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The Exhibition:

ROY KIYOOKA:
1971 - THE PENULTIMATE YEAR
Cedar Laminate Sculpture - Paintings - Prints

April 5 - May 12, 2001

PREFACE

The exhibition profiles the art of Roy Kiyooka (1926 - 1994), one of the most prolific contemporary Canadian artists, poets and writers, and examines some aspects of his artistic career from the 1950's to 1971, during which time he made significant contributions to contemporary Canadian art. This presentation of Roy Kiyooka's art affords the occasion for a more complete critical assessment of his oeuvre in the historical and contemporary context of Canadian art.

BIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Born in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, in 1926, Roy Kiyooka grew up in Calgary during the pre-World War II years. He studied at the Alberta College of Art in the 1940's under Jock MacDonald and Illingworth Kerr. In 1955 he won a scholarship to the Instituto Allende in Mexico, where he studied under James Pinto. During the summers between 1956 and 1960, Kiyooka attended the Artists' Workshops at Emma Lake, Saskatchewan, where he worked under two American leading abstract artists: Will Barnet and Barnett Newman. In early 1960's, Kiyooka moved to Vancouver and soon became a leader in the awakening artistic community there. In the next two decades, he embarked on a remarkable career as an artist, with trans-Canada peregrinations to Calgary, Regina, Montreal, Halifax and many trips to Japan. He left an indelible trail of exchanges of art-life experiences in the various cities, where he found employment as an artist-cum-teacher. He became a member of the prestigious Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1965; represented Canada at the Sao Paulo Biennial in Brazil, where he was awarded a Silver Medal. In 1967 his work was exhibited at Expo in Montreal and in every major centennial show across Canada.

Moving to Halifax to teach at the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design also coincided with Kiyooka's long standing disaffection with the prevailing politics and morality of the art establishment, and his decision to distance himself from the studio. Said Roy Kiyooka: "… when all was said and done I wanted to be more immediate to the clamor and clangor of the real world. I wanted to shape things someone near at hand could share, thus I turned to writing and photography and later music - to plumb my unplumbed self… ".

Kiyooka never did return to painting after 1969; he continued to teach painting and remained a visual artist in other media until his death in 1994. He also attained standing as a highly respected poet and was an influential figure in local and national art circles. His importance was recognized with membership in the Order of Canada in 1975 and with status as Professor Emeritus, Department of Fine Arts, University of British Columbia. In the course of his career, he generated a body of multimedia and interdisciplinary work that encompassed acrylic paintings, oil paintings, watercolours,
prints, photography, collages, photo-montages, sculptures, films and poetry. " He is ", wrote Canadian art critic William Withrow in 1972, "thoroughly representative of that new generation of artists who are pushing beyond painting to explore the whole aesthetic experience … ".

EXHIBITION

The exhibition centres on Kiyooka's art between 1970 and 1971, the most intensive personal, creative and productive period of the artist's life (he was 45 year old at that time). In the span of 16 months, Kiyooka completed the StoneD Gloves: Alms for Soft Palms, which was presented in 1970 at the National Gallery in Ottawa, followed by the Cedar Laminated Sculpture series, which were featured - along with the Ottoman/Court Suite of silk-screen prints - at the Bau Xi Gallery in Vancouver in 1971. The 16 Cedar Laminated Sculpture exhibition at the Bau Xi Gallery in Vancouver in May of 1971 was a celebration of his art and culmination as a maker of art. This was the only exhibition of the cedar sculpture during his lifetime. The presentation at the Triangle Gallery reconstructs (informally) the Bau Xi exhibition of 1971, and includes his early cityscapes of 1950's, hoarfrost and ellipse paintings from the 1960s, as well as the 1970's Ottoman and Court Series of silkscreen prints.

Writing on his decision to shift his creative interests from the studio arts to the written word in the catalogue Roy Kiyooka: 25 Years, he stated that by the late 1960's he had come to " … a dead-end viz painting …" but that he still wanted to continue making "something". The cedar laminates continue his work as a painter: "… the cedar laminates take up the ellipses again and sandwich them in 3D. I wanted them to be of a size that would have an actual presence in a room. I wanted them to be of a size that could be handled, a bulge, if you want, in your line of sight. A presence you couldn't ignore …".

Harry M. Kiyooka
Curator

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