Edward W. (Ted) Godwin passed away January 4, 2013

From Wallace Galleries, longtime representatives of Ted Godwin's work.

It is with great sadness that we are to announce the passing of a great Canadian artist; Edward W. (Ted) Godwin.  Ted passed away quietly in the morning on January 4th, 2013 after a long battle with congestive heart failure.

He was 79 years old, born in Calgary and graduated from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology (and Art) in 1955. 

Ted was a faculty member at the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Saskatchewan from 1964 until his retirement in 1985.  At this time he was a member of a group of artists known as The Regina Five.  Ted was the last surviving member of the group.  The other members included: Ronald Bloore, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, and Doug Morton.  The group became widely known as such because of an exhibition in 1961 at the National Gallery of Canada.  The group was instrumental in bringing about change in the art world in the 1960s and put western Canada on the fore front of art at that time.

Ted's work has been exhibited at galleries across Canada and the U.K., and is represented in many major public art collections, including: the Ontario Museum of Art, The Glenbow Museum, the CBC, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the National Gallery of Canada.

Ted was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1974, and won the Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal in 1978.  He was given an Award of Honorary Doctorate from the University of Regina in 2001, and received the Order of Canada in 2004 for excellence in visual art.  Just last year (2012) Ted also received the Diamond Jubilee metal.

Ted was a larger than life character with amusing stories to match. He always talked about death as a transition to that "big waiting room in the sky"…we hope you have found peace, Ted, and that you are with your buddies from the Regina Five and painting up a storm.

Rest well Ted.