Canadian Artist; P11 RCA (1926-1998)
William Ronald was born in Stratford, Ontario in 1926. From the age of twelve Ronald wanted to become a painter. His younger brother, John Meredith Smith, had ambitions too of becoming a painter. He enrolled in the Ontario College of Art. One teacher, J.W.G. (Jock) MacDonald, who had done his first abstract painting in 1933, saw in Ronald a creative talent. During early exhibitions he encountered other abstract artists Ray Mead and Tom Hodgson. Toronto had fewer galleries then, and fewer places willing to show abstract work. This situation prompted Ronald to make suggestions to his bosses in Simpson’s display department, to show abstract paintings with furniture to enhance the display. He contacted those artists he knew – Oscar Cahén, Jack Bush, Alexandra Luke, Kazuo Nakamura, Ray Mead and Tom Hodgson. Following the show the seven artists realized that better opportunities lay in store for them if they exhibited together. Since they didn’t want to be referred to as another Group of Seven, they decided to form a larger group. Ronald invited his old teacher Jock Macdonald, Cahén invited both Harold Town and Walter Yarwood, Mead asked Hortense Gordon and they finally numbered eleven to form Painters Eleven. In February of 1954 they held their first group show at Roberts Gallery, Jack Bush’s dealer. The largest crowd in the history of the gallery showed up at the opening.
Ronald moved to New York in 1955. As he became known in New York art circles he was able to arrange an invitation for Painters Eleven to show with American Abstract Artists in their annual exhibition in 1956 at the Riverdale Museum. In April of 1957 he held his first solo show there and signed a contract with Kootz Gallery, NYC. For the next six years he exhibited with Kootz. A change in vogue to Pop Art, which Ronald could not relate to, left him with too small an audience to continue making a decent living. He had his last show at Kootz Gallery in December, 1963.
In 1966 Ronald was offered a programme on the arts, by CBC television producer, John Kennedy. He accepted and became host of “The Umbrella” run on Sunday afternoons. The programme which had its share of controversey lasted two seasons and had a viewing audience of 1.2 million. Afterwards Ronald turned to painting once more. Some of his flowing lineal murals were attracting attention. In 1967 Fred Lebensold, architect for the National Art Centre in Ottawa, was looking for an artist who could tackle a large scale colourful mural. He thought of Ronald. Unannounced he dropped into Ronald’s Toronto studio to invite him to submit a proposal for a mural. Ronald came up with one of his flowing lineal compositions measuring 44 x 60 feet (later entitled “Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy” chosen by Ronald to honour R.F.K. in the way a writer dedicates a book to a friend). The three-story mural is influenced by both landscape and music. The mural is widely admired by public and planners alike because of the difficult area the artist had to work with. While continuing with his painting career Ronald returned to broadcasting and hosted “Theme & Variations” in-depth interviews and music, CBC (1968); “As It Happens” six hours straight, interviews with people making the news, CBC (1969-72); “Free For All”, public access programme, CITY-TV, (1972-74, 1977). In 1975 Joan Murray, director of the McLaughlin Gallery and Kathryn Reid Woods organized the exhibition “Ronald: 25 years”. The show toured eight galleries across Canada.
His “prime ministers” project, planned over several years, is his version of portraits of 16 of Canada’s prime ministers. Each of the portraits differs in size and technique, to suit the personality and reputation of the subject politician. The portraits were first shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario, May 1, 1984, officially opened by Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau the exhibition then went on tour across Canada. During his career Ronald has done hundreds of paintings. He is represented in over seventy public collections and museums. Ronald passed away February 9, 1998 in Barrie, Ontario.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS: Ronald is represented in the permanent collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; the Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY; the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal; the Nelson A. Rockefeller Collection, New York; the Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, Arizona; the Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore; the Whitney Museum, New York; to name a few.
The record price for this artist at auction is $163,800.00 for Drumbeat, sold at Heffel in 2008.
