Review
MAXWELL BATES: AT THE CROSSROADS OF EXPRESSIONISM
Curated by Nancy Townshend and Michael Morris
Runs until April 12
Nickle Arts Museum
Maxwell Bates: At the Crossroads of Expressionism, an Edmonton Art Gallery-organized exhibition now open at Nickle Arts Museum, may well have been called Max Bates: Humanist.
Born on December 14, 1906 to a well-off Calgary family, Bates went on to have one of the most celebrated art careers in the history of this province and country. And now, just in time for Alberta’s centenary, comes this exploration of Bates as both a Calgarian and an Expressionist. Yet, no matter how hard people try to put labels on him – poet, architect, intellect, artist – his spirit defies it. What shines through his art (in all of its forms) is the unwavering empathy he held for his fellow human beings.
Featuring more than 80 works – including, for the first time on public display, the artist’s notebook that he kept during a five-year period when he was a prisoner of war in Germany – this exhibition is a celebration not just of the artist, but also of the man.
Curators Nancy Townshend and Michael Morris have provided well-conceived text panels that accompany the art. In typical curatorial fashion they have sectioned off Bates’s life into distinct periods: the Calgary years (Part I and Part II); the London, England years; the five PoW years and, finally, the retirement years spent on the coast of British Columbia.
Through it all, at no matter what period of his life, the paintings, sketches, watercolours and collected writings demonstrate a civility, intelligence and humanism that mark Bates as an authentic artistic genius. Guided by the ideal that the most important human achievements are not worldly, Bates wrote in his PoW notebook, "Beyond the Self and Space and Time is the goal of man’s spirit. To reach this state is the ultimate purpose of artistic and moral development."
It’s not often that you attend an exhibition of art and end up poring over carefully handwritten text contained in a notebook, but Bates always exceeds expectation. Of course this all leads back to the art that is found on the walls of the Nickle. And once again Bates holds up under careful scrutiny.
Of particular note is the Prairie People series of oil paintings that Bates created following his five-year incarceration in Germany and subsequent return to Calgary. In these works we see proud rural people, against all odds, working the land in hopes of feeding themselves and forging a future for their children. Now considered romantic, these are oil paintings that speak truths about a way of life. They depict people shaped by their environment, connected to the land and chastened by the weather. The series is a powerful testament to this artist and his subjects.
Did being imprisoned help Bates achieve this clarity of vision? It seems unlikely given that inspired oil paintings such as Washerwoman and Family With Pears – from 1927 and 1929, respectively – were created well before he volunteered to join the Middlesex Regiment of the British Army in 1939. And it is this indefinable quality that paradoxically defines Bates.
Yes, he is known as one of the most important figures of Expressionist art in Canada, but he is so much more than that. Bates is a figure that transcends artistic definitions, regional pride or even well-intentioned flag waving.
He can now be remembered as an artist who went into the world and strove to discover all that is good about being a human. And by following that path he’s left behind a body of creative work worthy of his noble pursuit. |
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