Wilfrid and Sheila Watson Collection

This exhibition marks the bequest of noted Canadian writers, Sheila and Wilfred Watson. Most of the works in this show are by their good friend Jack Shadbolt, but the collection also includes works by David Blackwood, Molly Lamb Bobak, Emily Carr, A.Y. Jackson, Michael Ayrton, Henry Moore, and Alberta artist Norman Yates. The exhibition held in the summer of 2000 also featured a selection of archival material (correspondence, typescript and manuscript pages, sketches, photographs, and published works) that documents some of the connections between the Watsons’ literary and intellectual concerns and the works they collected.

1. 

   Wyndham Lewis Canadian (1882-1957) The Armada, 1937 oil on canvas 90.0 x 70.0 cm Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery. "Paintings of the period between 1927 and 1939 – Bagdad (1927), Inca with Birds (1933), Stations of the Dead (1933/37), The Surrender of Barcelona (1936), The Armada (1937), The Mud Clinic (1937) – all suggest the attempt to find new and viable forms or to provide the fighting machine with a suitable Valhalla. All of these images are haunted by memories of the sea and by the shell-like forms and coverings with which the organism clothes itself." Sheila Watson in artscanada, November 1967.

2. 

   Norman Yates Canadian (b. 1923) Two Spaces & Figure No. 5, 1975 collage 66.0 x 102.0 cm BG1854 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. This work is part of a large series produced by Yates that examines the figure/landscape relationship. Guided by his interest in Merleau-Ponty, Yates attempted a phenomenological approach to the open space of the Canadian prairie.

3. 

   Norman Yates Canadian (b. 1923) Two Colour Column, n.d. (c. 1968) oil, varnish, string and copper on canvas 84.0 x 84.0 cm BG1854 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. Two Colour Column is apparently a monochromatic work. It is part of a series involving a large "wall" and includes a small figurative element at the bottom. At the time, Yates was interested in archetypal symbols - this series being of a "fortress" - as images of social upheaval.

4. 

   Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) January Bird #7, 1969 ink on paper 63.8 x 43.7 cm BG1855 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

5. 

   Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) January Bird #1, 1965 ink on paper 64.0 x 49.0 cm BG1856 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

6. 

   Michael Ayrton British (1921-1975) Study for a Portrait of Wyndham Lewis, 1955 pencil on paper 40.0 x 49.0 cm BG1857 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

7. 

   Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) Presences in a Field, 1964 ink on paper 50.0 x 63.0 cm BG1858 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

8. 

   Henry Moore British (1898-1986) Untitled, n.d. ink on paper 44.3 x 30.3 cm BG1860 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

9. 

   Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) Untitled, 1965 ink on paper 64.2 x 100.5 cm BG1862 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

10. 

11. 

    Emily Carr Canadian (1871-1945) Spring Trees Brown Earth, 1971 oil on paper on wood 60.7 x 91.0 cm BG1866 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. "And down the valley you looked and saw All wilderness becomes transparent vapour, A ghostly underneath a fleshly stroke, And every bush an apocalypse of leaf." Wilfred Watson from Friday’s Child

12. 

    David Blackwood Canadian (b. 1941) Four Mummers, 1971 etching on paper edition 24/25 15.0 x 25.0 cm BG1867 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. Blackwood attended the Ontario College of Art, where he studied from 1961-63. The OCA faculty who had the greatest impact on his work were Rowley Murphy and Jock Macdonald. The former’s maritime themes served to legitimize this kind of subject material for Blackwood, and the latter encouraged the young Newfoundlander to draw on his roots for his art. Other important influences on Blackwood were Fred Hagen and Kathe Kollwitz.

13. 

    A.Y. Jackson Canadian (1882-1974) Spring Caribou Country, 1949 oil on wood 26.2 x 34.4 cm BG1869 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. "Your letter was here when you returned home with A.Y. Jackson. It was a ghost of you, as if a ghost of you was actually awaiting it - I am tremendously moved by it…Jackson’s contrapuntal hills, some cotton woods, that is all, but in muted colours far more than anything of Jackson’s I’ve seen - a sort of Braque-ish palette. Coyote is in the sky and there is a creek for the old woman to fish in suggested and no more."

14. 

    Molly Lamb Bobak Canadian (b. 1922) Still Life, 1971 oil on fibre board 81.2 x 45.5 cm BG1870 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. NorahMitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998. A Vancouver painter and graphic artist, Molly Lamb Bobak was born in Vancouver and educated at the Vancouver School of Art under JackShadbolt (1938-42). She is the daughter of the art critic Mortimer Lamb who defended the Group of Seven. She has taught at the University of New Brunswick, won a French Government Scholarship (1950-1), and was a war artist during World War II.

15. 

    Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) Space Between Columns (Homage to de Stael), 1965 oil on canvas 102.2 x 128.3 cm BG1871 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

16. 

    Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) Vermilion Residue, 1961 oil on canvas 106.6 x 122.3 cm BG1872 Gifted by Mrs. Doreen Dunning, Mr. John Dunning, and Mrs. Norah Mitchell, from the Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.

17. 

    Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) Portrait of Sheila Watson, c. 1943 conte on paper 41.0 x 34.5 cm Courtesy of Fred Flahiff.

18. 

    Jack Shadbolt Canadian (1909-1998) And the Worm Shall Have His Festival I, 1951 acrylic and ink on paper 60.0 x 90.0 cm Collection of John and Sherrill Grace.