signed & dated; titled on exhibition label verso
Exhibited: The Ontario Society of Artists, 93rd Annual Exhibition, March 1965, label verso
Painted during the most important decade of Spickett’s career, FRIDAY marks an important trend in the artist’s practice, one that involved the introduction of figurative or at least semi-figurative themes, such as his western Rider. In terms of post-war Canadian abstraction, this emphasis on the human presence placed the Calgary-based artist in a category of his own. Featured in the foreground of FRIDAY is the figure of a well-dressed business man. He sits elegantly posed in front of more abstracted figures of suited men with long slender fingers. Likely referencing the western posse, a favourite theme of Spickett’s, these men are not really about a specific type of individual, rather they carry more universal connotations. In addition, clothed in business dress instead of western wear makes this particular painting more unusual for the period.
An instructor at the Alberta College of Art and the University of Calgary, this noted Canadian painter is found in major public collections across the country including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Glenbow Museum and many corporate and private collections. In 2009, “Spirit Matters: Ron (Gyo-Zo) Spickett, Artist, Poet, Lay-Priest” was published by the University of Calgary.
