signed lower right; titled & dated verso
Note: This work was produced for a major exhibition at Wallace Galleries (March 3-14, 1990), and an image of the piece appeared in two publications at the time: Calgary Herald “Native Artist Goes Pop” (Nancy Tousley, photo by Bill Herriot), and Alberta Report “It’s not Pop Art” (Brian Hutchison). A number of articles (these included), and the original gallery announcement accompany this painting, as does a hand-written note by Janvier that reads:
“On the Trail to Happy Hunting Grounds / Old axiom if the buffalo dies the Indian will die soon. The ‘soon’ has come and gone and he is still around. and all this happen while he was on the way to Happy Hunting Grounds.”
Alex Janvier, of Denesuline and Saulteaux descent, was born on the Le Goff Reserve, Cold Lake First Nations, near Bonnyville, Alberta. At age 8, he was moved to the Blue Quills Indian Residential School (near St. Paul, Alberta). It is here that he began painting. He later received his formal training at the Alberta College of Art and Design, graduating in 1960 and, shortly afterward, moved to Edmonton to teach at the University of Alberta. In 1966 Janvier was commissioned by the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs to create 80 paintings. At the same time, he helped to organize the “Indians of Canada Pavilion” at Expo 67, for which he created a mural.
Alex Janvier is considered to be the first Indigenous modernist in Canada. His career has spanned almost seven decades, during which time he has produced thousands of paintings, more than twenty-five murals and numerous public commissions. A major retrospective of Alex Janvier’s work was recently organized by the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the largest and most comprehensive to date. “Alex Janvier: Modern Indigenous Master” opened at the National Gallery on November 25, 2016. The exhibition then travelled on a cross-country tour to the Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina), the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg), the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton), and completed its run at the Glenbow Museum on September 9th, 2018.
