GREG CURNOE
’61-65
GREG CURNOE
’61-65
Michael Gibson Gallery January 10 - February 22, 2014
Introduction Michael Gibson The world changed dramatically between 1961-65. The racial and political angst of that time greatly contrasted with the youthful optimism of Greg Curnoe’s generation. With this exhibition, I want to show Greg as he was from the ages 25 to 30. I believe that Greg was the original Pop artist in Canada. He was also a gifted leader, a young man hungry for colour, a vast collector of culture and a soon-to-be husband and father. The many people who I have spoken with, often repeat that Greg’s lifelong belief was that it all could be done from London. Our exhibition, Greg Curnoe ’61-65, reveals that Greg was an important part of a larger group of artists - pushing, perhaps naïvely, their ideas of what art could be to the rest of Canada. There was very little money or adulation, but paintings were being painted, The Rolling Stones and John Coltrane were being discovered, and an eternal hope was in the air. This was a special time in the world for many reasons, but a very special time in Canada because of Greg Curnoe. Heartfelt thanks to all the people who have helped make this exhibition a reality: Sheila Curnoe and family, Pierre Théberge, Dennis Reid, Robert Fones, Murray Favro, Judith Rodger, James Kirkpatrick, Art Pratten, Shirley and John Clement, and the E. P. Taylor Research Library & Archives at the Art Gallery of Ontario. In my almost 30 year career, this will remain a highlight among the many exhibitions I have curated. I hope Greg would have agreed. Michael Gibson, December 2013
Greg Curnoe in his Weston Street Studio
Selected World Events 1961-1965
1961
student admitted to the University of Mississippi Marilyn Monroe dies of a drug overdose at 36
John F. Kennedy becomes the 35th President of the United States
The first Wal-Mart discount store opens in Arkansas. The first K-Mart opens in Michigan
Yuri Gagarin becomes the first human in space
John Glenn becomes the first American to orbit the earth
US trained Cuban exiles invade Cuba at Bay of Pigs
The first oral Polio vaccine is developed
East German authorities close the border between East and West Berlin. Construction of the Berlin Wall begins
90% of US households own a black & white TV set
UN General Assembly condemn Apartheid. South Africa becomes an independent republic
Andy Warhol debuts his famous Campbell’s Soup Can series & founds his “Factory” studio
The first in-flight 16mm movie is shown on TWA
Johnny Carson becomes host of The Tonight Show
The Parent Trap, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, The Guns of Navarone & West Side Story are popular films Bonanza, Gunsmoke, Perry Mason, Andy Griffith and The Twilight Zone are popular TV shows Pampers introduces the first disposable diaper John Diefenbaker is Prime Minister of Canada
1962
Cuban Missile Crisis: Soviet Union installs nucleararmed missiles in Cuba, Kennedy orders a naval blockade around Cuba James Meredith is the first African-American
Beatles release their first single “Love Me Do”
The Rolling Stones play their first live gig at London’s Marquee Club
1963
President Kennedy is assassinated on November 22. Lyndon B. Johnson becomes President Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I Have a Dream” speech Violence erupts as civil rights protestors clash with police in Birmingham, Alabama Pope John XXIII dies and Pope Paul VI is elected
AT&T introduces touch tone phones Tape cassettes are used to record and play audio recordings Betty Friedan publishes The Feminine Mystique Lester B. Pearson becomes Canada’s Prime Minister
1964
supermarket, features pop artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Jasper Johns The Rolling Stones release their debut album The Beatles make their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show Bob Dylan releases a-Changin’”
“The
Times
They
Are
Three civil rights workers are murdered in Mississippi
Canadian-bred horse Northern Dancer wins the Kentucky Derby
Cassius Clay beats Sonny Liston for the world heavyweight championship
