In Memoriam

Remembering 10 artists we lost in 2022.

Harry Mitsuo Kiyooka (1928–2022)

Harry Kiyooka left an indelible mark on Calgary’s art scene as an artist, professor and community builder. “He was the most generous art supporter,” says his partner of 50 years, Katie Ohe, a well-known sculptor. “He did everything he could possibly do to raise the focus of art in Calgary.” Kiyooka taught at the University of Calgary from 1961 to 1988, retiring as a professor emeritus. He helped found Calgary’s Triangle Gallery – now Contemporary Calgary – for which he received a 125th anniversary Medal of Confederation in 1988. He was also a founding member of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society. Kiyooka was born in Calgary in 1928 to Japanese immigrant parents. Before he was 30, he had earned four degrees – a remarkable accomplishment for a man whose family had faced prejudice as “enemy aliens” during the Second World War. Kiyooka’s brother, Roy, based in Vancouver when he died 1994, was also a well-known artist. In 2007, Kiyooka and Ohe set up a final legacy to the community, the Kiyooka Ohe Arts Centre, an art-in-nature facility on their 20-acre property on the outskirts of Calgary. It is dedicated to research, exhibition and education.

CHRISTOPHER PRATT (1935–2022)

Christopher Pratt was one of Canada’s most prominent painters and printmakers. A proud Newfoundlander, he often focused on the island’s landscapes and architecture. “He loved this wild, unpredictable, beautiful place,” recalled longtime friend Emma Butler, a St. John’s gallerist. “And he travelled it, and he painted it with love and reverence.” That affection translated to meticulously painted subjects and, at times, a dreamy realism. Pratt, who was born in St. John’s and attended Mount Allison University in New Brunswick, said he considered his work autobiographical. In 1980, he was chosen to design the provincial flag. He went on to have a solo exhibition in 2005 at the National Gallery of Canada, and a major 2015 retrospective at The Rooms, the provincial museum in St. John’s. Pratt was appointed to both the Order of Canada and the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador. 

RODNEY GRAHAM (1949–2022)

Vancouver artist Rodney Graham was known to friends as a “laid-back polymath.” Throughout his eclectic career, the multi-talented artist gained an international following as a performer, musician and pioneer of lens-based media. His London gallerist Nicholas Logsdail remembers Graham as “a genius artist, dear friend, master of disguise, snappy dresser, supplier of dry humour, an amazing songwriter, always modest, an understated intellectual, gifted amateur, professional connoisseur, Sunday painter who seldom worked Sundays, ultimately a true professional in every sense of what it means to be an artist.” Born in 1949 in Abbotsford, B.C., Graham emerged as a lens-based artist in the 1970s alongside photo-conceptualists Ian Wallace and Jeff Wall. Graham’s works, often performative, included Spinning Chandelier, a controversial 2019 work installed under the Granville Street Bridge. Ever-evolving, Graham became a painter later in life, but said he was just playing a role. He was named to the Order of Canada in 2016 and received the 2011 Audain Prize for lifetime achievement in the visual arts.

DAVID BLACKWOOD (1941–2022)

David Blackwood is known for his haunting etchings of outport Newfoundland. He lived in Port Hope, Ont., but maintained a studio in his hometown of Wesleyville on Bonavista Bay until his death. Emma Butler, a St. John’s gallerist and family friend, said Blackwood “created a mythology for Newfoundland.” He found success early – soon after graduating from the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, one of his etchings was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada. Over the years, Blackwood exhibited nationally and internationally, including some 90 solo shows. His works are in the collections of many public galleries in Canada, and the Uffizi Gallery in Florence. The National Film Board’s 1974 documentary, Blackwood, was nominated for an Academy Award. In 2000, the Art Gallery of Ontario created the Blackwood Research Centre, making the Toronto gallery the official institution of record for his work. He is a member of the Order of Canada and the Order of Ontario.

