John Boyle (artist)

Last updated

John Boyle
Born
John Bernard Boyle

(1941-09-23) 23 September 1941 (age 83)
London, Ontario, Canada
EducationSelf-taught
Known forPainter, activist, curator and writer
Movement London Regionalism
AwardsCanada Council Grants in 1971, 1973 and 1979, and 1987
Electedmember in 1975, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

John Boyle RCA (born 23 September 1941) is a Canadian painter known for his use of subjects drawn from his own specific life experience and from Canadian history. He was a part of the London Regional art movement. The National Gallery of Canada considers Boyle's paintings are "firmly within the realm of the Canadian response to the 1960s-era Pop phenomenon. [1]

Contents

Biography

Boyle lived most of his life in London, Ontario. He was educated at the Ontario Teachers’ College in London, as well as the University of Western Ontario, and is self-taught as a painter. [2] He taught elementary school in St. Catharines, Ontario, between 1962 and 1968. [2] In 1974, he moved with his family to a converted church in Elsinore, Ontario (a small community near Owen Sound), where he had his home and studio until 2002, when he moved to Peterborough, Ontario. [2]

Boyle began to paint in 1960 and was confirmed in his decision to become a painter by seeing a show circulated by the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam of Vincent van Gogh at the Detroit Institute of Arts, in 1962. [3] [2] He learned how to paint from a how-to-paint book. [3] In 1964, the year he met Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe, he began to exhibit. [2] In 1966, controversy arose at Museum London over Boyle's exhibited piece in the 27th Annual Juried Western Ontario Exhibition, Seated Nude (now in Museum London, London, Ontario). [4]

In 1968, he gave up teaching and became a full-time artist. [2] [5] His work came to favorable critical notice in the show, Heart of London, curated by Pierre Theberge for the National Gallery of Canada, 1968. [6] The Heart of London exhibition, which featured other local artists including Jack Chambers, Greg Curnoe, and Murray Favro, brought the London Regionalism art movement to national attention. [7] A 1978 article in the Montreal Gazette described Boyle as "one of that influential handful of Southwestern Ontario artists which includes Greg Curnoe and Jack Chambers... whose work is characterized by their profound attachment to their local – and by extension – Canadian environment." [5]

Boyle was a participant in London's 20/20 Gallery, an early cooperative founded in London, Ontario which continued until 1971. [2] In 1972, he designed sets for the play Buffalo Jump by Carol Bolt at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto; that same year he curated the first Billboard Show in St. Catharines. [2] In 1980, Boyle completed the enamelled steel mural Our Nell for the Queen station of the Toronto subway, depicting Nellie McClung, William Lyon Mackenzie, as well as the former Simpson's and Eaton's department stores. [2] [8] From 1973 through the 1990s, Boyle exhibited regularly at Nancy Poole's Studio in Toronto, a commercial gallery. [2] In 2005, he was included in The Sixties in Canada, curated by Denise Leclerc and Pierre Dessureault for the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. [9]

His illustration and book design work includes The Port Dalhousie Stories by Dennis Tourbin (1987), as well as several magazine articles and book jackets. [2] Boyle also has published a novel, No Angel Came (Tellem Press, 1995) and has been since 1965 a founding member and principal kazooist of the Nihilist Spasm Band. [2] [10]

In 1970, he served as the first president of the Niagara Artist's Cooperative, now the Niagara Artists Centre, then, in 1971, became the founding spokesperson of Canadian Artists' Representation Ontario. [2] Boyle was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts [11] and served on the board of the Niagara Artists’ Company, the Canada Council Arts Advisory Panel, and the Canadian Conference of the Arts (shut-down in 2012). He was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1975–1977. [2] His papers are in The Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, John Boyle Fonds CA OTAG SC093. [2]

Public collections

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Greg Curnoe</span> Canadian painter

Greg Curnoe was a Canadian painter known for his role in the Canadian art movement labeled London Regionalism, which, beginning in the 1960s, made London, Ontario, an important centre for artistic production in Canada. While his oeuvre chronicled his daily experience in a variety of media, it was grounded in twentieth-century art movements, especially Dada, with its emphasis on nihilism and anarchism, Canadian politics, and popular culture. He is remembered for brightly coloured works that often incorporate text to support his strong Canadian patriotism, sometimes expressed as anti-Americanism, as well as his activism in support of Canadian artists.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jack Chambers (artist)</span> Canadian artist and filmmaker

John Richard Chambers was an artist and filmmaker. Born in London, Ontario, Chambers' painting style shifted from surrealist-influenced to photo-realist-influenced. He used the term "Perceptual Realism" and later "perceptualism" to describe his style. He began working with film in the 1960s, completing six by 1970. Stan Brakhage proclaimed Chambers' The Hart of London as "one of the greatest films ever made."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thoreau MacDonald</span> Canadian artist (1901-1989)

Thoreau MacDonald was a Canadian illustrator, graphic and book designer, and artist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paterson Ewen</span> Canadian painter

Paterson Ewen was a Canadian painter. He was a founding member of the Non-figurative artist's association of Montréal, along with Claude Tousignant, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Guido Molinari, and Marcel Barbeau. He moved to London, Ontario in the late 1960s where London Regionalism was championed by Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe. It was in London that Ewen developed the gouged-plywood style that would become his hallmark.

