered to the Queen and to Andre Malraux. born on the prairies, I feel sad as I examine these works. The Therese Brassard, who has an extraordinary technique and whose abandoned houses, deserted barns and forsaken fields show no sign works are beautifully alive and most pleasing, also showed 16 ink of human life and the effect is to leave the viewer with a feeling drawings. of melancholy. contemporary Canadian religious art M.C. madame de la chevalerie C.L.G. Contemporary Canadian Religious Art was one of the best Madame de la Chevalerie paints on aluminum, on old wood exhibitions held at the Quebec Museum. Included were more than from the Island of Orleans and on copper. The exhibition of her 125 works — paintings, engravings, drawings, sculptures, ceramics, works at the Galerie Morency revealed her as a fanciful and highly gold crafts, tapestries, windows and chapel models. The works were imaginative person. She must indeed be something of a ball of signed by nearly 80 artists such as Beaudin, Bobak, Harlander, fire as an individual because her works are a great bursr of color and Hooper, Leadbeater, Price, Krystyna Sadowska, Trudeau and impulse and are full of the joy she obviously sees in life. Voyer. It was regrettable, however, that there were no contributions by Begin, Ferland, Paradis and Thibault, Quebec artists who did yuki katsuma C.L.G. much to develop religious art in this area. Along with the works of Madame de la Chevalerie, the Galerie Morency also showed those of the Japanese painter, Yuki antoine bourdelle M.C. Katsuma a student of the former artist. Steeland aluminum are the Bronze sculptures and drawings by Antoine Bourdelle made up an base materials employed. The inspiration here is abstract and the important exhibition held at the Quebec Museum for a period of impression one gets is of something delicate. Among painters, this almost a month. A student of Falguiere and Dalou, this brilliant is certainly a name to remember. sculptor worked for a time with Rodin. An artist who was full of romanticism, he was able to create his own Bourdelle style. He was murray wilson C.L.G. one of the first sculptors to introduce a monumental quality to his It is difficult to define the works of the Toronto sculptor Murray work. Wilson, also exhibited at the Galerie Morency. It is difficult even to offer an analysis since the works shown were not necessarily his near-east exhibition M.C. master works. He showed a sense of humor, however, in a sculpture It was an important artistic event for Quebec when the Quebec in wood entitled La Soeur Grise. Museum presented some archaeological works of Greece, Italy and the Near-east. It was an interesting show for a Quebec public which is not familiar with works of this kind but unfortunately it was very poorly documented. There was hardly any information to describe the works. It was difficult for the uninitiated to distinguish between salon du printemps BY MICHEL CHAMPAGNE the various items on display. Four young artists launched the Spring Show of the Académie de Quebec. They were Gilles Genest, Suzanne Gravel, Yvon Milliard and Guy Tremblay. Genest, whose noteworthy work is in sculpture, culture vivante BY LUCILE OUIMET offered five good pieces. Suzanne Gravel remains one of the great A new magazine entitled Culture Vivante is being published hopes in the field of ceramics in Quebec. Milliard, undoubtedly the under the auspices of the Quebec Department of Cultural Affairs. best of the group, presented some excellent sculptures, Formes The publication, which will appear four times a year, is designed to Libres, as well as some interesting pastels. Guy Tremblay's Cosmos, keep people aware of the Quebec cultural scene with articles, mostly Lumière and l'An 2000 were good canvasses with an interesting illustrated, on art, literature, films, music and theatre. The first two decorative element. issues have already appeared. They are well-conceived on quality centre mgr. marcoux M.C. paper and have excellent typography and contain illustrations which are a joy to the eye. The Centre Mgr. Marcoux had the happy idea of including in its program of artistic activities an exhibition of paintings and ceramics by students of Painter Albert Rousseau and Ceramist Robert Gervais. Included were the works of Lorraine Bellerose, Janine Canadian art in franee BY JEAN CATHELIN Beaudoin, Lili Boissinot, Gaston Roberge, Michel Giroux and The role of Canada in the arts was brought into full focus in three Robert Gervais. large-scale, official events in France in May and June of this year and since I was appointed by the Canadian Department of External roland giguere M.C. Affairs to help organize them, I shall content myself with a report, A vernissage of the recent works of Roland Giguere was held at rather than a critical analysis, of them. Events were at Mulhouse, Renée Lesieur's gallery, l'Atelier. On this occasion, the painter-poet Nice and Paris. autographed his last work, l'Age de la Parole, which won the Grand The most important event, and one which may indeed serve as a Prize of the City of Montreal. There is an astrological symbolism to model for future events, was the one held in the city of Mulhouse, this artist which fosters a poetry of light and color, as exemplified in the industrial and intellectual meeting-place of the Common such works as Paradisier, Monument de la Nuit and Naissance de Market near the Swiss and German frontiers. The event was entitled Feu. Canadian Days and during a two-week period 12 shows and con­ ferences and seven exhibitions were held. Pauline Julien started the artistic contest M.C. festivities with a recital and this was followed by concerts, films and Barely a dozen works were exhibited at the first artistic compe­ stage plays. tition of the section of decorative arts. There was a splendid chalice Among the art exhibitions there was the woven and patchwork by Marc Andre Beaudin, a ring by Philippe Vauthier, some good collection of the Royal Ontario Museum; a handicraft and folklore posters by Charbonneau and Dumouchel, a tapestry by Marcel Jean, show (traditional arts of Quebec, Indian and Eskimo art and old a superb enamel by Thérèse Brassard, a graphic work by R. Hunter church scurpture) organized by the National Library of Canada; a and a small sculpture by Leo Gervais. The works were noteworthy show of the works of cutrent Canadian artists; and a display of for their quality but was it necessary to organize an exhibition with engravings and some sculptures. There was also a collection of so few pieces? personality photographs by Youssouf Karsh. Among the artists represented at Mulhouse and at Nice were In June, the 18th salon of young sculptors moved from the Arsenault, Beaulieu, Bellefleur, Borduas (loaned by the Parisian gardens of the Musee Rodin for the Place des Vosges, an area being dealer Girard); Crosthwait, Ferron, Leduc, McEwen (loaned by restored to its 17th century splendor. Among the 100 artists involved Galerie David Anderson, Paris); Maltais, Germain Perron, Joe were two Canadians, Mrs. Jean McAllister and Philippe Saive. Plaskett, Jean Paul Riopelle, Bernard Vanier. The engravers were Richard Lacroix, Helen Piddington, Robert Savoie; the sculptors, McAllister and Trudeau. At the Musee Rodin in Paris, there were works by McAllister, Burka, Jacques Besner (loaned by the Galerie Transposition, Paris); A VENDRE: Collection importante d'artistes cana­ Trudeau (loaned by the Galerie S. De Konninck, Paris); and Rio­ pelle. In all the catalogues, I stressed that the exhibits were only a diens : Alleyn, Arsenault, Bellefleur, Marie Bouchard, small fragment of the whole panorama of Canadian art. Cosgrove, Riopelle, Roberts, Marc-Aurèle Fortin. The Paris exhibitions of Alleyn-Comtois and Van Bentum were Muhlstock, Masson, Richard, Lorne Bouchard, Le­ hardly over when preparations were made for those of Riopelle and mieux, Maltais, Suzor-Côté, Le Fébure, Rousseau, McAllister. After three years wirhout painting, during which time he Garand, Borduas, devoted himself to sculpture, Riopelle returned with full force. He was in top form and his exhibition was one of the most important seen in Paris in a long time. Prière de téléphoner à 842-5614 (Montréal).

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