Big Bangs: abstract works from the U of L Art Collection

Main Gallery January 25 – February 29
Helen Christou Gallery January 18 – March 14

Reception: 4 – 6 pm, January 25

Big Bangs is an exhibition of works of art from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection that looks to the origins of abstraction in Canada. Each of the artists included acted as powerful catalysts sparking new directions in non-objective art and forever changing the face of painting. Through rigorous explorations of space, colour, form, line and composition, these artists challenged the conventions of painting, liberating art from representation or narrative in search of truth, purity and unmediated connections. From the urban centers of Montreal and Toronto to the quiet isolation of the prairies, groups like the Automatistes, Painters Eleven or the Regina Five refused to fall victim to provincialism or be excluded from international dialogues. Helped along the way by teachers like Hans Hofmann, critics like Clement Greenberg, the occasional exhibition and dog-eared art magazines that found their way from studio to studio, these artists were painting in response to the latest work of New York and Europe, learning what they could before resolutely striking out into uncharted realms.

Pioneers
There were a number of lone renegades eager to try for themselves the advancements made outside of Canada in Cubism, Surrealism, Fauvism, and a paralleling interest in mysticism and theosophy. Lowrie Warrener, though remaining a persistently obscure figure in Canadian history, was among the earliest pioneers of abstract painting. In 1924, his exposure to Post-Impressionism and avant-garde European art led to a distinct shift from a national “Group of Seven” style to the radically simplified, stylized and rhythmic landscapes of Rapids, Upper French (1926).

Immigrating to Canada in 1929, Fritz Brandtner introduced the works and ideas of Kandinsky, Kirchner and other German Expressionists to the arts communities of Winnipeg and Montreal whereas in Saskatchewan, Stanley Brunst and Bartley Pragnell began to apply elements of Cubism and Constructivism. No one was more vital to the advancement of painting in Canada than J.W.G. “Jock” Macdonald who had a profound presence across the country; in Vancouver investigating Symbolism and Surrealism; in Banff and Calgary sharing Automatism with Alexandra Luke and Marion Nicoll; and, finally, in Toronto where his forays into Abstract Expressionism would help to bring modern art into the spotlight in Canada.

Les Automatistes
Though many individuals dabbled with abstraction in the decades prior, it was not until 1942 and exhibitions like Les Oeuvres Surréalistes de Paul-Emile Borduas that non-objective painting in Canada would truly begin to flourish. Borduas’ adoption of Surrealism and the writing of André Breton drew the attention of Jean-Paul Mousseau, Pierre Gauvreau, Jean-Paul Riopelle and others who would become known as “Les Automatistes” – artists who denounced traditional painting in favour of spontaneity and a connection with our emotionally driven, intuitive unconscious. This artistic directive led to the 1948 manifesto Refus Global, an incendiary document that sought to wrest “faith, knowledge, truth and our national heritage” from the hands of an out-of-touch conservative society.

Borduas’ student Riopelle developed an international presence with works such as this exhibition’s untitled watercolour of 1953, its infestation of quick, black strokes appearing like sunspots against a billowing nebula of rich, luminous colours. Like other automatic efforts, it was less a process of studying and “abstracting” the world than of “creating” new worlds that defied convention. Eventually, as in Borduas’ Or et Bronze (1953), automatic methods and surrealist space would be reconsidered as space and paint became interchangeable, signifying only itself.

Les Plasticiens
In 1955 a group of young painters stifled by the dominating presence of the Automatistes offered the Manifeste des Plasticiens, a rejection of the random spontaneity and pictorial space of Borduas and Riopelle. Citing Mondrian as their key influence, Les Plasticiens (Jauran, Louis Belzile, Jean-Paul Jérôme, Fernand Toupin) worked in search of an objective, universal order and equilibrium through the relationship of the plastic elements of line, colour, surface and form. After only a few short years, a second wave of Plasticiens, led by Guido Molinari and Claude Tousignant, went even farther, with investigations into flatness, surface, colour, seriality and optical dynamics. Molinari’s Mutation Tertiaire #2 (1965) features rhythmic relations across the picture surface that offers itself not as an “image,” but as an “event” constructed by the viewer through the dynamics of active perception.

