Art in the possession of Vancouver collectors

Vancouver Collects. A Survey
Exhibit at the Vancouver Art
Gallery,.750 Hornby St., Van-
couver. Jan. 20 to March 15.

4 Ron Falcioni
ART REVIEW |

his coming October, 7 ge Bans ‘B TE )

10 years will have - mel ya Sen eaeanisea : :

passed since Van- ws. ~ ; BRAVO FACTORY LOCATION
couver ‘‘took its Art : ; ae en : are 1315 POWELL STREET — Sat. February 20 9am-8pm
Gallery to Court.” oo Ce: : Le . (REAR ENTRANCE) Sun. February 21 1Gam-5pm

If its inaugural exhibit was
devoted to exploring the works of
# Vancouver artists, its first major
A exhibition as its decade year
cammences is devoted to a cele-
bration of the acquisitions of Van-
couver's art collectors.
j Regarded by its sponsors as a
“noble experiment’ intended to
“faster and encourage the de-
velopment and expansion of art
collections’ throughout the
community, the exhibit Vancouver

Collects has the obvious virtue of. |. : i ; . *
returning to public view works of ; :
art tong buried in private’ flec- : , | ee

§ tions...

- Because the Vancouver Art . : : Gentian: oF 3 _

1 Gallery (VAG} now has a self- Photo Holly Hames rib bon ou
directed acquisitions policy and an A 19th century Japanese woodblock print by Yoshitoshi (1839-

independent acquisitions endow- 1892) Kumastka in the Misty Moonlight (1887) is included in

4 ment to support it, itis no longer: Vasscouver Art Gallery's exhibit Vancouver Collects. 7
as reliant on the donations of the a receive a
city’s art collectors as it once was. " Works by other contemporary which merely confirms the logica! ;

As a result, this exhibit reflects Vancouver artists abound: large speculation that a single com- ;
an eclecticism and diversity of ‘allegorical’ works by Derik prehensive exhibit of this kind «vas OnUSs G
pursuits currently beyond either Root (Idea of the Holy, 1986) and —_ neither sought nor desired by its

the intent or the reach of the VAG. Attila Lukacs (Father Knows Best, curator on the realistic grounds
The exhibit itself consists of over 1990); the neo-pop 1983 Gathie that it was unattainable anyway. ‘ ;
130 works drawn from 29 private Falk triptych, 2-Dimensional More abundantly represented WO
collections throughout Vanceuver. Rendering of a Large Number, and are the iconographic works of art
They range from such rare ex-  —«-a_cross-section of the recent created during what might be
amples of antique furniture as’a “hyper-literate’’ collages by ar- regarded as the Classic period of of COU On
Louis XV chair and Neopolitan tist/jazz musician Al Neil — to art collecting in Vancouver, the
Lauis XV console table — offset- identify only four of the artists. years between the construction of ©
ting Giambattista Tiepolo’s 1752 Unfortunately, with the excep- the first art gallery in 1931 and the Qi
oil, Christ and the Barren Fig Tree, _ tion of some isolated works by early years of the Second World ene ee
no less! — to a unique collection Claude Breeze, lan Wallace anda = War. :
of magnificent 19th century few others, the decades im- Seldom-seen works by Emily
woodblock prints by the Japanese = mediately preceding the ‘80s are Carr, Lawren Harris, A.J. Casson,
artist Yoshitoshi who died in 1892. _ not particularly well represented See Entertaining page 87
Entering this second-floor exhibit °
from the stairs one is immediately : : ne : :
confronted by the huge, six-panel P : '
Shadbolt acrylic, Butterfly O S 0) L
Transformation Theme, 1981, a D N T % H P TI L
recurring subject in the artist’s fat- i : .
semimemcteaee’ |o\ YOU DROP YOUR KIDS
more than familiar to Vancouver Kr
art-goers. :
Less familiar and flanking it on
either side are two colossal plaster
heads, Dogfish Woman and Bear
Mother, both maquettes for Bill
Reid’s masterpiece, Spirit Canoe ; ,
completed in 1990. : fies ‘ib Bh iter) oh d
{ Like disembodied remnants of be:
ancient mythological gods these Pp ACE!
gargantuan pieces dwarf their ' §
scurrying observers, on whom :
they seem to gaze with stony in-
difference.
As impressive as these massive
sculptural works are, they belie
the overall dearth of three-dimen-
sional work in this exhibit, not to
mention the complete absence of
Northwest Coast Native art in

Bee merous fanciful examples | ay a : 2108 ous “ENGLISH BAY CAFE: |

of lnuit sculpture excepted, the : ER : < ;
only other truly gripping sculptural , } : 4
work in the show is Georg

Baselitz’s towering neoexpres- : ; First Hour FREE ;
sionist portrait, Hanka, 1989, : : $3.50/child / additional hour

which looks as if it were rawly ‘
hacked with an axe orachainsaw sf Tues.-Fri.. 12-4 pm, 18 mos - 6 yrs.

‘out of a 15-foot chunk of maple f 985-4443

and slapped with a coat of cad-

mium yellow paint. , Unit 111 - 13805 Welch St., N. Vancouver, B.C

—_—

participating —
sponsors:*