signed & dated upper right; titled on the stretcher verso
Literature: “Maxwell Bates in Retrospect 1921-1971” (Vancouver Art Gallery; 1973); “Maxwell Bates: A Canadian Expressionist” (Art Gallery of Alberta; 2004); “Maxwell Bates: Canada’s Premier Expressionist of the 20th Century: His Art, Life and Prisoner of War Notebook” (Nancy Townsend; Nancy Townshend and Snyder Hedlin Fine Arts; 2005).
Maxwell Bates is particularly known for his figurative work – these strange and sometimes hideous figures are exemplified by twisted, distorted or angular features, that invariably elicit strong emotion. At its core, this work is shaped by social conscience. Bates was interested in expressionism and modernism at a young age, rejecting the traditionalist Beaux Arts training and British sensibility predominant in Calgary at the time. Feeling restricted in Alberta, he moved to London in 1931, where he quickly became involved in artistic circles and began to exhibit regularly. He found much to admire in the works of the influential artists of the era; he was particularly intrigued by the romantic grotesquerie of Unit One artist Ed Burra.
A year after joining the British army in 1939, to help fight the Nazis, Bates was captured by the Germans and endured 5 years of hard labour as a prisoner of war. While later in life Bates claimed that the essence of his artistic vision had not changed since 1930, he did concede that this experience intensified his art. It certainly would have enhanced his understanding of suffering, the human condition, and man’s potential for inhumanity.
While exploring many styles and themes during his career, Bates would often return to an approach or imagery from decades earlier. The strong use of the stripes in this work harkens back to Bates’ work following his release from captivity, in his post-war portrayals of political and civilian prisoners. Stripes, a powerful visual and emotional element, feature prominently in several of his later works.
Poet and life-long friend of Maxwell Bates, P. K. Page, provides an astute analysis of Bates’ work (cited on p. 102 of “Maxwell Bates: A Canadian Expressionist”; Art Gallery of Alberta; 2004):
“As a social commentator he is immediate, biting, sometimes almost too wry to be borne. O.K., O.K., so we are misshaped, idiotic, pompous, vile, but are we not sometimes beautiful, sometimes… And his canvases reply to us ‘No. Not you. Not now…’ But to linger on his satire is to miss what I believe to be the larger symbolism. Anyone who has had a vision of what man could become must thereafter see him in his partial evolution as deformed. ‘Man, poor man, half animal and half angel’ Vile only in relation to his possibilities. I believe this to be the essence of Bates’ message, appearance and life style.”