Painters Eleven
Working in the shadow of the Group of Seven, Toronto artists delving into abstraction were faced with a disinterested public coupled with minimal exposure to the work of modern artists from New York and Europe. Still, pioneers such as J.W.G. Macdonald had begun teaching at the Ontario College of Art, while rare books and magazines, periodic exhibitions, and trips to New York introduced the “hot licks” of the Abstract Expressionists. The influence of British abstract painters such as Graham Sutherland, Ben Nicholson and Patrick Heron was also vital to Toronto painters, much of their work having been on view in local collections.

Among those Toronto artists striving to bring abstraction to the general public were the “Painters Eleven” – Hortense Gordon, J.W.G. Macdonald, Alexandra Luke, Jack Bush, Oscar Cahen, Walter Yarwood, Ray Mead, Harold Town, Tom Hodgson, William Ronald and Kazuo Nakamura. Not guided by any political or aesthetic manifesto, the Painters Eleven exhibited highly individual styles sharing a dynamic lyricism and fearlessness that pushed the boundaries of painting. Their unruly attitude generated an energy paralleled only by the group’s “social reputation” for lavish openings and wild parties. William Ronald, in particular, was an enormous presence and his bold, explosive paintings soon took him to New York and a startling, albeit brief, rise to international prominence. The Image (1957) reveals Ronald’s consciousness of surface and colour while presenting a “bird-like” form that hovers over the canvas casting shadows that confuse figure/ground relationships. Like many of the Painters Eleven, Ronald’s bravura paint handling often served to explore figurative possibilities.

Regina Five
If abstract painters were feeling suppressed in1950s Toronto, one can only imagine the insularity and provincialism that was plaguing artists working in the Canadian prairies. Even so, a small group of artists working in Regina found themselves at the forefront of an international modern art scene working side by side with the major players of New York. The “Regina Five” – Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Ronald Bloore, Douglas Morton, and Ted Godwin – were the outcome of the progressive exhibitions of the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery and an extraordinary faculty at Regina College who initiated the now legendary Emma Lake Artists’ Workshops. These workshops featured artists and arts professionals from outside the province, among them Barnett Newman (1959), Clement Greenberg (1962) and Jules Olitski (1964), who would become instrumental in transforming what was primarily derivative abstraction into something that resembled neither the geometric studies of Montreal nor the lyrical figurative abstractions of Toronto. Instead, the Regina Five worked towards a purity of material applied with an essential, internal logic found outside of personal expression and gesture that seemed an “embodiment” of the symbolic rather than its “depiction”. For many of the group, a sense of mysticism was nurtured in their work reflecting the earlier investigations of J.W.G. Macdonald, Marion Nicoll and others, although, as in McKay’s “mandala” paintings, more akin to Zen Buddhism than theosophy.Influences/Educators (Helen Christou Gallery)

Much of Canada’s relationship with abstraction stems from America and the direct influence of Hans Hofmann and Clement Greenberg. Hans Hofmann was, as Greenberg himself declared, with “all probability the most important art teacher of our time.” His understanding of pictorial relationships and colour theory influenced generations of artists and was instrumental in the development of Abstract Expressionism. Illingworth Kerr, Jock Macdonald, William Ronald, Alexandra Luke, and many other Canadian artists studied with Hofmann exploring volume not by rendering or modelling but through contrasts of colour, shape and surface.

Clement Greenberg’s role in shaping the aesthetics of Abstract Expressionism and Post Painterly Abstraction cannot be understated. As one of the most influential critics in America, Greenberg’s favorites were routinely propelled to international acclaim. Upon the invitation of William Ronald, Greenberg was brought to Toronto in 1957 to visit the studios of the Painters Eleven and, though not everyone valued his opinion, his candid criticism and persuasive philosophies had a decisive impact. Similarly, Greenberg was encouraged by Barnett Newman to participate in the Emma Lake Artists’ Workshop of 1962 where he expounded his views on abandoning the now mannerist results of painterly abstraction and moving “towards a physical openness of design, or towards linear clarity, or towards both.” His follow-up article for Canadian Art celebrated the efforts of the Regina Five and his landmark travelling exhibition of 1964 – Post Painterly Abstraction – included the work of Lochhead, McKay and Bush alongside Americans such as Louis, Noland, and Olitski.

