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)
James (Jock) W. G. MacDonald was born in Thurso, Scotland in 1867. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art, and later worked as a fabric designer. He taught at Lincoln School of Art; Vancouver School of Art; School of Decorative and Applied Arts, Vancouver; Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary; and at Ontario College of Art after 1947. MacDonald was a member of Canadian Group of Painters and Painters Eleven. He died in Toronto in 1960. The artist was conducting independent experiments in Vancouver while the others worked in Winnipeg and Toronto. He had painted 'automatics' by 1934 and completely abstract or non-objective works by 1935 or 1936. (Painting in Canada: A History. Harper J. Russel. U of Toronto Press, 1977. P 327) Jock MacDonald was one of Canada's first painters to explore the relationship between abstraction and landscape. What MacDonald did is take the formal qualities of his subjects and isolate or abstract them form the landscape. (The History of Painting in Canada. Barry Lord. Toronto: NC Press, 1974. P 205-7)
Dimensions
23.5 X 33.5 cm
Size Overall
45 X 52.5 cm
Medium
watercolor
Condition
Slight cockling of surface.
Primary Support
paper
Secondary Support
mat, plexiglass, backing board; frame - wood and plaster with gild
Mrs. Busch is a long-time resident of Shellmouth, Manitoba, where her husband operated a general store for many years (shown in the painting). They live (1965) above the former store. (1969 inventory)
Inscription on back: "Nicolet was commissioned to do a series of western scenes for Canada House NY, by the NY Canadian Club. This was a preliminary work done for submission to Canadian Club jurors prior to undertaking his final commission."
Arthur Lismer (1885-1969) was born in Sheffield, Yorkshire, England, in a family of six children. He studied art extensively in Europe before coming to Canada. In Toronto, he first worked in the Grip Engraving Company with J.E.H. MacDonald and Tom Thomson. He exhibited with the Group of Seven since their first show at the Ontario Art Gallery in 1920. Besides his career as an artist, Lismer held important offices as an art educator (Director of the Victoria School of At and Design, Vice-Principal of the Ontario College of Art). He promoted visual art education for children, soldiers, sailors, handicapped people; he was one of the cofounders of the Art Centre for Children. The artist participated in Art Education conferences all around the world. (A Dictionary of Canadian Artists; Colin S. MacDonald. Canadian paperbacks LTS, 1991. P.860-66) The Group of Seven: "The goals of the artists who would form the Group of Seven in 1920 were idealistic and nationalistic in intent... They set out to throw off the colonial attitude which denigrated all Canadian creative ventures and slavishly imitated worshipped all things British or European...The rough wildness of the landscape, its raw, dramatic austerity, coupled with breathtaking color and light, spoke far more directly of Canada for these artists than anything to be found in the cities or settled areas. For them the north, a constant motif in earlier discussions of Canadian identity, found its first expression in the rocks, burnt land, trees, color, and light of Algonquin park... Like other major art innovators, the Group were united in their intent and cooperative action, and together they were remarkably effective in promulgating their vision across Canada and internationally." (Charles C. Hill: The Group of Seven, Art for a Nation. The Canadian Publishers, 1995. P.15-33)
Dimensions
40 X 50 cm
Size Overall
53 X 62.5 cm
Medium
oil
Condition
Frame has minor scratches on right and left arms.
Primary Support
canvas
Secondary Support
frame - wood
Inscriptions
Inscription: A gift of the teacher training classes of Brandon College, 1955-65.
Takao Tanabe was born in 1926 in Prince Rupert, B.C. He studied at Winnipeg School of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Tokyo University of Fine Arts. Taught at Vancouver School of Art from 1961 to 1968, and Banff School of Fine Arts in 1973. Takao Tanabe was one of the promoters of 'abstract landscape' painting in Canada, together with Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, and Toni Onley. (A Concise History of Canadian Painting. Dennis Reid. Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1973. P. 207, 428)
Douglas Vincent Reiley was born in Amherst, N. S. He got his education in New Brunswick, London (England), and other places. Reiley worked both in two and three-dimensional media. He held various positions on Art Educational boards in Nova Scotia and Manitoba. For a period of time the artist worked as an art lecturer in Brandon. He spent 20 years at BU offering visual art courses. Reiley died in 1987. (1996 inventory)
Dimensions
76 X 50.5 cm
Size Overall
84 X 59 cm
Medium
oil
Condition
Bulging of surface - canvas loosely stretched. Mitre joints splitting in upper corners (TL and TR). Stretcher semi-detached from the frame in BL corner. Paint loss in area 22cm TL X 18.5cm L (c.. 0.5cm in diameter). Cracking of paint in the yellow area of the drum
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)
Dimensions
49.5 X 60.5 cm
Size Overall
63 X 73 cm
Medium
oil
Condition
Brown accretion marks on left frame arm, as well as mild brown accretion mark in TL corner of frame.
Barry Burdeny, whose home was at Vita, Manitoba, won first place at age 17 (in 1962) in a school art competition with some 10,000 plus entries and a prize of several thousand dollars. He produced many paintings in the next two years and entered Brandon College in 1964. (BU Art Catalogue, 1983)
Mrs. Butuk, resident of Medicine Hat and Eatonia, Saskatchewan, held an exhibition at Brandon College, 1966, mainly of oil paintings of prairie and South Saskatchewan River Valley scenes. (BU Art Catalogue, 1983) Some mountain scenes from study at Banff School.
