Curnoe Ewen Falk Moppett by Michael Gibson Gallery

CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT

Greg Paterson Gathie Ron

CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT Michael Gibson Gallery April 4 - 27, 2013 Curated by Michael Gibson

Original Exhibition Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery University of Regina January 8 - 21, 1982 Nickle Arts Museum University of Calgary March 12 - April 18, 1982 Curated by Mayo Graham

CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT Installation View Michael Gibson Gallery

Foreword The first time I visited the MacKenzie Art Gallery was in 1999 after tasting my first martini with Susan Whitney in her Regina gallery. The first time I saw the 1982 CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT MacKenzie Art Gallery catalogue was in Ron Moppett’s studio in the spring of 2009. I was born in Calgary and have always found a sense of levity once I cross over the Manitoba border heading west. Traveling and visiting artists is one of the great reasons to be in the business of “dealing” art and I have had many great experiences. When I began curating this exhibition, my first call was to Mayo Graham, the curator of the original 1982 exhibition. She was very supportive and maybe even a bit curious about my energy to try and pull it off again. Her vision was to show what she felt was important in Canadian painting in 1982. Clearly she has a great eye if you look at the original catalogue. I did not attempt to re-create the former exhibition, but instead looked at the four artists in the now. I get great pleasure in the work, risk and reward of mounting such an exhibition. With both 20/20 hindsight, and my deep personal admiration for each of the four artists, I was keen to attempt my version. What began as a phone call has evolved into an exhibition that examines the artist’s self. You, the viewer, can fill in the blanks from there. Please make the effort to read Mayo’s original essay from the 1982 exhibition, which we have included in this catalogue. Thank you to the lenders, Mary Handford, Sheila Curnoe, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Equinox Gallery, Mayo Graham, Pierre Théberge and the artists for showing me what is real. Michael Gibson

Greg CURNOE • • • • • • • • • •

Born in London, Ontario in 1936 Studies art at H. B. Beal Technical School London (1954) and at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto (1956-1959) 1963 co-founder of the Nihilist Spasm Band Co-founder of CARFAC with Jack Chambers, Tony Urquhart and Kim Ondaatje in 1968 Co-founder of the first artist-run centre, the Forest City Gallery, in 1973 Represents Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1976 Subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1981 Dies tragically while riding his bicycle with his cycling club in 1992 Art Gallery of Ontario organizes a major retrospective of his work entitled “Greg Curnoe: Life & Stuff” in 2001 Collections include: Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des Beaux-arts de Montreal, Musee d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, National Gallery of Canada, Oakville Galleries, Vancouver Art Gallery

Greg Curnoe Study for Double Portrait No. 1 Watercolour, September 9-16, 1983 12 x 9 in / 30 x 23 cm

Greg Curnoe, Self Portrait, Watercolour, June 27, 1988, 12 x 9 in / 30 x 23 cm Private Collection

Greg Curnoe, Man in a Skin Suit (Self Portrait), Watercolour, November 29, 1982, 12 x 9 in / 30 x 23 cm Private Collection

Greg Curnoe, Self Portrait #9, Watercolour, July 12, 1992, 24 x 18 in / 61 x 46 cm Private Collection

Greg Curnoe, Self Portrait, Watercolour, August 3-6, 1992, 24 x 18 in / 61 x 46 cm Private Collection

Paterson EWEN • • • • • •

• • • • •

Born in Montreal, Quebec in 1925 Studies art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design (1948-1950) Moves from Montreal to London, Ontario in 1968 In 1971 Ewen starts working on plywood instead of canvas, using a router to gouge out powerful images of earthbound and celestial phenomena Teaches at the University of Western Ontario from 1972-1988 Paints “Bandaged Man”, 1973, collection National Gallery of Canada. Ewen states: “... when it was finished I realized it was more of a self portrait than I thought...the type of body with long arms, expression of face... I thought, yes, there’s a lot of myself in it”. Represents Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1982 Paints “Self-Portrait”, 1986, collection National Gallery of Canada Art Gallery of Ontario organizes “Earthly Weather Heavenly Skies” in 1996, a survey of over 50 paintings, watercolors and drawings spanning five decades of Ewen’s career Ewen dies in London, Ontario in 2002 Collections include: Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des Beaux-arts de Montreal, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery

Paterson Ewen Silhouette of an Artist Tar, lead, marble dust on gouged plywood, 1999 96 x 93 in / 243 x 236 cm Private Collection

Paterson Ewen Planet and Earth Acrylic paint and stain on gouged and plained plywood, 1994 48 x 70 in / 121 x 177 cm Private Collection

Paterson Ewen Alert Oil on Canvas, 1962 36 x 36 in / 91 x 91 cm Private Collection

Gathie FALK • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Born in Alexander, Manitoba in 1928 Moves to Vancouver in 1947 and becomes a school teacher for thirteen years Studies art part-time at the University of British Columbia (1955-1963 and 1964-1967) Becomes a full time artist in 1965 and works on both paintings and sculptures 1968-1972 Falk creates fifteen performance works Returns to painting, the medium of her original training, in 1978 Her survey exhibition, “Paintings 1978-1984”, tours to 5 public galleries across Canada Awarded the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 1990 Named to the Order of Canada in 1997 and Order of British Columbia in 2002 Vancouver Art Gallery organizes “Gathie Falk”, a major touring retrospective exhibition of paintings and sculptures in 2000 Receives the Governor General’s Award in Visual Arts in 2003 Collections include: Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée d’Art Contemporain deMontreal, National Gallery of Canada, Vancouver Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery Gathie Falk currently lives in Vancouver, British Columbia

Gathie Falk Reclining Figure (after Henry Moore) Lizzie (black patina) Bronze, 2002, Edition 9/9 41 x 22 x 13 in / 104 x 55 x 33 cm

Ron MOPPETT • • • • • • • • • • •

Born in Woking, Surrey, England in 1945 Emigrates to Canada with family to Calgary, Alberta in 1957 Graduates with honours from the Alberta College of Art, Calgary (1963-1967) with a scholarship to the Instituto de Allende, Gto. Mexico (1968) Curator of the gallery at the Alberta College of Art (and Design): 1969-71, 1975-78 and 1988-2005 Teaches at the Alberta College of Art, University of Calgary and the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design Awarded the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 1997 Receives the Alberta Centennial Medal for significant contribution to the arts in Alberta in 2005 Awarded seven senior Canada Council grants between 1983-2010 Calgary’s Municipal Land Corporation commissions Moppett to create a 13 x 110 foot mosaic mural in 2012. It is the largest free-standing mosaic mural in Canada Collections include: Canada Council Art Bank, Glenbow Museum, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montreal, National Gallery of Canada Ron Moppett currently lives in Calgary, Alberta

Ron Moppett Working Class Pictures / Picasso Framed magazine cover, oil painting, snow shovel, wooden shelf with enamelled cardboard model of a camping stove, 1980 75 x 80 x 12 in / 191 x 203 x 30 cm

Ron Moppett Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear Acrylic, oil, photograph, decal, tape, mirror on plywood, 1978 35 x 36 in / 89 x 91 cm

Ron Moppett WinterSummer Oil & alkyd on canvas, 2013 36 x 36 inch tondo / 91 x 91 cm tondo

Installation View of Ron Moppett’s Working Class Pictures / Picasso

From: Ron Moppett Date: January 21, 2013 To: Michael Gibson Subject: 1982 Thank you for the invitation to re-visit Mayo Graham’s 1982 MacKenzie Art Gallery show. What a bright idea! (I’ve long thought how great it would be to ‘re-do’ certain iconic exhibitions.) I’m quite sure that it would be practically impossible (except perhaps for Larry Gagosian) to experience the original 1917 Armory show. How cool to see anew Phillip Guston’s 1970 Marlborough exhibition, or closer to home, the National Gallery of Canada’s 1968 ‘Heart of London’ as the break out show for Greg Curnoe, Ron Martin et all. Anyway, I don’t know if this makes me feel younger or really old. I first met Mayo Graham with Pierre Théberge and felt remarkably fortunate to have made those connections so early in my career. The privilege of their support meant a lot to me, especially working in Calgary, outside of the centres of the artistic universe. I had been exhibiting for over ten years then but I’d have to say being included in Mayo’s exhibition certainly felt like MY break out show. Serious company! Years later I was lucky enough to work with Greg Curnoe through Canadian Artists Representation. I worked on a project with Paterson Ewen at the Alberta College of Art and exhibited with him in NYC at Paolo Baldacci. I sat with both Paterson and Greg on Canada Council juries and over the years showed all three artist’s work as a curator at Alberta College of Art. Very happy to be able to show my ‘Working Class Pictures / Picasso’ installation. One of my all time favourites! Really. Nice pick. By the way, I have subsequently painted: cars, camels AND gnomes! Cheers, Ron Sent from my iPad