Canadian Artist; OC OSA ARCA (1934-2022)
Anthony Morse (Tony) Urquhart was born in 1934 in Niagara Falls, Ontario. His long and remarkable career began while earning his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the State University of New York, Buffalo, when he became known in the Toronto art scene as one of the first Canadian Abstract Expressionists.
In 1956, Av Isaacs, the owner of the Isaacs Gallery (one of Toronto’s most cutting-edge art venues which emerged in the mid-1950’s) asked Urquhart to join his growing stable of artists, which included Michael Snow, Joyce Weiland, and Graham Coughtry. Urquhart had his first works shown at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto when he was only 22. He also had a one-man show in January 1957 and a second in November of the same year with Isaacs. At the time, Urquhart’s influence was from Buffalo, directly from the New York Abstract Expressionists and in 1956 the influence of this movement was still new to the Toronto public.
By 1960, he was the first artist-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, where he continued as both a teacher and director of the McIntosh Art Gallery. During this time, he founded Canadian Artists Representation (CARFAC) which established a fee structure for the exhibition of works by artists in museums and galleries – making Canada the first to formalize artists’ copyrights and fees. He also exhibited with renowned London art group that included Jack Chambers, Greg Curnoe and Murray Favro. In 1972, Urquhart became full professor of Fine Art at the University of Waterloo, Kitchener-Waterloo, Ontario, teaching drawing, painting and printmaking. He also served periodically as the head of that department until his retirement in 1999.
His distinguished career in Canadian art earned numerous honours and awards, including the Order of Canada in 1995. He was the recipient of the 2009 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts, and the CARFAC Outstanding Contribution Award. In 2016, he was given an Honorary Doctorate by Carleton University.
Tony Urquhart began his career as a painter and later became known for his ‘box’ sculptures. He was also involved in the Canadian literary scene, particularly with his wife – the novelist Jane Urquhart – and illustrated various books. Throughout his career, however, drawing has been central to Urquhart’s art. Tony passed away January 26, 2022
SELECTED COLLECTIONS: Urquhart works can be found in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON; the Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY, USA; the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England; the Hirshhorn Collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., USA; the Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris, France: and the Museo Civico, Lugano, Switzerland.
The record price for this artist at auction is $12,980.00 for THRESHOLD, sold at Waddington’s in 2013.
NEW WORKS
OTHER AVAILABLE WORKS
German-Canada Artist; (1952- )
Thomas Ackermann was born in Bad Hersfeld, Germany in 1952. As a painter for more than 40 years Ackermann has endeavoured to elicit a visceral experience of paintings for the viewer. Ackermann’s interest is not only WHAT (subject) he paints but HOW (process) he physically makes a painting. Half his subject is the painting itself. Ackermann developed a very personal way of applying materials onto the canvas, in spirit, much like Jackson Pollock or Yves Klein for their audacious experiments with new techniques, dripping, using living brushes or pouring directly onto canvas. Ackermann’s current new works use a 600 year old medium (oil paint) and re-invented (altered) it to suit his unique process. He can apply the process creating several unique works from one image, repeating the image in reverse, comparable in a way to Andy Warhol’s use of silk screens. Ackermann’s paint surfaces are either highly reflective (without topical varnishes) or extremely rough and textured. A brush has not touched the final surface. Yet when examined closely the oil paint looks as if applied by brush comparable to brush strokes on a Picasso painting.
Thomas Ackermann’s paintings can be enjoyed and appreciated on several levels. As explained by the Spanish sculptor, Luis Ramos. “Tom Ackermann, is no different from others who have used the Bible as a source. He has a particular interpretation, admittedly a radically different one because of an alternate translation. Step up to an Ackermann painting. It is as if the movement of all these figures implies for Tom the passage of the human spirit – the essential dynamism of the life-force itself.”
Form has coalesced into content, and we are presented with the next level of an Ackermann: evidence of a profound curiosity that still questions, with Gauguin, “What are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?* Painting, for Ackermann, is the medium through which he explores these questions. The spiritual quest embarked upon a paint brush, into the mysterious past or into the future like a rocket. No wonder the movement feels energetically compulsive, the colours joyful, the textures rich, the space free of gravity. To Ackermann, questions of the soul are of prime importance, and to explore these questions are the most significant thing we can do. There is in his paintings nothing tentative or hesitant about getting on with that exploration. Fearless and eager explorer. Joyful and enthusiastic discoverer. His paintings lead us on to extra-terrestrial territory, to a higher elevation of thought.
