Scott Watson (Canadian, b. 1950) is Director Emeritus and Research Fellow at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. A curator whose career has spanned more than thirty-five years, Watson is internationally recognized for his research and work in curatorial and exhibition studies, contemporary art and issues, and art theory and criticism. His distinctions include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2010); the Alvin Balkind Award for Creative Curatorship in BC Arts (2008) and the UBC Dorothy Somerset Award for Performance Development in the Visual and Performing Arts (2005). Watson has published extensively in the areas of contemporary Canadian and international art. His 1990 monograph on Jack Shadbolt earned the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize in 1991. Recent publications include Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry (2015); Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries (2011), a finalist for the 2012 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize; “Race, Wilderness, Territory and the Origins of the Modern Canadian Landscape” and “Disfigured Nature” (in Beyond Wilderness, McGill University Press, 2007); and “Transmission Difficulties: Vancouver Painting in the 1960s” (in Paint, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2006).
Jack Shadbolt (1909-1998) is one of Canada’s most important artists. He is known for his paintings and murals that draw from his personal experiences and from the social and political conflicts that have taken place in British Columbia’s and world history such as the struggles of the First Nations, the Second World War and the environmental movement.
Jack Shadbolt: Underpinnings is a celebration of the artist’s centenary and includes over 150 drawings and sketches from the Collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery as well as journal entries and archival materials from the University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections. The works of art and documents date from the 1930s to the 1980s and many are being exhibited for the first time. One section of the exhibition reveals the artist’s technical approaches to large scale mural work and also shows the artist’s creative approaches to themes which continue to resonate today.
Over the past two decades, the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery has benefited from a rich relationship with the Shadbolts. The works of art that have been gifted by Jack and Doris Shadbolt from 1996 to 1998, by Doris Shadbolt in 1998 after the death of her husband and by the Estate of Doris Shadbolt from 2008 to 2009 have deepened the Gallery’s existing collection of important work by this artist. The works are significant to the understanding of Shadbolt’s production and to the history of Canadian art.
This exhibition is part of an ongoing series that highlights works from the collection of the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery at the University of British Columbia. Containing more than 2,500 significant works of art by Canadian and international artists, it is the third largest public art collection in the province.
We thank the University of British Columbia Library, Rare Books and Special Collections and gratefully acknowledge the support of the Canada Council for the Arts.
Jack Shadbolt, Image in Cedar Slash, 1947.
Oil on wood board, 58.0 x 73.0 cm. Gift of the
Estate of Sheila and Wilfred Watson, 1998.
Jack Shadbolt, Image in Cedar Slash, 1947.
Graphite on paper, 39.0 x 48.0 cm. Gift of
Doris Shadbolt, 1998.
Jack Shadbolt: Underpinnings. Exhibition catalogue. 24 pages, colour and b/w images.
Soft cover. Essays by Robert Linsley and
Scott Watson. $2.00.
ISBN# 978-0-88865-806-7 — To order contact: belkin@interchange.ubc.ca, tel. 604.822.2759, fax. 604.822.6689.
Scott Watson (Canadian, b. 1950) is Director Emeritus and Research Fellow at the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, University of British Columbia. A curator whose career has spanned more than thirty-five years, Watson is internationally recognized for his research and work in curatorial and exhibition studies, contemporary art and issues, and art theory and criticism. His distinctions include the Hnatyshyn Foundation Award for Curatorial Excellence in Contemporary Art (2010); the Alvin Balkind Award for Creative Curatorship in BC Arts (2008) and the UBC Dorothy Somerset Award for Performance Development in the Visual and Performing Arts (2005). Watson has published extensively in the areas of contemporary Canadian and international art. His 1990 monograph on Jack Shadbolt earned the Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize in 1991. Recent publications include Letters: Michael Morris and Concrete Poetry (2015); Thrown: British Columbia’s Apprentices of Bernard Leach and their Contemporaries (2011), a finalist for the 2012 Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize; “Race, Wilderness, Territory and the Origins of the Modern Canadian Landscape” and “Disfigured Nature” (in Beyond Wilderness, McGill University Press, 2007); and “Transmission Difficulties: Vancouver Painting in the 1960s” (in Paint, Vancouver Art Gallery, 2006).
Exhibition catalogue from the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (1 May–23 August 2009). Texts by Robert Linsley and Scott Watson.
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