Mayo Graham 1982 Introduction There once were two cats of Kilkenny. Each thought there was one cat too many. So they fought and they fit And they scratched and they bit, ‘Till excepting their nails And the tips of their tails, Instead of two cats, there weren’t any. *

- Old Nursery Rhyme

In February 1981 I was invited by Carol Phillips to organize an exhibition of contemporary painting for the Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery. Her initial idea was to have a show of several works by four or five new emerging painters. We discussed trends and styles, the (re)appearance of imagist paintings, modernism and post-modernism and a host of other things. For about a week I thought about the state of art in general and in Canada specifically, and then submitted a rather different proposal to Carol. Every exhibition has its own rationale. In this case, my proposal was built upon the specific locale for the exhibition (Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada) and a thematic focus (at first dubbed “grand painting”). What had not been seen here led me to believe that it was important to show works of excellence by Canadian artists who were already well known, but mostly secondhand. How essential and wonderful it is to see a work of art first hand! And as a unifying theme, I was thinking of large scale, bright colour, broad gesture and texture. (The original alias of “grand painting” was dropped when I realized this also seemed to signify “noble” subject or intent; the opposite is perhaps more accurate).

The four artists in the exhibition – Greg Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Gathie Falk and Ron Moppett – have been painting recognizable subjects or images for many years. This is probably the most obvious link between their work. In both painting and sculpture, Curnoe and Falk have consistently portrayed their own individual worlds. There is a similarity in their response to ordinary, immediate objects. This is specifically focused on the everyday environment and events. Greg Curnoe is an avid amateur bicycleracer; two of his bicycle “portraits” are included in this exhibition. Gathie Falk enjoys coffee and cakes with her friends; in one “thermal blanket” (Tom), it appears that she has delighted in icing the cake in paint. Paterson Ewen paints landscapes and phenomena. Unlike Curnoe and Falk, his subjects may not be specific (e.g. Cloud over Water), but they are tied to common places or events. And many of the figurative elements in Ron Moppett’s paintings are recognizable clues to a personal “image-bank”. Moppett’s repetition of images relates to that of Falk. Both artists paint varying views of a similar subject within one work. There is a sense of mental or physical investigation. On the other hand, Curnoe and Ewen (re)present a single image, although the subject or theme may be recurrent in a series of paintings. All of the artists exhibit a sense of humour and personal idiosyncrasy. One senses the affection, pleasure, wit or excitement with which each artist has viewed, handled or presented a subject. It might be the way Curnoe has used colour, or Ewen, texture. It could be Moppett’s permutations of symbols and images, or Falk’s choice of format. In every case, there is an underlying seriousness, but it does not belie humour.

Greg Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Gathie Falk and Ron Moppett all use intense colour in their paintings. In some cases, it may be arbitrary colour, used for its own value, or it may be heightened colour enlivening the subject. One thinks of Curnoe’s Homage to Van Dongen #2 and Falk’s Beautiful British Columbia Thermal Blanket (Elizabeth) which have been painted very differently but dazzle with their rich hues. There is an evident enjoyment of material and its manipulation, whether it be Falk’s sensuous layers of oil paint, Moppett’s collaging of paint, Curnoe’s washes of watercolour, or Ewen’s gouged plywood. As well, each paints passages with loose broad gesture, as for example, Ewen’s routed scrubbed surfaces, or the water, light and cloud areas in many of Moppett’s paintings. And at the same time, there is an interest in detail, such as Curnoe’s penciled notations specifying the parts of Gitane-5-Speed or Moppett’s chair renderings in Siren Song 1. The works have another common denominator: their size. They are all large paintings, from Falk’s garden-sized West Border in Five Parts to Curnoe’s bicycle-sized Mariposa 10-Speed. And finally, whether it be colour, texture or scale, all the paintings in the exhibition share a sense of imposition. Each commands and deserves attention. Mayo Graham *Among the things I find irritating is the habit of many writers to preface their works with an historical and often obtuse quotation. Another is rarefied contemporary art criticism: arguments of “isms” and “ologies”. And so with an ironical cheer I say, “Let the two (or hundred) cats fight it out.”

