Sylvia Tait

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Sylvia Tait
Born(1932-03-20)March 20, 1932
Education Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design (1949-1953)
Known forabstract painter and printmaker.
Spouse Eldon Grier (m. 1954)

Sylvia Tait (born March 20, 1932) is a Canadian abstract painter and printmaker.

Contents

Career

Tait attended the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School of Art and Design from 1949 to 1953, completing an undergraduate degree. Her instructors included Arthur Lismer, Jacques de Tonnancour, Marian Scott, Eldon Grier, Gordon Webber and William Armstrong. [1] She held her first solo exhibition in 1953 at the YMCA in Montreal, presenting semi-abstract portrait and still life oil paintings. [2]

Tait married artist and poet Eldon Grier in 1954. [3] He had long-standing connections in Mexico (including with Diego Rivera) and they spent extended periods in San Miguel de Allende in the late 1950s. In Mexico Tait participated in several group exhibitions and presented two solo exhibitions at the Instituto Allende in 1959 and 1960. [2] The couple moved to British Columbia in 1968 and Tait set up her studio in West Vancouver. [4] [5] She had a number of solo exhibitions in the 1970s and received awards. In the 1980s, Tait created sets and costumes for opera, dance and theatre including, Amahl and the Night Visitors, in 1980, The Stand, Anna Wyman Dance, in 1987, and Thisness, a mono-drama by Istvan Anhalt, in 1986. She also won competitions for art in public spaces in 2004 and 2005. [2]

Her work is in many public gallery collections such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. [2] She was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1963), and the Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver, BC (1978). [2]

Exhibitions and influences

Tait has exhibited in Canada, Mexico and Ecuador since the 1950s. Since 1977, Tait has been represented by the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver, BC. [6] Tait's work Aquascapes was installed at the West Vancouver Pool in 2004, and fully restored in 2013. [7]

Notable exhibitions

Influences

Among her influences were the Abstract Expressionism art movement and classical music. Although Tait's early paintings were representational, her mature and current works on canvas and paper are purely abstract, showing a complex use of layered high key colour. Tait's paintings have been described as "visual image-like poetry, using colour instead of words." [11]

Publications

Tait collaborated with Grier and John Huberman in the design and illustration of several books, including:

Selected awards

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References

  1. "Sylvia Tait". collections.burnabyartgallery.ca. Burnaby Art Gallery. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
  3. "Eldon Grier". Canadian poetry, 1920 to 1960. Edited by Brian Trehearne. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. 2010. p. 428. ISBN   978-0-7710-8633-5. OCLC   773825871.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)
  4. Morrissey, Stephen. "The Last Modernist: Eldon Grier in Canada, a review of Eldon Grier: Collected Poems, 1955-2000". StephenMorrissey.ca. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. Sylvia Tait - Artist's Biography. Vancouver, B.C.: Bau-Xi-Gallery. 1994.
  6. "Sylvia Tait". Bau-Xi Gallery. Retrieved 28 March 2018.
  7. Watson, Anne (13 October 2013). "Art restored at West Vancouver pool". North Shore News. Retrieved 8 March 2015.
  8. "Sylvia Tait: A Classical Spirit is a mini-retrospective of a West Coast original". Georgia Straight Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly. 19 April 2011. Retrieved 3 February 2017.
  9. "The And of the Land". westvancouverartmuseum.ca. West Vancouver Museum, 2014. Retrieved 26 April 2022.
  10. "Burnaby Art Gallery Features Sylvia Tait". /www.burnabynow.com. Burnaby Now, 2017. Retrieved 25 April 2022.
  11. Lerner, Loren R.; Williamson, Mary F. (1 January 1991). Art and Architecture in Canada: A Bibliography and Guide to the Literature. University of Toronto Press. ISBN   9780802058560.