Joe Fafard

Canadian [1942-2019]

Order of Canada, Saskatchewan Order of Merit

Joe Fafard was born in Ste. Marthe, Saskatchewan to French Canadian parents Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin. Julienne was a folk artist whose heritage included traditional wood carvers. Fafard was one of twelve children raised on the family farm. His work would come to be influenced by his rural surroundings and Prairie upbringing, and the artist would come to embrace the ideal that an artist should be inspired by his/her environment. 

As a young man, Fafard would often sketch horses and other animals in his free time. When told he would become an artist, he once replied: “That sounds like a good thing – what is it?” His passion for art, and the encouragement he received, let him to pursue a formal artistic education. Fafard completed a BFA at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg (1966) and an MFA at Pennsylvania State University (1968).

Early in his career, Fafard explored kinetic sculpture but, soon after his appointment to the University of Saskatchewan’s Regina Campus, he began to create satirical plaster relief portrait of his colleagues and other artists. Fafard taught at the University from 1968 to 1974, leaving to pursue his sculpture full-time, and settling in the nearby community of Pense, SK. 

During these years, Fafard used clay as his primary medium. In the early 1980s, Fafard was awarded a major corporate art commission which took years to complete. In 1985, “The Pasture”, comprising 7 bronze cows in varied patinas, was installed outside the IBM tower of the Toronto Dominion Centre (Toronto). This success led Fafard to establish his foundry “Julienne Atelier, Inc.” in Pense later that year, and the artist turned to bronze as a favoured medium.

Many commissions followed, and now, Fafard’s numerous public installations can be found across the country. A notable example is “Running Horses,” a work that consists of 11 horses sculpted in steel (2011), located outside the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.

Joe Fafard has gained considerable recognition nationally and internationally. He is best known for his iconic ceramic and bronze sculptures of cows and horses, though well admired for his portraits that include artists and public figures, as well as friends and neighbours. His works are playful and whimsical, and the bronzes uniquely patinated. Fafard succeeds in bringing out the personality of each subject…human and animal.

Joe Fafard earned many honours and awards over his career: Order of Canada (1981); Architectural Institute of Canada Allied Arts Award (1987); Honorary Doctorate from the University of Regina (1989); Saskatchewan Order of Merit (2002); National Prix Montfort (2003); Lieutenant Governor’s Saskatchewan Centennial Medal for the Arts (2005); Honorary Doctorate from the University of Manitoba (2007); Saskatchewan Arts Board Lifetime Achievement Award (2007); Canada Post “Art Canada” postage stamp series (2012) ); Honorary Doctorate from the University of Saskatchewan (2012)

Major retrospectives include “The Bronze Years,”, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1996);and “Joe Fafard” a touring retrospective organized by the MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina) and the National Gallery of Canada (2007-2009) travelled to six different Canadian museums.