Imprints
The word imprint can be defined in two ways. As a verb it can be
described as making a distinctive mark or impression; the act of
stamping or printing on a surface. As a noun, imprint can refer to
something or someone that affects another deeply as to mind or
feelings (Collins Paperback English Thesaurus, pg. 318).
Both of these meanings of the word imprint are appropriate when
describing the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition
Imprints. Presenting print-based art works from the collection of the
Alberta Foundation for the Arts, this exhibition explores print-making
as a means of artistic expression within Alberta over the past century.
With art works ranging from traditional woodblock prints from the early
twentieth century to computer-generated imagery from the
twenty-first century, the exhibition Imprints examines various printmaking processes and considers the development of print-making as a
form of visual expression in Alberta.
Through the above examination the exhibition Imprints also
recognizes a few of the many individuals who, through their artistic
efforts and educational/administrative roles, have made indelible
impressions on the visual arts both in Alberta and beyond the
province’s borders. Whether responsible, like Maxwell Bates, John Snow
or George Weber, for introducing print-making processes to the
province or, as witnessed in the careers of Sylvain Voyer, Walter Jule,
Lyndal Osborne and Marc Siegner and Robin Smith Peck, active in
establishing art centers integral to the promotion of print-making and
the visual arts, the artists represented in this exhibition have influenced
a multitude of other artists and added immeasurably to Alberta’s
cultural landscape.
Over the course of the twentieth and into the twenty-first century
print-making as a form of artistic expression has definitely made its
mark on the visual arts scene in Alberta. The exhibition Imprints
recognizes the significance of this media and acknowledges some of the
individuals responsible for the stature of both print media and various
art institutions on the provincial, national and international art stages.
The exhibition Imprints was curated by Shane Golby and organized by the Art
Gallery of Alberta for the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program.
The AFA Travelling Exhibition program is supported by the Alberta Foundation for the
Arts.
COVER IMAGE:
Andie Wicherts, A Circle Rose for Bonnie (detail), 1987
Etching, embossment, metallic thread on paper,
Collection of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program
Travelling Exhibition
The Art Gallery of Alberta is pleased to present this travelling exhibition
to venues throughout Alberta. Currently the Art Gallery of Alberta serves
over 60 venues in approximately 35 communities. Exhibitions on tour
from the Art Gallery of Alberta easily adapt to space requirements
of smaller venues: schools, libraries, museums, health care centres
and other community facilities. The exhibitions are organized in such
a manner as to make unpacking, packing, hanging and shipping as
easy as possible. Along with the exhibition, each venue receives an
Educational Interpretive Guide. These materials enable teachers to
use the exhibition within the school curriculum.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection is the primary source
of works featured in the travelling exhibitions. Other sources for
exhibitions may include community partners, archives, private
collections and loans from artists. Each year we welcome new venues
to enrich their community art through the Alberta Foundation for the
Arts Travelling Exhibition Program.
Our Thanks
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts
and to the many individuals, organizations and communities who
contribute to the success of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Travelling Exhibition Program each year.
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts
Travelling Exhibition Program
Contact
Shane Golby, Manager/Curator
AFA Travelling Exhibition Program
Region 2
Art Gallery of Alberta/CSF
10550-107 Street
Edmonton, AB T5H 2Y6
T: 780.428.3830
F: 780.421.0479
[email protected]
Imprints
Maxwell Bates
Sun, n.d.
Lithograph on paper
Collection of the Alberta Foundation
for the Arts
A pioneer of expressionism and abstraction in western Canada during the
twentieth century was Maxwell Bates (1906-1980). Born in Calgary in
1906, he studied architecture and painting at the Provincial Institute of
Technology and Art (now the Alberta College of Art) in Calgary.
As a young man Bates was very interested in the social realist work of
Honore Daumier of France. He was also interested in the work of postimpressionist artists. He loved the colour and vigor of Vincent van Gogh
and the shallow space used by Henri Matisse.
In 1949 Bates studied under Max Beckman in New York and was very
influenced by this German Expressionist artist. He was also influenced by
the works of naïve artists. While he denied that he himself was a naïve
artist, some of his paintings suggest a sympathy with their goals.
Maxwell Bates was really the first artist in western Canada to embrace
modernism. Before the 1950s he was primarily concerned with
drawing, painting and architecture. Bates began producing print art works
in the late 1920s and throughout his career produced woodblocks and
silkscreens. It was through his lithographs, however, that he contributed
most to printmaking in Alberta and Canada as a whole. In the 1950s
printmaking became a significant part of his work and he began to work
with lithographs with John Snow in Calgary in 1955. While self-taught,
Bates created lithographs that were recognized for their imagery as well
as their technical merit and in 1961 he was asked to write about his
technique for the magazine Canadian Art. As expressed by the artist:
From 1953 most of my prints have been lithographs printed from stones.
Lithography reproduces, exactly, greasy marks made on the stone, however
delicate (even finger marks) or however crude. Perhaps even greater subtlety
and delicacy are possible than in any other print medium. This medium
imposes not discipline and because of its flexibility great breadth of expression
is possible.... I am a lithographer because a press, stones and roller became
available....I learned how to use the lithographic process by trial and error in
1953. Jack (John) snow and I bought old presses and stones no long used by
a commercial printing house. We learned lithography together because there
was no one in Calgary who could teach it....
Printmaking in Alberta, Bente Roed Cochran, pg. 57
Walter J. Phillips
Wild Cherry, n.d.
Woodblock on paper
Collection of the Alberta Foundation
for the Arts
Walter Joseph Phillips was born in Barton-on-Humber, Lincolnshire,
England. As a youth he studied at the Birmingham School of Art. After
studying abroad in South Africa and Paris he worked as a commercial artist
in England. In June of 1913 he moved to Winnipeg, Manitoba, where he
lived for more than 28 years. Phillips is famous for his woodcuts and watercolour sketches. His artistic career spanned from the early 1900s through
to the 1940s during which time his work was exhibited throughout North
America and Great Britain. In 1940 he was asked to become a resident artist
at the Banff Centre, then known as the Banff School of Fine Arts, where he
played an important role in the development of their visual arts program.
Phillips was the author of The Technique of the Colour Woodcut in 1926
and was an illustrator of many books. In 1933 he was made a member of
the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.
Artist, educator and writer, Walter J. Phillips was internationally acclaimed
during his lifetime for his proficiency in the medium of the colour woodcut
derived from the Japanese method. Through the skilful superimposition of
many layers of transparent water-based inks, he created images of beauty,
subtlety and depth and produced some of the most important prints and
watercolours in Canada during the 1930s and 40s. Upon moving from
England to Winnipeg in 1913, Phillips became friends with the artist Cyril
H. Barraud who, in 1915, taught Phillips the technical craft of etching. In
1917, wishing to work in colour, Phillips began to teach himself colour
woodcut printing and he soon receiving international attention. Throughout
the ‘20s and ‘30s he was Canada’s most famous printmaker, exhibiting in
Britain, the United States and Canada.
Phillips influenced several generations of printmakers and almost singlehandedly made the colour woodcut popular with artists across Canada.
While in Winnipeg he not only taught printmaking but he also became the
city’s chief art critic, writing a regular art column for the Winnipeg Herald. In
1926 Phillips helped found the Manitoba Society of Artists.
In 1940 Phillips took up a teaching position at the Banff School of Art where
he continued to teach to 1959. In 1941 he moved to Calgary and taught at
the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now the Alberta College of
Art and Design). It has been stated that the flowering of printmaking on the
western prairies can be attributed to Phillips’ work at both these institutions.
George Weber
Hoodoos, Drumheller, Alberta, 1960
Silkscreen on paper
Collection of the Alberta Foundation
for the Arts
George Weber was born in Munich, Germany, in 1907. From 1930 to
1934 he lived in Toronto where he worked as a display artist and
wallpaper designer and attended evening courses at the Ontario College
of Art. While in Toronto he learned commercial silkscreen print methods
and brought that knowledge to Edmonton when he moved west in 1934.
Weber was one of the first artists who exposed and promoted prints in
Alberta. He is credited with introducing fine art serigraphy (silk-screening)
to both Eastern and Western Canada. As early as 1948 he lectured at the
University of Alberta on the adoption of this silk-screen process, formerly
used only for commercial applications such as posters or handbills, to the
field of fine art. In 1950 and 1951 he led workshops on serigraphy at the
Edmonton Art Gallery and in 1954 he was instrumental in
establishing the Edmonton branch of the Canadian Painter-Etchers and
Engravers (CPE).
Weber was also responsible for the introduction into Western Canada of
handmade Japanese and European fine art papers for printmaking.
Although Weber is best known as an important figure in the
development of printmaking in Edmonton, he is also known for his
watercolour landscapes of Alberta. Weber became a member of the
Society of Canadian Painter-Etcher and Engravers in 1950.
As described by writer and educator Bente Roed Cochran in her book
Printmaking in Alberta:
Weber’s contributions do not lie in innovative subject matter, indeed, while his
scenes are pleasant and historically interesting, they incorporate none of the
formal or subjective searches of the mid to latter parts of the twentieth
century. Weber’s import stems from the fact that he single handedly
introduced serigraphy to Alberta; he set up classes at the Edmonton Museum
of Art (now the Art Gallery of Alberta) first to make Christmas and greeting
cards...but later to make fine art prints.