ROCKS, WAWA, ONTARIO

oil on canvas

30 x 36 in. (76.2 x 91.4 cm)

Price Realized:

5850.00 CAD.

INCLUDES BUYER’S PREMIUM

Notes:

monogrammed lower centre; signed, titled & dated on the stretcher verso
Provenance: Former collection of Canada Council for the Arts, Art Bank, Ottawa ON (labels verso); Estate of Helen & Arnold “Arnie” Birns, Calgary AB

Born and raised in Lumsden, Saskatchewan, Kerr received his formal training in Toronto at Central Technical School (1923) and at the Ontario College of Art (1924-27), where he studied under Arthur Lismer, J. E. H. MacDonald, Frederick Varley, and William Beatty. In 1927 he took a sketching trip to the Georgian Bay area now made famous by the Group of Seven.

In 1946, after struggling through the Depression, and following a long nomadic period, Kerr accepted a teaching position at the Vancouver School of Art, moving to Calgary the following year to head up the Art Department at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now ACAD and SAIT). Under his 20-year tenure, Kerr lay the foundation for the Alberta College of Art and had far-reaching influence as an instructor and mentor.

Stan Perrot, a former colleague at the Alberta College of Art, describes Kerr as “a tower of strength in Alberta…The painters of Alberta today may not paint like Buck Kerr—but they are his children. They all caught his spirit. He was the central reference point for artistic morality and dynamic living.” (Illingworth Kerr, Saskatchewan NAC.)

Upon retiring in 1967, Kerr could pursue painting full time. Following his retirement, Kerr once again returned to Ontario. This painting, based on a sketch from that trip, was selected by Kerr for inclusion in his retrospective exhibition “Illingworth Kerr: Fifty Years a Painter”(Cat. #94). On page 3 of the accompanying exhibition catalogue (“Illingworth Kerr: Fifty Years a Painter”; Edmonton Art Gallery; 1973) Kerr reflects:

“A trip to Expo and the Maritimes was climaxed in Ontario by some intensive painting of autumn color which I had hoped would be abstract. But landscape field work can be beset by all the fury of the elements, plus bears and mosquitos, and in this case I was frozen into making speedy first impressions, not dreamy concepts. Still I used color in the field as I had never done before and some of my best canvases resulted.”