Jack Shadbolt was born in Shoeburyness, England in 1909. His home in Canada is Vancouver; Shadbolt also resided in New York and Southern France for prolonged periods of time. After his stay at the Mediterranean, Shadbolt's palette lightened and his medium changed to oil. His work became abstract, mosaic-like, creating architectonic vision by splitting color. Shadbolt is considered one of Canada's most important abstract artists. (The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada. Denise Lecler. P.178-9). Jack Shadbolt taught at the Vancouver School of Art and, before his retirement in 1966, was a catalyst for West Coast art as a teacher, lecturer and writer. 'Rocks' is one of the artist's earlier pieces - representational in subject matter and executed in watercolor, his first medium. (1996 inventory)
Don LeQuesne, Associate professor of Art and Art Education at Brandon College 1962-1965 was from the Toronto area where he had been supervisor of art in the Pickering school system and taught Art Methods in Summer school for teachers at the Ontario College of Education. His parents immigrated to Quebec from the Channel Islands. Don obtained his B.F.A. degree from Mount Allison University. (1969 inventory)
Only weeks after they had been ordered by Agent McLaughlin (center) to arrest Sitting Bull as an attempt to calm the growing unrest from the Messiah Craze (Ghost Dance), the Sioux police pose victoriously for Barry's camera. The arrest attempt was disastrous, resulting in the deaths of six Indian police, Sitting Bull, his son Crow Foot and eight of Crow's followers. The panic which followed culminated in the infamous Wounded Knee affair two weeks later. Red Tomahawk (front center) killed Sitting Bull. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
As the Cheyenne and Sioux retreated south toward the 'White Rain (Bighorn) Mountains' following the Battle of Little Bighorn, many of the wounded warriors died. They were laid to rest in their finest clothing admits their cherished belongings atop burial scaffolds or within the branches of strong trees. It was here sorrowful families bid the fallen warriors spirit good-bye as it began its journey across the great divide. (Harbaugh, P., 1982)
Bertha Cunningham is a Western Manitoban artist who has studied at the Banff School of Fine Arts several summers and has painted in Winnipeg for periods under the guidance of members of the School of Fine Art. She paints mainly landscapes. (1969 inventory)