US Surgeon General declares that smoking causes cancer
The first Ford Mustang is produced
1965
Nelson Mandela is sentenced to life in prison
The first US combat troops arrive in Vietnam
The World’s Fair is held in New York
The Voting Rights Act becomes law in the US which prohibits voting discrimination
The Summer Olympics are held in Tokyo, Japan and the Winter Olympics are held in Innsbruck, Austria
The Maple Leaf becomes Canada’s new national flag symbol
Sidney Poitier becomes the first male black actor to win the best actor Oscar The 3rd James Bond film, Goldfinger, is released Hello, Dolly!, Funny Girl and Fiddler on the Roof premier on Broadway in New York The American Supermarket, a New York art exhibition designed to resemble a common
Malcolm X is fatally shot in New York Martin Luther King Jr. leads a civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery The mini-skirt is designed and becomes the fashion statement of the 60s The Sound of Music with Julie Andrews is released
Selected Greg Curnoe ChronologY
1961
Spring: Curnoe is founding editor and publisher of Region magazine, an eight page hand-typed circular November 2: Michel Sanouillet lectures on “Dada’s Eye” at London Public Library and Art Museum November 3 - December 1: Curnoe’s first solo exhibition at the Richard E. Crouch Branch Library
November 3: Region Gallery opens at 521 Richmond Street with an exhibition of works by Jack Chambers, Greg Curnoe, Tony Urquhart and others. Works exhibited include Assemblage with Pulley and Plastic Values No. 1 December 5: Curnoe stamps his first book, Rain A drawing, On the Bed (1962) is purchased by the McIntosh Memorial Art Gallery, UWO
1963
Spring: Curnoe moves into the now infamous third floor studio at 202 King Street, London
November 28: Tony Urquhart drives Curnoe to Detroit, where they attend a lecture by Marcel Duchamp at the Detroit Institute of Arts
August: Curnoe gives lecture on aesthetics at Waterloo Lutheran University
December 21 - January 10: Curnoe is included in Isaacs Gallery “Neo-Dada” group exhibition
September: Curnoe co-founds the Nihilist Party of London, Ontario
Jack Chambers returns to London from Spain. He and Curnoe become close friends
September 12 - October 2: “Art Work by Greg Curnoe” exhibit at Gallery Moos, Toronto
1962
Fall: Curnoe delivers a lecture to the Department of Philosophy at UWO
February 3: Curnoe is co-organizer of The Celebration - the first “happening” in Canada May: The painting Tall Girl When I Am Sad on Dundas Street is purchased by the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina October: Av Isaacs, of the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto, expresses interest in Curnoe’s work
1964
January 11-28: Curnoe is included in a group exhibition at Galerie Agnes Lefort, Montreal January / February: Curnoe meets Murray Favro February: Barbara Pratten brings Sheila Thompson to Curnoe’s studio. Curnoe writes her
telephone number on a studio pillar and makes a drawing of the two women sitting in the studio April 7 - May 3: Curnoe included in the “81st Annual Spring Exhibition” at Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring: Curnoe’s painting Sunday Lacrosse at Talbot School (1963) is purchased by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Saidye and Samuel Bronfman Fund May 8 - June 8: 24th Annual Western Ontario Exhibition. Works exhibited include Jim About to be Cornholed by a Mail Bag September 17 - October 6: “Greg Curnoe: Stuff” at David Mirvish Gallery, Toronto. Works exhibited include Sheila’s Legs I-IV and Marg at Flamingo Manor
November: John H. Moore purchases his first work by Curnoe, marking the beginning of a mutually significant relationship that lasts for more than three decades
1965
Late March: Curnoe travels to NY to help Jack Chambers transport art for an exhibition. Greg unsuccessfully shows slides around to galleries May: The London Jazz Kazoo Octet, the precursor to the Nihilist Spasm Band, is founded in Curnoe’s studio July 3: Curnoe marries Kathleen Sheila Thompson at a civil ceremony at the City Hall Registry Office. They spend their honeymoon in Port Stanley Summer: Curnoe makes a film No Movie, a history of the Nihilist Party in London
