 |
Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society January 19 to March 4, 2006 |
|
|
Home
See
also:
|
WITH
EMBOLDENED BRUSH: Organized in Conjunction with "Footprint/Imprint" 2nd Annual Winter Art Stroll (Upper Gallery)
Born in 1917 in Mishawaka, Indiana, Leo Bushman grew up in an environment, where respect to visual culture was highly encouraged. He was introduced very early to several aspects of the arts, which activated his young and creative mind.
In 1947, Bushman received his MFA degree from the Columbia University, New York, and completed his doctoral requirements for E.D.D. at Stanford University in California. Following that, he headed the Technical Illustration Department at the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, California. A move to Japan to serve as civilian Director of the U.S. Pacific Air Force Arts and Crafts Program provided him with exposure to Oriental art. He remained in the Orient and became the U.S. Air Force Education Director in Seoul, South Korea, a post he retained until 1963. His eight years in the Far East left lasting impressions on his art.
Since his retirement from the University of Calgary's Art Department in 1982, Bushman's interests included drawing, painting, and collecting children's art, especially native children's art. The bulk of his extensive children's art collection is currently at the Nickle Arts Museum along with many slides of this work. In 1982, Bushman was one of the earliest founding members of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society and the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts, and always supported the Gallery's progressive and independent point of view relative to various aspects of visual culture.
" Less is more, couldn't be better advise for either the novice or the professional watercolourists" - Bushman once said, "it's a kind of determination that comes with practice, contemplation, and sympathetic use of the water-based medium". The work by Leo Bushman is not based on social or political commentary, but rather on the poetic interpretation and celebration of nature's wonders, the joy of art making, and his ever-present joie de vivre.
Nicholas
Roukes and Jacek Malec List of Images (top to bottom):
|
|
|
| Home | Exhibits | Events | Boutique | Information | Sponsors | Contact Us | Site Map | |
||
On
Monday, August 8, 2005, the Western Canadian visual arts community
lost one of this country's most prolific artists, pedagogues and
mentors to younger artists. Leo Norman Bushman passed away in his
home in Calgary. He was 88. Leo Bushman left a great artistic legacy
for us, and he remains alive through his exceptional art and personal
memories. 
Leo
Bushman received his BFA degree with honours in 1941 from the School
of Arts Institute in Chicago. In 1939 and 1941, Bushman's works
were accepted to the International Watercolour and Drawing Exhibition
at the Art Institute of Chicago and presented along with works by
such masters as Pablo Picasso, Juan Miro and Max Ernst, and Wassily
Kandinsky, to name just a few. Two pieces from those two exhibitions
are currently in the collection of the Calgary Contemporary Arts
Society/Triangle Gallery of 
Visual
Arts. In 1954, he won the South West Drawing Annual in Dallas, Texas.
The drawings from that show are now in the counsel of the Nickle
Arts Museum in Calgary. 
In
1966, Bushman was subsequently hired by the University of Calgary
because of his experience working with indigenous cultures. Although
initially engaged as a temporary art instructor, he was asked to
remain in the Art Department for the entire 1966-67 academic year.
It was the beginning of a long tenure, during which he had mentored
a number of graduates through their undergraduate and graduate studies.
Bushman retired from the Faculty of Fine Arts in July 1982 as an
Associate Professor Emeritus of Art. He will be remembered as a
great academic and a brilliant pedagogue with an unorthodox teaching
methodology, always asking his students to explore unexplored areas
of visual articulations.
For
a number of years Bushman served as a Research Associate at the
Arctic Institute of North America (AINA) at the University of Calgary,
where he also worked as a Curator of the Institute's extensive collection,
documenting early explorations of the arctic region (drawings, paintings,
prints, photographs, film and video). 
Leo
Bushman exhibited and lectured widely in the United States, Canada,
South Korea, and Japan and was the recipient of various awards in
recognition of his outstanding studio and educational work. Bushman's
work can be found in many private and public collections across
the continents. His major retrospective exhibition, Leo Bushman:
Reflections in Watercolour curated by Nicholas Roukes and Jacek
Malec and held in May 1998 at the Triangle Gallery of Visual Arts,
was drawn from over six decades of the artist's ongoing career,
and created a forum for Bushman's continued debate on the watercolour
techniques and cultural influences. 
Bushman's
exemplary works depict places and cultures he had worked, lived
and studied in. The paintings show a skilful, fluid brush-stroke
characteristic of Oriental art, and an influential source. His brushwork,
particularly from the late 1980's, 1990's and from the period preceding
his passing, is bold, spontaneous and intuitive, and he appeared
to be in full control of the often unpredictable happenings inherent
in the use of this fluid medium. In his art, as in his beloved game
of golf, Leo Bushman applied the dictum, " the fewer strokes,
the better the results"…. 
This
commemorative exhibition, With Emboldened Brush: The Spirited
Watercolour Art of Leo Bushman, celebrates the life, philosophy,
and work of this distinguished artist, and reacquaints the public
with his impressive body of work. Over 20 watercolours and other
works from collection of Jennifer Bushman, the University
of Calgary, the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society, Dr. Perry F.
Pelletier Professional Corporation, and private collections selected
for this show, represent the classical spontaneity, transparency,
fluidity and skillfulness of brush stroke which characterize Bushman's
work and identify him with contemporary masters of watercolour style.
