From the Toronto Star, Murray Whyte writes about the bicycle art of the late, great artist Greg Curnoe:

“On the wall at Cherry Bomb Coffee on Roncesvalles Ave., a slight, royal-blue CCM track bike with curled handlebars dangles from the wall, held at a sharp angle by a slim cable…”

Greg Curnoe, Mariposa T.T., 1978-9. Image: artnet.com

“As an artist, (Curnoe) had achieved a particular kind of celebrity. His work, like his life, was disarmingly vibrant, all filled with bright colour and fuelled by his various passions – cycling, for one, and a cheeky political activism. By the time he died, at age 55, he had carved a uniquely prominent position for himself in Canadian art...”

One of Curnoe’s bikes, at Cherry Bomb, in Roncesvalles, Toronto. Image: rene johnston/torontostar.com

Read the full article HERE.

It’s kind of interesting that the new Art Gallery of Alberta, which is slated to open on January 31st, will be collaborating with the National Gallery of Canada to bring works from the NGC to Alberta audiences.

Goya Disasters of War, 1810 - 20. Image: tate.org.uk

It’s a great idea that bridges the Canadian geographic gap nicely and brings excellent exhibitions to Edmonton. The first featured exhibition will be the beautiful, brutal Goya: The Disasters of War and Los Caprichos, which will run until May 30th.

Read the full article HERE.

Today is World Aids Day.

Scott Treleaven, Heartworms, 2004. Image: artnet.com

In light of this, there’s an exhibition we want you to know about in New York City, that runs from January 8 - 10, 2010 called Postcards from the Edge.

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Takao Tanabe was born in British Columbia in 1926 and was interned with other Japanese-Canadians in BC during World War II.  He studied in Winnipeg, London and Toyko, and in New York at the Brooklyn Museum Art School where he was taught by the famous German-born American abstract expressionist painter Hans Hoffman.

The artist Takao Tanabe. Image: gov.bc.ca

Takao Tanabe was awarded the Emily Carr Foundation Scholarship in 1953,a Canada Council Fellowship in 1959 and a Canada Council Senior Fellowship in 1969.

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With so much writing being done online, books have taken on a precious new meaning.

That’s no different in the art book world, or more specifically, the luxury book market as defined by Benedikt Taschen, the German publisher who in 1999 famously published SUMO, a retrospective of the work of iconic photographer Helmut Newton.

It was the largest book produced in the 20th century and now sells on Ebay for $15,000.

An image by the late, great Helmut Newton, from SUMO. Image: livresphotos.com

“…books can themselves become their own pieces of highly sought-after art. “The making of the titles is a collaboration with the artists,” (Taschen) explains. “Their ideas are at the centre of the work and they are involved all the way through the process, making the books original, personal and desirable – like great art should be. Why shouldn’t an art book be something to be revered?”

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“With their artists competing on an international stage, Canadians can no longer complain of their country as a cultural backwater nor luxuriate in the nostalgic charm of provincialism. In art as in political, social and economic activities, Canada is fully involved in the world of today,”
– Dr. R. H. Hubbard, former Chief Curator of the National Gallery of Canada.

Guido Molinari, Untitled, 1964. Image: artnet.com

Walking down Bloor Street in Toronto last night, we stopped at a bookshop’s outdoor display and there, right in front of us, on sale for $1.99, was a copy of Canadian Art Today, originally published in 1970 by Studio International.

Edited by William Townsend, a professor at the University of London, the slim book is filled with contributions from Canada’s art elite at the time: R.H. Hubbard, then chief curator of the National Gallery of Canada, Doris Shadbolt, then curator of the Vancovuer Art Gallery, curators Dennis Reid, Pierre Theberge and David Thompson.

“Canadian artists were dependent for generations on the artistic traditions of France and England and it is only since the last war that contemporary American influences have made a decisive impact,” writes Townsend.

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Collector of art and art books (and friend of VoCA) Bill Clarke continues his tour of his bookshelves:

A Young Man of Extraordinary Personal Beauty by Gareth Jones/Oscar Wilde; 2007

4. A YOUNG MAN OF EXTRAORDINARY PERSONAL BEAUTY by Gareth Jones; 2007. Published by Four Corners Press, London.
This book is the first in a series of classic British novels being reprinted by Four Corners Press, which is inviting young artists to oversee the designs. British artist Gareth Jones was commissioned to design a text of Oscar Wilde’s The Portrait of Dorian Grey. Throughout the text, Jones places advertisements for Gitanes cigarettes from the 1970s that feature male models, transporting the story to more recent times visually. The entire publication, from its baby blue cover to the models’ heavy moustaches and earrings, is clever, kitschy and sexy.

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A few weeks ago, we recommended artist books as a more affordable (and under appreciated) alternative for art collectors. Imagine our surprise to discover that art collector and friend of VoCA Bill Clarke was also a collector of art books.

Here, he gives us a tour of his bookshelves:

Robert Indiana: Trilove (1969). All images: courtesy Bill Clarke

1. TRILOVE by Robert Indiana; 1969. Published by Edition Domberger, Stuttgart, in an edition of 210 signed and numbered copies.

American Pop artist Robert Indiana isn’t known as a book artist but, in the late ‘60s, he produced this small edition of two poems accompanied by a charming lithograph of his iconic LOVE image in a blue, green and white variation. The first poem, written in ‘55 , is fairly conventional, but the second, revisited by the artist for this publication, is a playful experiment in which he reconfigures the word ‘LOVE’ into different typographical arrangements. Indiana considered the print the third poem of the book, hence the title Trilove. Indiana’s limited edition prints, let alone his paintings, are beyond the reach of most of us, so this book was a relatively affordable way for me to obtain a piece of his work.

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After having seen the basement, first and second floors - see our post HERE - we returned last night to the AGO see the upper galleries.

We took the elevator up to the fifth floor, where the soaring ceilings made the rooms feel spacious. The only criticism we had, really was the inescapable feeling that the galleries were overcrowded.

A lot of large scale work demands large open space to make it feel proportionate, like Brian Jungen’s oversized totem poles, or the Mark Lewis (next year’s representative at the Venice Biennale) excellent video of Algonquin Park.

Mark Lewis, Algonquin Park, Early March, 2002. Image: marklewisstudio.com

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1. HARUN FAROCKI: one image doesn’t take the place of the previous one

1 November 2008 to 1 February 2009

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston Ontario

Some of you may have seen Farocki’s excellent film installation at last year’s Documenta in Kassel, Germany. Or perhaps when it was shown as part of Re-Enactments at Montreal’s DHC/ART Foundation.

Harun Farocki Deep Play (2007) Image: canadianart.ca

This exhibition brings together six installations by renowned German filmmaker Harun Farocki, several of which are being presented in North America for the first time. Farocki’s filmic montages are presented in the gallery, where documentary visuals are subtly accompanied by spoken commentary.

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