September: Myself Walking North in the Tweed Coat (1963) is purchased by the Vancouver Art Gallery
August 1: The first Nihilist Picnic is held in Port Stanley
September: Curnoe included in a group exhibition of Canadian painters at Albright-Knox Gallery, Buffalo
Fall: Curnoe takes his first airplane flight, to Montreal
Fall: Sheila’s Legs I-IV joins 9 other Canadian paintings on a 3000 mile tour of Northern Ontario in the back of a Volkswagen Van October 8-31: “John Chambers, Greg Curnoe” at the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina. Works exhibited include Marg at Flamingo Manor
October: The Nihilist Spasm Band is officially formed, using modified and homemade instruments December 15: Spring on the Ridgeway (1964) is purchased by the Art Gallery of Toronto
Marg at Flamingo Manor Oil, Damar & Latex Primer, Tape & Rubber-stamping on Plywood, October 7, 1963 48 x 72 in / 122 x 183 cm detail below
Greg’s regionalism went far beyond London. What he was really interested in was local culture, authentic local culture. Wherever it happened to be. Judith Rodger Curator Emeritus
Jim About to be Cornholed by a Mail Bag Oil, Rubber-stamping, Ink & Tape on Plywood December 27, 1963 - February 1964 48 x 72 in / 122 x 183 cm detail left
I Remember Greg Charles Vincent, born in 1965, childhood friend of Owen & Galen Curnoe In my earliest memories, Greg Curnoe, who was a friend of my parents, was already an established artist. I liked to spend time at his house with his sons, Owen and Galen. The Weston Street house grew from a little square box, with a flat roof and Greg’s studio at the rear where he would sell his artwork. Sometimes enough to put gas in the car for a family trip to the beach, sometimes enough to pay for the many home renovations built upward and outward to accommodate his growing family. The central panel of Three Pieces hung for a while on their living room wall. I can imagine back to when that panel was painted in 1965, before there was the house. Greg, living downtown, would have been interested in everybody and everything, picking up junk in bars and at parties, from anywhere, making his Dada-inspired assemblages. Greg and his circle of friends would have been
a bit at odds with the prosperous, conservative London of the 1960s, but also able to take advantage of that environment, establishing themselves and setting up their choices in life, however unusual. I don’t think of them as having been hippies. They were boys born before the Second World War, waiting to inherit the man’s world of the mid-century. Greg’s success even convinced Jack Chambers that an artist doesn’t need to leave their hometown to have an impact. The military aircraft roundels in For Eliz, Hugh, Murray & Marsden make me think of the books Greg owned about aircraft, among the collection of books he had about everything. I was enthusiastic about warplanes, so Greg talked to me about warplanes. Greg was an egalitarian talker. He would share ideas, and even argue with his friends’ impudent teenage son as readily as any important artist, curator or collector and probably about the same stuff, and in the same way.
I remember him telling me that he was disturbed to read about a wartime pilot attacking a plane from the side, seeing the gunfire decapitate the enemy pilot. I remember him telling me that he liked how the planes in Max Fleischer’s animated Superman cartoons bent like rubber when they turned corners. He thought this was a hangover from his early animation work. Greg seemed to think the way Fleischer slipped this in was subversive.
I still see, even in Greg’s most serious drawings and paintings, his love of that rubbery, cartooninspired line. Everything has bounce or ooze. Like the cartoon-inspired line, women linger through Greg’s art. The large panels of Sheila seem a robust celebration of their new love, and of the life they would make together.