L to R: Greg Curnoe Self Portrait #9, July 1992, Greg Curnoe Self Portrait, Aug 1992, Ron Moppett Working Class Pictures / Picasso, 1980, Ron Moppett WinterSummer, 2013, Greg Curnoe Man in a Skin Suit, Nov 1982, Study for Double Portrait No. 1, Sept 1983, Self Portrait, June 1988.

L to R: Paterson Ewen Alert, 1962, Gathie Falk Reclining Figure (after Henry Moore) Lizzie (black patina), 2002, Greg Curnoe Untitled (Protean Loading), Oct 5-8, 1989, Paterson Ewen Silhouette of an Artist, 1999.

L to R: Greg Curnoe Untitled (Protean Loading), Oct 5-8, 1989, Paterson Ewen Silhouette of an Artist, 1999, Ron Moppett Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear, 1978.

L to R: Ron Moppett WinterSummer, 2013, Greg Curnoe Man in a Skin Suit, Nov 1982, Study for Double Portrait No. 1, Sept 1983, Self Portrait, June 1988, Paterson Ewen Alert, 1962, Gathie Falk Reclining Figure (after Henry Moore) Lizzie (black patina), 2002, Greg Curnoe Untitled (Protean, Loading), Oct 5-8, 1989. Background: Paterson Ewen Planet and Earth, 1994, Ron Martin 32 Tints, May 9-27, 1983.

L to R: Greg Curnoe Self Portrait #9, July 1992, Greg Curnoe Self Portrait, Aug 1992, Ron Moppett Working Class Pictures / Picasso, 1980, Ron Moppett WinterSummer, 2013. Foreground: Gathie Falk Reclining Figure (after Henry Moore) Lizzie (black patina), 2002.

Thank You Equinox Gallery, Sheila Curnoe, Gathie Falk, Mayo Graham, Mary Handford, MacKenzie Art Gallery, Ron Moppett, Pierre Théberge and the generous lenders to this exhibition. Without your support this exhibition would not be possible.

Mayo Graham has worked in the art museum community in Canada for almost forty years, as registrar, educator, curator, advisor, manager and director. From 1998 until her retirement in 2009, she was the Director of National Outreach and International Relations at the National Gallery of Canada. In addition, for five months in 2008, she was the interim Chief Curator and Deputy Director. She has coordinated many exhibitions including major international ones such as The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man” (2008), The Great Parade: Portrait of the Artist as Clown (2004), national presentations such as Noah’s Ark (2004), The Body Transformed (2003) and Mexican Modern Art, 1900-1950 (1998), and curated others for a number of Canadian public galleries (among them solo exhibitions of artists Joe Fafard, Kiki Smith, Jacques Hurtubise). As author, she has contributed to the catalogues for the exhibitions mentioned above as well as for Cosmos, a 1999 international exhibition, and to Vancouver’s 2000 Gathie Falk publication. Graham has been on several advisory committees – for the Department of Canadian Heritage, the Venice Biennale, the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, the Saidye Bronfman Centre, and a number of Canadian art galleries. Now retired, Mayo occasionally contributes to exhibition planning and publications. Mayo Graham’s original introduction is reproduced with the permission of Mayo Graham and the MacKenzie Art Gallery.

CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT Catalogue of an exhibition held at Michael Gibson Gallery April 4 - 27, 2013

Thank you to the MacKenzie Art Gallery for allowing us to use the original catalogue cover image. Photo: Don Hall, courtesy of the MacKenzie Art Gallery Greg Curnoe images © Estate of Greg Curnoe Paterson Ewen images © Mary Handford Gathie Falk images © Gathie Falk Ron Moppett images © Ron Moppett

Michael Gibson Gallery gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts

For more information about CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT please visit www.gibsongallery.com Front Cover Image: Original 1982 Catalogue Cover of CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT Back Cover Image: Installation View of CURNOE EWEN FALK MOPPETT Michael Gibson Gallery

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