JOHN SCOTT (1950–2022)

Blue-collar avant-garde artist John Scott helped redefine the Ontario art scene with his bold multimedia paintings and installations. “John was one of the most knowledgeable people one could know,” says Michèle White, a fellow professor at what was then the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto. “His encyclopedic mind would leap from Ulysses to science fiction. His critical insight was inimitable.” Born in Windsor, Ont., Scott left high school at 15 to work in an automotive plant, and became fascinated with cars, consumerism and heavy industry. These interests inspired his famous Trans-Am Apocalypse No. 3, in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario. Scott made the work by covering a Pontiac Firebird Trans Am in black latex paint and then scratching into its surface text from the Book of Revelation in the New Testament in a graffiti-like style. Always highly political, Scott also made messy oil and charcoal drawings of anthropomorphized bunnies, often accompanied by street-art-style slogans that offer commentaries on war, class and power. A second version of Trans-Am Apocalypse is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada (the first is no longer extant). Scott, who also has work in the Museum of Modern Art in New York, received a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2000

MICHAEL MORRIS (1942–2022)

Michael Morris, a warm and enthusiastic artist and curator, helped shape the Vancouver experimental scene starting in the 1960s. “Michael was attentive, generous and wise as well as being a great deal of fun,” says Scott Watson, former director of UBC’s Helen and Morris Belkin Art Gallery. Born in Britain, Morris became interested in Fluxus and the European avant-garde while doing graduate studies in London, an interest that found congenial ground on the Left Coast. His long-term collaboration with Vincent Trasov saw the two found Image Bank, found Image Bank, a system of postal correspondence between artists. Their goal was to create a collaborative, process-based project to counter the alienation of capitalist society. The Morris/Trasov Archive is now housed at the Belkin. Morris received several honours over the past decade, including the Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in Visual Arts and a Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

TONY URQUHART (1934–2022)

Ontario artist Tony Urquhart is remembered as great teacher and a generous person. “I was always struck by the look of pure delight on his face and the spring in his step as though there was nothing in the world that was more exciting to him at that moment than teaching this class,” says Jane Buyers, a fellow professor at the University of Waterloo, where Urquhart taught for three decades. Born in Niagara Falls, Ont., Urquhart had early success as an abstract painter in the 1950s and 1960s, before moving toward representation and sculpture. His work is in the permanent collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto and the Museum of Modern Art in New York, among others. Urquhart helped establish Canadian Artists Representation, or CARFAC, which, in 1975, led to a schedule of exhibition fees now routinely paid to artists. Urquhart received the Order of Canada in 1995 and a 2009 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.

CATHY DALEY (1955–2022)

Toronto artist and educator Cathy Daley gained international acclaim for her striking monochrome silhouettes that cast a critical gaze on culturally accepted ideas of femininity. Daley was “a tireless contributor” to the drawing and painting program at OCAD University in Toronto, where she taught for some 20 years, says Stephen Foster, the university’s dean of graduate studies. “She was a sought-after instructor for her expertise in figuration, expression and experimentation.” Born in Toronto in 1955, Daley studied at what was then the Ontario College of Art. Over nearly four decades, she developed a unique body of work that cleverly depicts female stereotypes in an ironically graceful manner. Her technique was physical – she would move around her pieces as she worked on the floor and described her drawing process as “a record of what took place.” Daley’s work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, among others. 

TIM ZUCK (1947–2022)

Painter Tim Zuck is known for his soothing realism. His Toronto gallery, Barbara Edwards Contemporary, remembers him as “a devoted father, the best friend imaginable, a brilliant teacher and a profound artist.” Zuck was based in Ontario but had strong ties to the West as he had taught at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary. Born in Erie, Pennsylvania, Zuck moved to Canada to complete a BFA at what was then the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, and later worked there as an instructor. Zuck developed a unique brand of realism that reduced subjects to their most essential form, giving his images a timeless serenity. His process was intense – he was known to painstakingly rework the formal elements of each painting until he achieved his desired level of concentration and lucidity. Zuck’s work has been shown at the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

IVAN EYRE (1935–2022)

Manitoba artist Ivan Eyre created an expansive body of work that included everything from figurative sculptures and portraits to landscape paintings and still life drawings. He is probably best known for large landscape paintings that depict his province. “His works are synonymous with the Prairies,” Winnipeg’s Amy Karlinsky wrote in a 2003 article in Galleries West. “Particularly iconic are his paintings of the lush forested riverbanks of Manitoba.” Eyre was born in Tullymet, Sask., in 1935. He taught at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg for more than 30 years, while also maintaining a busy studio practice. In 1964, Eyre had the first of three solo shows at the Winnipeg Art Gallery. As well, two of his sculptures are on permanent display outside the gallery entrance. Eyre, a member of the Order of Canada, was the subject of several films and numerous books. His art is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Winnipeg Art Gallery. ■

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