Charles Vincent, December 2013
At a really young age I remember seeing Greg’s work. His art was displayed on the floor; an object, sculptural and a painting at the same time. I remember being shocked: “This is artwork? This is what art is?” It opened me up to the possibilities of what art can be. James Kirkpatrick Artist
For Eliz, Hugh, Murray & Marsden Oil, Wood, Cloth, Marking Ink & Metal Sign on Plywood September 28, 1964 - August 15, 1966 48 1/2 x 36 x 22 in / 123 x 91 x 56 cm
Three Pieces, Weston Street, November 14, 2013
The Mystery of “Three Pieces” This past October, we experienced a true WOW moment. Sheila Curnoe revealed to us Greg’s monumental billboard-sized painting Three Pieces. The inevitable questions followed: Has it ever been shown before? How was it originally installed? Why is it still in the studio? Why doesn’t anyone remember this painting? We contacted many of Greg’s contemporaries and very few knew of Three Pieces. Some remembered only seeing it in the studio storage, while others spoke of its fragility when it stood on its rickety legs. Our trip to the AGO archives also proved unsuccessful. Greg kept impeccable lists, but after looking through the inventory card catalogues, nothing was discovered. Its absence was baffling. How could something so large, so colourful and direct be forgotten? On the front of each four by six foot panel, Curnoe painted three versions of Sheila in bed- relaxed and fully nude. An 1884 quote by Chief Big Bear and Rolling Stones song lyrics are prominently stamped along with a vivid diary entry describing the sights and sounds on that particular Sunday morning. The back of the three panels are similarly
embellished with a portrait of Louis Riel, collaged Rolling Stones album covers, a pair of blue and pink crucifixes and a painting of Sheila’s tossed banana peel. The only reference we found for Three Pieces was in Rae Davis’ July 1966 Canadian Art Magazine article. She writes: “The gigantic three-panelled free-standing 3 Pieces... is strongly reminiscent of the billboard, that ubiquitous but frail contemporary object, on which the scenes are always changing.” The years leading to 1965 were defining moments for Greg’s generation, presented beautifully in these Three Pieces. Perhaps, the following two definitions shed light on Greg’s influences while making Three Pieces. Nihilism: The rejection of all religious and moral principles, often in the belief that life is meaningless. Pop Art: A movement based on the imagery of consumerism and popular culture. A reaction from Abstract Expressionism because it brought back figurative imagery and hard-edge painting.
Greg demonstrates, however, through Three Pieces, that life is not meaningless, rather, he reveals to us how and why art endures.
I like to make other people laugh. I like to be interested. I don’t like to be bored. Greg Curnoe
Preceding Page
Three Pieces Oil & Enamel on Masonite & Wood, 1965 each panel 48 x 72 in / 122 x 183 cm overall 48 x 216 in / 122 x 549 cm
Discovering Curnoe Pierre Théberge, Curator National Gallery of Canada 1966-79, Chief Curator 1979-1985 & Director Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal 1986-97, Director National Gallery of Canada 1998-2009 I was hired as assistant curator of Canadian art in the Spring of 1966 at the National Gallery of Canada. My immediate boss was Jean René Ostiguy. I spent the summer working on the catalogue of the permanent collection of early Quebec religious sculpture. Mr. Ostiguy had received a letter from an unknown young artist of London Ontario asking the gallery to buy his work. Mr. Ostiguy was busy on another project and he asked me to go visit the artist and, if necessary, reserve a small work to be purchased by the gallery. I flew to London not knowing what I would discover. Greg’s studio was located on the third floor above a store on King Street in downtown London. Greg came to the door to let me in. His studio was crowded with works at different stages of completion.
Greg must have sensed my lack of real interest in what I was seeing so he offered to show me a much larger painting he had just finished. I was completely surprised by the liveliness of the painting; its bright colours, original composition and the bold juxtaposition of a large electrical sign from a local building. I immediately reserved the work for consideration. The painting The Camouflaged Piano or French Roundels was enthusiastically received and purchased by the National Gallery. It is now hanging, at the moment, in the permanent collection galleries. Splendidly colourful, still very much alive.
Pierre Théberge, November 2013
Greg Curnoe’s first studio located in downtown London at 432 Richmond Street. Future home of Michael Gibson Gallery, 157 Carling Street, can be seen through the window.
Do you consider yourself a “pop” Artist? Greg Curnoe answers Professor Groome’s questions November 17, 1964 I do not consider myself to be a pop artist. I believe that Andy Warhol is the only one around, and he is mainly a watered down (chic) extension of some of Duchamp’s ideas. As for my “granddaddies” -- I am not that involved in the history of painting -- most of the paintings I like have paralleled my own thinking at some point.
my major “artistic” influences... Before that I would say that my biggest influences were games my cousin and I invented as kids, comic books, Spike Jones, also the fact that I was brought up on the edge of London and knew the surrounding country as a child, built shacks and undergrounds in the woods, and had gangs with badges and other paraphernalia.
