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Art collections make stunning gift books
It's been a great year for books at the Art Gallery of Greater = Victoria.=20 First off the presses was Edo: Arts of Japan's Last Shogun Age. The = gallery has=20 the foremost collection of Japanese art in the country, and the Edo = period=20 (1603-1868) is the best represented.
Within the book's 192 full-colour pages are the highlights -- prints = by=20 Hiroshige and Hokusai, samurai armour, Zen paintings and exquisite = ceramics.=20 It's hard to understand how they let it go for $25.95, but it's the best = bargain=20 in the Gallery Shop.
Also in 2009, the gallery published Vision Into Reality: Art Gallery = of=20 Greater Victoria Early Years, 1951-1973 (AGGV, 128 pp, $29.95). These = were=20 exciting times for the gallery, with the creation of the "fireproof = galleries"=20 to house paintings by Emily Carr, Walter Sickert, Mark Tobey and prints = by=20 Rembrandt and Durer. A distinctive West Coast Modernism shocked the = locals, and=20 now we can look back with pride at the advances of Margaret Peterson, = Bob De=20 Castro, Jack Shadbolt and Richard Ciccimarra. The Asian department was = treated=20 to infusions of Japanese art every year by Isabel Pollard, whose gifts=20 eventually numbered more than 1,000.
The book includes essays of historical interest by curators Mary Jo = Hughes,=20 Michael Morris and Barry Till. Hardcover, beautifully photographed and=20 full-colour, this will remain an object of pride for years to come.
For depth, I recommend Painting Paradise, the lavishly illustrated = biography=20 of Ted Harrison by Katherine Gibson (Crown Publishing, Victoria, 2009, = $75).=20 Gibson had unrestricted access to Harrison and, with considerable = writerly=20 skill, she tells the tale of one of this country's most popular = artists.
While being popular may be sneered at by the intelligentsia, this man = is=20 beloved by his countrymen. Harrison, who has been living in Victoria for = almost=20 20 years, is the artist laureate of the Yukon. His dazzling = "cloisonnist" style=20 has been tried out by every school child from here to Corner Brook. You = can get=20 a close look at his brilliant colours at The Legacy Gallery (630 Yates = Street,=20 until Jan. 7).
That said, Harrison is a wonderful raconteur and much of what he has = to say=20 is captured in this book. It is a memorable story.
Publisher Mona Fertig has just released the second book in her series = The=20 Unheralded Artists of B.C. (Mother Tongue Publishing, Salt Spring = Island, 2009,=20 146 pp, $34.95). This time out she offers illustrated biographies of = Frank=20 Molnar, Jack Hardman and LeRoy Jensen.
Molnar (born 1936) is introduced as a Hungarian immigrant with a = taste for=20 voluptuous nudes, and writer Eve Lazarus lets us in on the bohemian = world of a=20 painter "of emotional depth and volatility." Jack Hardman (1923-1996) = was known=20 for his clay sculptures, cubist like the work of Elza Mayhew. Hardman = made a=20 vital contribution as the director of the Burnaby Art Gallery. Like so = many of=20 the artists Fertig champions, neglect drove Hardman to destroy many of = his=20 prints and sculptures. In Claudia Cornwall's biographical essay, a pall = of=20 bitter disappointment clouds this artist's joy.
Of more local interest is the section on LeRoy Jensen (1927-2005), = one of the=20 Limners group of artists. Born in Vancouver, raised in Nagasaki, Jensen = ran away=20 to sea at the age of 14. What a life. A philosopher and a revered = teacher,=20 Jensen had depth that few here knew about. Never again will he be = considered an=20 "unheralded artist."
Robert Amos writes on visual arts for the Times Colonist.
=C2=A9 Copyright (c) The Victoria Times =
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