York Wilson, Canadian Modernist: the Northern Year

by Clifton Bertram

R. York Wilson, considered by some authorities to be one of the three greatest muralists of all time, is most well-known to Canadians for his public works that adorn Imperial Oil, the O’Keefe Centre for the Performing Arts (now the Hummingbird Centre), Bell Canada, Queen's Park and Carleton University But Wilson was known to consider himself "first a painter, with a flair for murals."

Wilson turns out to have also been a notable figure in the development of modern art. Indeed, it is possible that his prodigious output more aptly chronicles modern art's evolution more effectively than any other Canadian artist.

In this, the first of a series of pieces highlighting the evolution of York Wilson's work, we will examine a point in his early career during which he painted some remarkable images of the Canadian north. These early paintings are among the least abstract and experimental of York Wilson's ouevre, being produced at a stage in his career when he was still highly influenced by his time as a commercial artist just ten years earlier, working with Group of Seven luminaries Franklin Carmichael and A.J. Casson.

In 1945, Wilson travelled to the prairies, the Hudson's Bay region, and the High Arctic, creating images that powerfully capturing both the unique qualities of winter light as well as the incredible effects created by a combination of swirling wind and snow. York Wilson's northern year resulted in paintings that manage to distil, in oil and canvas, an essential element of every Canadian's soul.

York Wilson paintings, from top to bottom: 46 Below, oil on canvas; Muskox Gnomes, oil on panel; Near Churchill, oil on canvas; Expedition Muskox, oil on panel, Snow Peaks, Hudson's Bay, oil on panel.

Leading the Group of Seven Out of the Wilderness

Defiant Spirits: The Modernist Revolution and the Group of Seven is Ross King's attempt, as he puts it, to site the celebrated gang of woodsy painters in a greater esthetic context.

Well, imagine that. But be warned — the very suggestion can make one fear for the esteemed historian's safety. With any luck, King had the prescience to hire bodyguards for the inevitable manhunt that might ensue. After all, death by caning — the executioner's weapon of convenience, given the blue-haired brigade he's most likely to offend — would be a rough way to go.

Undaunted, King, who both wrote the book and curated an exhibition now at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, has made nothing less than an historical reclamation project of the group, trying to exorcise the myth of idealized naturalists making art in a vacuum of Canadian shield wilderness. Many of the group worked in advertising, as graphic designers, and witnessed the creep of mass-commercial billboard imagery first-hand.

Industrialization was the major force of their world. Maybe it provoked their retreat into the wilderness, but not before central group figure Lawren Harris made several urban paintings that stand in stark contrast to the pristine wilderness myth with which they're most often associated. How do you think they got to Algonquin Park, anyway? Tourist trains and logging roads, like anyone else.

King notes the disservice the myth does to a clued-in group of painters whose legacy is far more complex, and plugged in, than its enshrinement as national symbols allows.

To read more of this content at The Toronto Star, click here

Living With Mies

"A few blocks east of Detroit’s downtown, just across Interstate 375, sits Lafayette Park, an enclave of single- and two-story modernist townhouses set amid a forest of locust trees. Like hundreds of developments nationwide, they were the result of postwar urban renewal; unlike almost all of them, it had a trio of world-class designers behind it: Ludwig Hilbersheimer as urban planner, Alfred Caldwell as landscape designer and Mies van der Rohe as architect.

The townhouses, plus three high-rise buildings, were built between 1958 and 1962 on land previously occupied by a working-class African-American neighborhood, Black Bottom. While much of Detroit began a steep decline soon after, Lafayette Park stayed afloat, its residents bucking the trend of suburban flight. Lafayette Park today is one of the most racially integrated neighborhoods in the city. It is economically stable, despite the fact that Detroit has suffered enormous population loss and strained city services.

We wanted to hear how residents — especially people with long-term, intimate knowledge of living with Mies — think about this unique modernist environment and how they confront and adapt it to meet their needs. During our research, we were struck by the casual attitude that many residents have toward the architecture. Then again, Detroit has an abundance of beautiful housing options: one can live in a huge Victorian mansion, a beautiful arts and crafts house or a cavernous loft-conversion space in a former factory. Living in a townhouse built by a renowned architect isn’t as noteworthy as one might think. At the same time, such nonchalance is a mark of success: the homes are great because they work, not because they come affixed with a famous name."

To read more of this content at The Opinionator, the NY Times blog, and to access their great interactive feature 'Living Rooms With a View', click here.

Manneken Pis

When I was six or seven, my father received a gag gift as a birthday present from one of his friends. A liquor decanter, it was topped with a statue of a cherubic young boy peeing, and when you pressed the button on the decanter it would fill your glass.

As a little kid, this device tickled me to no end. It was naughty and funny and educational, all at the same time. After all, I learned, the statue of the little boy really exists, and is in fact a much revered emblem of the City of Brussels, where it is known as the Manneken Pis. Located at the corner of Stoofstraat/Rue de L'Etuve and the Eikstraat/Rue du Chêne, the famous landmark has been cherished by locals for more than 400 years.

There are many legends about the Manneken. According to one of them a little boy had watered against the door of a witch who lived where the fountain now stands. The witch was so angry that she turned the little boy into a statue. Another legend says that a man had lost his little son. He found the child after two days near the place where the fountain now stands. When the father spotted his child, the latter was peeing. As a token of gratitude the father had the fountain with a statue of a peeing boy constructed.

From the mid-sixties through to the end of the seventies, this famous work of art was turned into the liquor dispenser given to my father, and sold under a number of name, including Master Piss and Little Whizzer.



As so often happens with novelty gifts, my dad's dispenser was used three or four times, garnered a few chuckles, then was consigned to the basement storage shelf. A few years later, when he built a pond with a waterfall in the backyard, he took the statue from the decanter and installed it as a fountain - a fate I always felt was a dignified resting place for the lad.

Last year, I happened across a copy of this silly gag gift in an antique store, and couldn't resist. I paid $20 for it, and after I got it home I did a bit of research and found I could have gotten an unused vintage example online for about the same price...but, while it didn't end up as an example of shrewd antique purchasing on my part, that wasn't the objective in this case anyway.

And twenty bucks is a small price to pay for that golden glow of childhood nostalgia....

Saturday Night at the Komodo Lounge

Welcome to Saturday night at the Komodo Lounge, a periodic set of period cocktail inspired music and videos to while away a weekend evening in the comfort of your very own home tiki bar.

Sixties Jet Set - Air Hostesses



From contemporary dance/lounge auteur Tipsy, here's 'Chop Sockey':



Juan Garcia Esquivel - Miniskirt



Al Caiola - Malaguena



Modern-day lounge performer Lushy live at the Tacoma Art Museum



Fascinating bossa nova version of California Dreaming, performed by Brazilian sensation Rosa Marya Colin.



The incomparable Antonio Carlos Jobim, with one of his classics, 'Wave'.



Donald Byrd - Dominoes



Jean Jaques Perry - Indicatif Spatial Space Age Fashion



Nat King Cole performs one of his signature tunes 'Nature Boy', written by the mysterious proto-beatnik Eden Ahbez.




Thanks for coming, and we hope you enjoyed your time with us. Tonight's Komodo Lounge has been brought to you by our sponsors, Roman Coppola's 'CQ'. Watch the trailer here: