The 1950s

April 15 – June 3, 2011

Helen Christou Gallery
Curators: David Smith and Allison Spencer, Museum Studies interns

Planned in conjunction with Historic Lethbridge week.
Works from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection and the Galt Museum & Archives.

Prints

The earliest accounts of printmaking in history date as far back as 105 A.D., shortly after the invention of paper. Historically, printmaking has been used by artists of all eras as a medium for artistic expression. It appeals to artists since the end product is a work that manifests itself in multiples. Each print is considered an original work of art because the prints are not copies or reproductions of an already existing work. Traditionally artists mark their prints with editions, which resemble fractions near the bottom edge of the print. The bottom number signifies how many prints were produced while the top number is the individual print number in the run. In this way, artists limit the amount of prints that are produced and thus the number of multiple originals created for that series.

The prints in this exhibition were chosen based on their medium and their subject matter, but also their collective aesthetic properties. On the wall opposite the prints, the photographs depict historic Lethbridge and are used to highlight the relationship between the prints and the photographs which are both objects of mass production. A painting by Ray Mead was chosen for the feature wall to connect our choice of subject matter from the prints to other media which focused on abstract expressionism in the 1950s.

Photographs

Photographs have constituted a major form of documentation since their invention in the 1800s. In the past couple of decades, photography has made a significant shift from analog, which uses recording media such as film and is developed in a chemical-based solution, to digital photography. The change in materials and processes has enabled new ways of creating documentation and making art. During the 1950s, there was a similarly significant change in photography as the equipment and processing technology became more accessible to a wide range of people, both professional and amateur, spurring an increase in both serious documentation and photography as a hobby. The widespread availability of photography in the 1950s created an increase in the images of smaller communities such as Lethbridge.

In conjunction with Historic Lethbridge Week, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and the Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives have come together to display the historical past of Lethbridge through the photographic viewfinder. It was important for us to display images of architecture and city spaces that are still present today and are represented not only as historical documentation, but also as images of aesthetic beauty. These photographs were chosen for their examination of historical sites in Lethbridge and for the way the realism of the photographs contrasts with the abstract prints installed on the other side of this space.

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Borrowed from the Sir Alexander Galt Museum and Archives, this photographic equipment was owned by residents of Lethbridge in the 1950s. The collection of materials represents the range of cameras used during the decade. Thomas H. McCready, the owner of McCready’s Drugstore, which existed on 3rd Avenue South from 1909 – 1981, made a large donation of photographic equipment to the Galt. McCready’s extensive collection of photographic equipment was regularly displayed in the pharmacy’s window through the 1950s. Many of the artifacts chosen for the exhibition are the same objects that would have been seen in his window 60 years ago.

Ray Mead is remembered as a pioneer of contemporary abstract Canadian painting. As a member of the artists’ collective known as the Painters Eleven, a group credited with bringing abstract expressionist painting to Canada, his work continues to inspire and influence artists today. Mead is best known for paintings created using non-figurative abstraction (compositions that are not derived from imagery). Cherry Season was chosen for this exhibition to illustrate that abstract expressionism was not contained to printmaking in the 1950s, but rather permeated many artistic disciplines including painting and its style is consistent and typical of Mead’s work.

David Smith and Allison Spencer
Museum Studies Interns, Dept. of Art

The 1940s

Curators: Jarrett Duncan and Kasia Sosnowski
Museum Studies Interns
Department of Art

Helen Christou Gallery

Two senior Museum Studies interns will gain professional experience by curating an exhibition about life in the 1940s with art works from the University of Lethbridge collection and material from the Galt Museum and Archives. The exhibition opens a series throughout the city during May on the 1940s presented by the University and Historic Lethbridge Week.

Statement

The Canadian landscape is both a versatile and reflective subject matter. Southern Alberta in particular has a strong rural identity that is translated in our lifestyle and therefore our art practice. When we selected works for this exhibition we chose to focus on rural scenes because it is an important part of the Southern Alberta character which, in turn, is reflected in the University of Lethbridge Art Collection and the objects at the Galt Museum and Archives. These paintings and artifacts give a sense of the aesthetic culture of the 1940s. We have chosen to highlight various interpretations of similar themes and motifs pertaining to the Canadian landscape and rural identity to best show the individuality and personal techniques of artists. Bartley Pragnell’s work demonstrates the atmosphere of the 1940s with his colourful and stylized landscapes along with his quick journal sketches of everyday events. While Antonio Frasconi presents a woodcut image that clearly outlines the reliance on machinery as a means of production, Fritz Brandtner depicts a scene of two men hard at work. Roloff Beny explores the whimsical side of landscape and inserts a magical quality into his scenery, whereas Cliff Robinson’s black and white representation of a prairie scene, complete with Canada geese, is an image quintessentially Canadian.

The 1940s represent a turning point in the arts as we see a shift from Europe (particularly Paris) being the centre of art in the world to the United States (specifically New York). This shift is a result of World War II, which began in 1939 and did not end until 1945. On the western front the encroaching armies of Nazi Germany pushed in to occupy France, making it impossible for Jewish people and members of the avant-garde art world to stay there. With some combination of luck, foresight, and the means, many of the artistic and intellectual community fled France at this time for Allied countries such as the United States, and in doing so would bring their artistic influence as well. This influx of European art shifted the dominant art style in the US from social realism and American modernism to the Abstract Expressionism we associate with the likes of Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko. This influence can definitely be seen in Canadian artist Roloff Beny, who made the shift from painting pastoral, rural landscapes to abstract, modern works within the window of 1940 to 1946. It is no coincidence to discover that the works on display on the “fine art wall” are works donated by Beny himself to the University collection. Fernand Leger is one of the French artists who lived out the war in New York City (though he would return to Paris soon after the end of the war). While Henry Moore was an English artist primarily known for his sculptures and does not quite play into the narrative established here (he never had to flee his homeland), his prominence and influence as well as his overall style falls into the form, content, and look of the era in a beautiful way.

We would like to thank both the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and the Galt Museum and Archives for all their assistance with the production of this exhibition.

Jarrett Duncan and Kasia Sosnowski
Museum Studies Interns, Dept. of Art

The 1930s

Curated by Miranda Grol and Alyssa Matthews

Helen Christou Gallery

The 1930s were a turbulent time in Canada and around the globe. Accompanying the momentous changes in politics and economics were equally revolutionary developments in art, which historians have gathered under the term Modernism. The Modernist movement was based on a rejection of artistic conventions and a commitment to radical innovation in perspective, approach, and materials. Modernist artists engaged in a process of experimentation and discovery, seeking to explore new possibilities of creativity and expression in a rapidly changing world.
This exhibition includes art works produced in the 1930s that capture the mood of the era and the uneasiness and angst that would have been felt by the artists and society.