SELECTED COLLECTIONS; Kunstmuseum Stadt, Bad Hersfeld, Hessen, Germany; El Tercio, Ayuntamento Cuevas del Almanzora, Spain; Casa de la Cultura, Aguilas, Almeria, Spain; El Centro Cultural Lorca, Murcia, Spain; Escuela de Marmol, Macael, Spain; Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, Ontario; The Learning Resource Centre, Toronto, Ontario; Lambton Gallery, Sarnia, Ontario; and Casey House, Toronto, Ontario.
Italian Artist; (1847-1914)
Cesare-Agostino Detti, or Cesare-Auguste Detti born November 28 1848, Spoleto, Italy — Died May 19 1914, Paris, France. Cesare was an Italian painter, best known for his historical genre scenes, largely from the 17th and 18th Centuries, inspired by the Troubadour style.
His father, Davide Detti, was an engineer and an amateur painter. As a result, his early interest in art was encouraged.
In 1861, he made the acquaintance of Francesco Coghetti, a painter from Rome who was creating murals at the Teatro Nuovo (now known as the Teatro Nuovo Gian Carlo Menotti). Coghetti suggested that Detti receive formal training at the Accademia di San Luca, where he was a professor. Detti studied there until 1866 and came under the influence of Marià Fortuny, who introduced him to the work of the Macchiaioli.
Upon graduating, he began to travel extensively, spending several years in Naples and exhibiting there in 1872. Although he had originally decided to settle in Rome, he visited Paris in 1876 and met Adolphe Goupil, one of the leading art dealers of his time. Not only did Goupil agree to exhibit his works, he also arranged to make them into engravings for his bourgeois customers.
He eventually decided to stay in Paris and held his first exhibit at the Salon in 1877. His commitment to Paris was further strengthened when, in 1880, he married Juliette-Emilie Filieuse, with whom he had two daughters and a son. In 1883, the family relocated to the commune of Bourron-Marlotte, just outside of Paris. There, he became associated with a society of independent landscape painters known as the Groupe de Marlotte.
In 1888, he participated in the Italian Exhibition in London. He also held showings at the Exposition Universelle (1889), where he was Vice-President of the “Italian Committee”, and the Exposition Universelle (1900), where he was awarded a silver medal. His later years were filled with travels, including Latin America and a trip to the United States from 1906 to 1910.
At the outbreak of World War I, France required all foreign nationals to return to their home countries. Detti had never taken French citizenship, so he was forced to return to Rome. While there, he received a call that his son was seriously ill and he went back to Paris, where he died shortly after his arrival on May 19, 1914.
Cesare-Auguste Detti’s work has been offered at auction multiple times, with realized prices up to $306,500.00 USD, for A Musical Interlude, oil on canvas 38½ x 60 in. (97.8 x 152.5cm) sold at Christie’s New York 19th Century European Art sale 30 October 2002 – Lot 83. Most recent “Portrait of a Cavalier” oil on panel 22 1/2 x 16 1/4in (57.1×41.3cm) sold for $17,000.00 USD 8 November 2020 Lot 62.
Canadian Artist; CGP CSPWC OSA P11 RCA (1924-2006)
Thomas Sherlock Hodgson was born in Toronto, Ontario in 1924. Hodgson, a member of the “Painters Eleven” from Toronto, was well known for his distinct use of colour in his abstract painting. Hodgson spent his youth on Toronto’s Centre Island and developed his talents as both a champion canoeist and talented abstract expressionist painter. Hodgson represented Canada for canoeing, competing at the 1952 Olympic Games in Helsinki, and again in 1956 at the Melbourne Olympic Games. As a young boy of ten years, Tom Hodgson’s interest in art took him on a ferry ride to the city every Saturday morning for art classes at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the AGO). At nineteen years old, in 1943, Hodgson joined the Royal Canadian Air Force to train as a pilot. In 1945, after his discharge from the Canadian Air Force he enrolled at the Ontario College of Art. Tom Hodgson graduated from the Ontario College of Art and the Central Technical art program in 1946. Like many of the “Painters Eleven” members, Tom Hodgson began working in the advertising industry in 1946. He had a successful commercial career, working as a freelance illustrator, a layout artist and an art director. To further develop his fine art practice, he became a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, the Canadian Group of Painters and the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolours.
