FFWD Weekly
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| VISUAL ARTS Collecting Alberta Art: The Legacy With spring arriving (I just saw my first robin), it seems like an auspicious time for a celebration of the Alberta Advantage. The 25th anniversary of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Collection applauds the province for its uniqueness in having the only government in Canada to collect visual art. Nearly 6,000 works validate the visual artists as cultural tools in shaping the identity of our province. Curator Les Graff uses words like "individuality," "emerging" and "diversity," and if this sounds like the collection is all over the place, it is. We see years of mainstream art collected since the beginning of the boom years in the early 1970s when every oilman and cowboy had a piece of art. Do you want to see what Alberta is? Then see this exhibition. Alberta's early artistic history displays a love of the land, with landscapes of mountains by Banff's Walter J. Phillips in his wood-cut print "Mamalilicoola," and H.G. Glyde's watercolor "In the Yoho, B.C." (1947). "Rolling Landscape with Ranch" (1940) by Group of Seven painter A.Y. Jackson underlines the historic distinctive Canadian art which is tied to the land for its inspiration. Contemporary photographs of the "Badlands Southern Alberta, Near Drumheller" (1983) by George Webber, and details of plant life in "Blackberry Vines and Prunus Pisardi, Autumn" (1983) with pastel and watercolor by David More, indicate the variety of Alberta terrain that has such a powerful pull on the people that live here. Most of the art in this show is comfortable rather than thought-provoking; everyone will like at least something. The most challenging aspect is the awkward space of the Triangle Gallery itself, where it is difficult to stand back and really look at something. The upstairs is well worth the climb, with a large grouped installation of ceramic art. Symbolizing the growth of Alberta art from the land is the Luke Lindoe legacy of the ceramics program started at Calgary's Provincial Institute of Technology in 1947. The painting "Crown of Thorns" (1948) shows Lindoe's original love, but for 10 years his teaching helped spawn one of the strongest ceramic programs in Canada at what is now Alberta College of Art and Design. That institution is well represented by instructors such as Kirsten Abrahmson, Sally Barbier, Bert Borch, John Chalke, Annemarie Schmid Esler and Barbara Tipton, just to name a few. This love of materials extends to ACAD's glass program, with Martha Henry's "The Men From Mesopotamia" (1988), and a powerful sculpture department showcased by Katie Ohe's bronze "Mother and Turtle" (1965) and Walter May's "Approaching the Tourist Museum" (1995). Is it a love of welded steel that fills Edmonton's stronghold of modern formalism with work by Catherine Burgess, Isla Burns, Peter Hide and Alan Reynolds? What about the fabric "Cornered" (1989) by Judy Villet, the monoprint "Northern Series 10-2" (1994) by Douglas Haynes, or the etching "A Clock for Two Kinds of Time" (1992) by Walter Jule? Why does art-for-art's sake stand coldly isolated in the exclusivity of the government's capital city? Doesn't the rest of the province reflect the love of nature? The Alberta Foundation for the Arts has created a living history at a significant point in the early growth of a distinctive Alberta artistic voice. Since the 1950s the growth of art institutions has spread from Edmonton to Calgary's ACAD and University of Calgary, and to significant satellites at Banff, Lethbridge, Red Deer, Grande Prairie and even Fort McMurray. These institutions have followed the AFA mandate "to support, promote and contribute to the development of the visual arts in Alberta." Is that important? To the converted, of course. To the sceptics, this exhibition should be, as the AFA says, "an important and integral part of our artistic and cultural heritage" in that this is what keeps the people here in Alberta after being seduced by this land of opportunity. Art creates a presence and provides a proud identity for Albertans that affirms the sense of singularity. This is distinctive from the better known traditional wealth of Ontario or the West Coast Asian Pacific personality of British Columbia. The government funding that helped individuals create these institutions is in a time of transition. Will this vision fall apart as they rescind the support, now that the AFA has set an example and direction? Or will the individuals of Alberta step in as before to encourage and support the difference, or, as some say, chaos, of this province? If Alberta has a distinctive culture, then we are individuals tied to our varied land, and our art reflects it. If you want to know who you are or where you came to, then this exhibition of the Alberta Advantage will show you something you like, as well as something you detest, for such is the diversity and post-modern decentralization of Alberta. |