Kim Ondaatje is a Canadian painter, photographer, and documentary filmmaker.

Ron Shuebrook is an American-born Canadian abstract artist living in Guelph, Ontario. He is a prominent teacher and administrator, as well as a writer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Barbara Astman</span> Canadian artist (born 1950)

Barbara Anne Astman is a Canadian artist who has recruited instant camera technology, colour xerography, and digital scanners to explore her inner thoughts.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tony Urquhart</span> Canadian painter (1934–2022)

Anthony Morse Urquhart, LL.D. was a Canadian painter. He was recognized in the late 1950s and early 1960s as one of Canada's pioneering abstractionists, having been variously linked with the Toronto painters associated with The Isaacs Gallery and The Heart of London group that included Jack Chambers, Greg Curnoe and Murray Favro.

Shary Boyle is a contemporary Canadian visual artist working in the mediums of sculpture, drawing, painting and performance art. She lives and works in Toronto.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">London Regionalism</span>

London Regionalism is a Canadian art movement that developed in the late 1950s and 1960s in London, Ontario, Canada. Artists in the movement included Greg Curnoe, Tony Urquhart, Murray Favro, Ron Martin and Jack Chambers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rudolf Bikkers</span> Dutch Canadian printmaker (born 1943

Rudolf Bikkers, RCA was a Canadian painter, printmaker, educator and entrepreneur. Bikkers had 23 solo shows and participated in 20 group shows in Canada, the United States, Europe, South Africa, China, Japan and Russia.

David William Buchan was a Canadian artist who was part of the alternative art scene. He was also a graphic designer.

Ron Benner is a Canadian artist who investigates the history and political economics of food cultures. He is also a gardener and writer who currently lives and works in London, Ontario.

Daniel Solomon is an abstract painter who uses intense, vibrant colour in his work, combined with complex, pictorial space, inspired by artists such as Jack Bush and is a painter and professor in Drawing and Painting at OCAD University.

Ron Martin is a Canadian abstract painter. His way of generating his paintings by conceptually defined strategies differs from modernist abstraction, which seeks to enhance an artist's special aesthetic genius and craft skills. Martin works in series.

Michel Lambeth was a Canadian photographer. He made an in-depth photographic study of Toronto during the 1950s and was one of the country's leading photo-journalists during the 1960s.

John Scott was a Canadian multimedia painter, sculptor, and installation artist.

Pierre Théberge was a museum director, curator and art historian, who was an advocate for Canadian art.

Duncan de Kergommeaux, , is a senior Ottawa painter whose work has veered between abstraction and representation. He is known for his grid or geometric paintings, his landscapes and his cow paintings.

Dennis Young was a curator of contemporary art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto who afterwards established the art history program at the Nova Scotia College of Art (NSCAD), Halifax.

References

  1. 1 2 "John Boyle". National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 "Description & Finding Aid: John Boyle Fonds CA OTAG SC093" (PDF). ago.ca. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  3. 1 2 Murray 1999, pp. 194–195.
  4. ↑ Poole, Nancy (January 2017). The Art of London: 1830–1980. e-Book Published by: Nancy Geddes Poole, 2017. pp. 188–191. ISBN   978-0-9959283-0-5 . Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  5. 1 2 Nixon, Virginia (18 February 1978). "Artist is seeking financial parity to 'garbagemen'". The Gazette. p. 28. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  6. ↑ "Heart of London exhibition". ccca.concordia.ca/. ccca.concordia. Retrieved 14 July 2020.
  7. ↑ Rodger, Judith (2016). "Significance & Critical Issues". Greg Curnoe: Life & Work. Toronto, ON: Art Canada Institute. ISBN   978-1-4871-0101-5. OCLC   953332351.
  8. ↑ Bradburn, Jamie (26 January 2016). "Toronto Subway". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  9. ↑ Deaton, Richard (17 February 2005). "Art exhibit misses Sixties' Zeitgeist". The Ottawa Citizen. p. 15. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  10. ↑ Hampton, Chris (18 September 2015). "No Birthday". The Walrus. Retrieved 16 July 2020.
  11. ↑ "Members". RCA. Archived from the original on 26 May 2011. Retrieved 18 April 2024.
  12. ↑ Boyle, John. "Collection". Museum London. Retrieved 14 July 2020.

Bibliography

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.