Hodgson’s works were selected to be exhibited in several of these group’s shows in the early 1950’s because of his unique and rich sense of colour, as well as the emerging interest in non-figurative art. In 1953, Hodgson was one of the seven artists who exhibited in the historically noted “Abstracts at Home” art show at the Simpson’s department store. The exhibition was created by “Painters Eleven” member William Ronald, who eventually left Toronto to spread his wings in New York. In 1953, Hodgson also had a solo exhibition of his work at the Douglas Duncan Picture Loan Society, and Hart House Gallery at the University of Toronto. In 1955, Hodgson’s work was selected for an international exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Tom Hodgson explored a “pop art” style of portraiture from 1965 to roughly 1972; this more figurative work was a detour from his abstract expressionism.
In the late 70’s Hodgson stepped back from the art world, losing contact with dealers and curators. It was not until 1983 and 1985 that he was offered solo exhibitions with Bau-Xi Gallery, painting again in the abstract expressionist style. In the 1990’s Christopher Cutt’s Gallery had taken on Hodgson and held several solo exhibitions of Hodgson’s work until 1995. In 1995, friends and family recognized a deterioration in Hodgson’s health. Hodgson passed away in 2006 as a result of complications arising from Alzheimer’s disease. Tom Hodgson has been recognized as one of the early mavericks of abstract expressionist painting in Ontario and an important member of the “Painters Eleven”.
Canadian Artist; OC GGA (1943- )
Ron Martin was born in London, Ontario 28 April 1943. Ron Martin studied at H.B. Beal Secondary School in London, Ontario. Then began working in a studio shared with Murrary Favro in 1964, and had his first solo exhibition at Jack Pollock’s gallery in Toronto in 1965. Martin admired Jackson Pollock, Milton Resnick and other Abstract Expressionists, and his interest quickly turned to abstraction.
Martin has consistently worked in series, such as the monochromatic “Bright Red Paintings” of 1972 and the subsequent “Black Paintings,” with which he was engaged from 1974 to 1981. In these series he employed a wide range of techniques: pouring, brushing, scraping, and using his bare hands, and consistently worked on the floor or other flat surfaces. The monochromatic paintings began as vigorously gestural works and then evolved into thin surfaces, from which much of the paint had been scraped away, and ultimately to highly textured accumulations of dense, encrusted acrylic. The “Black Paintings” represented Canada (along with Henry Saxe’s sculptures) at the Venice Biennale in 1978. Throughout his career, Martin has rigorously moved on from each series to other quite different ones. The “Black Paintings” were followed by much sparer grid works, the “Geometric Paintings” (1981-85), and then by the more painterly “Black, White and Grey Paintings.” In the 1990s he created a number of series based on a configuration of circles, using oil paint squeezed directly from the tube.
Martin often set arbitrary constraints on his process, eg, limiting a painting to one gallon of paint, two gallons or twenty gallons. Or he might set a time limit to the production of each work. These procedures suggest an affinity with conceptual art, but Martin also views them, and other aspects of his art making, as in keeping with Leonardo’s advice to the artist to “look at certain walls stained with damp or at stones of uneven colour” so that “the spirit [will be] quickened to new inventions.” Martin therefore places Leonardo in a line of thought leading to the psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, and on the basis of their work he takes it for granted that “the creative process is an unconscious” one that functions best when the artist is focused on the sheer materiality of painting. In 2012 Ron Martin was awarded a Governor General’s Award for Visual and Media Arts.
