2017 November | Hodgins Art Auctions

Notes:

signed & titled

Notes:

signed & titled

Notes:

signed & titled

Gus Kenderdine was born in Manchester, England in 1870. At 14 he was apprenticed to a Blackpool art dealer which resulted in early art instruction which, from ages 16 to 20, was complemented by part-time study at the Manchester School of Art. In 1890 he travelled to Paris to attend the Academie Julien, where he would study for approximately two years. Upon his return to England he would operate his own art gallery and studio.

In 1908 Kenderdine and his young family immigrated to Canada and settled on a homestead north of Lashburn, Saskatchewan where he would develop a ranching operation. Over time he would slowly resume painting and, during a 1920 visit to Saskatoon, he left two paintings in a physician’s office prior to sailing to England. News of their presence reached University of Saskatchewan President Water Murray, who viewed them with interest. Greatly impressed, he requested a meeting with Kenderdine upon his return. Dr. Murray then offered Kenderdine both a teaching opportunity and a studio at the University.

His oil paintings gained a reputation for their vivid illustration of the immensity of the Western Canadian landscape. During the following summers Kenderdine travelled to the Rocky Mountains and the West Coast. In 1924 his dramatic depictions of the Rockies resulted in a commission from the Canadian National Railways to produce a series of mountain images. Based on the subject composition, palette and technique, it is inferred that Tumbling Glacier, Berg Lake was completed from a sketch executed during this or his 1926 tour.

With the opening of Prince Albert National Park in 1927, Kenderdine was attracted to Northern Saskatchewan‘s forests and lakes, particularly around Waskesiu. However, in 1935 he became aware of Emma Lake, thirty miles north of Prince Albert and discovered a peninsula which would become known as Murray Point. In 1936 Kenderdine established the Murray Point Art School, a summer art camp initially consisting of a lecture hall, studio and six cottages. The school was taken over by the University of Saskatchewan in 1939. In 1989 the site was officially designated as the University’s Emma Lake Kenderdine Campus in tribute to the man often cited as the Father of Art Education in Saskatchewan.

In 1936 Kenderdine had transferred to the University’s affiliated Regina College as the Professor of Art. He would continue in that capacity until his passing in the Summer of 1947.

-Hodgins Art Auctions Ltd. would like to thank Jim Lanigan, recognized expert on historical Saskatchewan art, for contributing the above profile.

Notes:

signed & dated; inscribed “Dec. 5th 39” verso

Notes:

signed & titled

Notes:

signed, titled & dated

Notes:

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.