Ryan Doherty,
Guest Curator

Planes, Trains and Automobiles: the art of transportation

Helen Christou Gallery
Guest Curator: Ryan Doherty

In a country as immense as Canada, people quickly learned to have a great respect for vehicles – cars, trucks, buses, bicycles, skidoos, boats, horses, canoes, trains, ships, motorcycles – anything to help make our landscape a bit more manageable. Since dropping anchor in the 17th Century, Canadians have depended on various modes of transportation to enable their success in a new land. This reliance continued as vehicles became inseparable from modern life, embedded in daily routines, travel, tourism, trade and lifestyle. This exhibition features a selection of works from the University of Lethbridge Art Collection that recognize the significance of transportation to our culture whether deliberately drawn to our attention or innately integrated within another context.

In modern times transportation has been inextricably linked with the development of the city. As such, it can be aligned with the modernist project as a reflection of mankind’s progress. Artists such as Edward Steichen and Berenice Abbott are renowned for their articulation of urban life in New York, in particular noting the speed at which it was changing. It was not unusual for them to include modes of transportation

to help demonstrate the machinations of the city. Similarly, Richard Estes has included subways, buses and airports as backdrops for his photo-realistic prints. With meticulous detail he captures the complex structures and surfaces of urbanity within anonymous, yet familiar cityscapes. Robert Rauschenberg further acknowledges the implications of transportation in the fabric of our culture. His playful portrayal of two cars parked in front of a fading mural of the open road succeeds as a representation of contemporary America while doubling as a symbol of the limitations of modernism.

As automobiles became more affordable, their popularity led to the reconstruction of the cityscape with widened streets, parking lots and gas stations. More menacing was their role in the development of freeways, which blasted through the foundations of the city – an insatiable beast which sped people through the city instead of immersing them within. From the off ramps of these new and improved roadways emerged the suburbs and a distaste for urban life. A new lifestyle had emerged that was accessible to the suburban dweller. The automobile and its ubiquitous highways allowed for unprecedented freedom for traveling across North America. A summer fling in Christopher Pratt’s Karmann Ghia, a family excursion in Ralph Goings’ camper, or perhaps some soul-searching on Larry Stark’s motorcycle – all are indicative of a different direction in transportation – one motivated less by efficiency and necessity than leisure and convenience.

The artists in this exhibition draw upon our intimate relationship with transportation and remind us of its enormous impact. Some deliberately use transportation as symbols of progress or the complexity of modern life, while others prefer to evoke a sentiment of nostalgia. In either case, the works in this exhibition will feel familiar whether living in the country, city or suburbs – sure to be a moving experience.

Ryan Doherty
Guest Curator

Dust

Main Gallery & Helen Christou Gallery
Guest curator: Ryan Doherty

Main Gallery – August 26 – October 7, 2005
Helen Christou Gallery – August 26 – October 14, 2005

Reception: September 17, 10 am – 6 pm (reception part of Lethbridge’s city-wide ARTWALK festival).

There is a moment in our lives when we realize that we are but mortals, here to reap the bounty of life and then, inevitably, die. It is at this instant we begin our obsession with mortality. This fixation is firmly established in Fine Art with the tradition of vanitas: moralistic paintings made to incite reflection upon death and the fragility of human existence. While vanitas paintings were initially relegated to 17th Century Dutch still lifes, artists continue to approach mortality from multiple perspectives. This exhibition of works from the U of L collection presents works by Bertram Brooker, Jim Dine, Eldon Garnet, Arthur Lismer, Pegi MacLeod, Julien Schnabel, Tony Urquhart and others irresistibly drawn to the ephemerality of life. The accompanying brochure for this exhibition is available by going to the U of L Art Gallery’s PUBLICATIONS PAGE.

A Survey of Conceptual Art From the University of Lethbridge Art Collection
Helen Christou Gallery

This exhibition features conceptual artworks from The U of L Art Collection, and was a companion exhibition to “Documents”, a conceptual art exhibition organized by the Southern Alberta Art Gallery.

Curated by Ryan Doherty.

Woodcuts from The University of Lethbridge Art Collection
Helen Christou Gallery

Featuring woodcuts, intaglio, lithographs and silkscreens.
Guest Curator: Ryan Doherty