I like Stanley Spencer’s painting very much, living in a small city, painting the people and what happens. I like Henri Matisse; in fact these two are my favourite painters: his (Matisse’s) colour, his simplicity. R. B. Kitaj -- at last, I see another painter who is interested in the Anarchists and Socialists in a complete fashion. Jasper Johns’ attitude towards objects has a lot of similarity with mine, that is, the juxtaposition and manipulation of surfaces and meanings... I like some of Robert Indiana’s painting very much; in fact he has recently caused me to re-read Walt Whitman...
What is the particular reason or significance for a) Your use of clear, flat paint? I like enamel because it feels nice and looks nice. I like white enamel chairs; the paint grows warm to the touch. I like shininess.
When I first attended art school (1954) I got involved with Dada... that could be one of
b) Your faceless figures? When I wish to put a likeness of someone I know on a painting, I get them to sit in front of a lamp and then I trace their projected shadow on a piece of paper. What easier way is there to do it? People find them easy to recognize as well. c) The printed comment? What easier way is there to say you like
something than to write “I like orange”; what easier way to endorse someone than by writing their name on a painting. d) The circle or “target” format? I like Robert Delaunay and Robert Indiana particularly for the way they use circles. People say that roundness is feminine; I think circles look nice. e) The outline or cut-out type of figure? It’s easy simply to mix up a colour and paint in a shirt, much easier than using broken colour and indicating lights and shades. I wish to spend my time on other things, like what is interesting about the shirt, how many buttons it has, what is the shape of the smoke he blows out of his mouth, what does his membership card say on it, is that the way the line of her ass goes, or does it curve more at the top, what did she say that impressed me the last time I made love to her. What do you feel is your main drive? The main drive?... I like to do. I like to make objects that I can use. I like to make other people laugh. I like to be interested. I don’t like to be bored. I don’t like to solve problems; I like to contemplate what I am doing....
detail of Gordon’s Organ, Collage, January 24, 1964
Mainly my life is full and I like so much just to look, listen, read -- to look at a cloudless summer sky. It doesn’t threaten or seduce; it just is there, and I stand on the ground and look at it.
Curnoe, Greg. Letter to Professor Groome, 17 November 1964. Greg Curnoe Papers, Correspondence File, 1964. E. P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto.
Greg was always interested in everything. He had the ability to zero-in, pay attention, remember and encourage everybody. He had the ability to endear himself to the hearts of many. Assemblage with Pulley Oil & Enamel on Metal on Wood, Found Objects, 1962 35 x 8 x 3 in / 89 x 20 x 8 cm
Art Pratten Nihilist Spasm Band
Plastic Values No. 1 Plastic, Paper, Metal on Wood Assemblage, Spring 1962 33 1/2 x 15 x 3 1/2 in / 85 x 38 x 9 cm
SHeila’s Legs Sheila Curnoe, born in a village in Yorkshire, England, emigrated to Canada in October 1957 In February 1964 a girlfriend of mine said I think you would get along with my friend Greg Curnoe. I thought she said Colonel, the way you spell it in England – C-O-L-O-N-E-L. And I thought, well, that is an odd name. Since it was February, I had on high boots that went up to my knees, which apparently was a little bit over the top for most people at that time. I went up with my girlfriend to Greg’s King Street studio and saw Greg standing dressed in bright colours: orange pants that were too short, work boots (because he was a working guy, not really an artist, but a working guy), and a blue sweater. He was just very different from anyone that I had ever met. There was all this artwork on the walls, which I didn’t even know if I liked. We just sat and chatted and Greg did the drawing that is now hanging on my living room wall. He made the drawing, and that was it. We just sat and talked. I have no idea what we talked about. Greg & Sheila Curnoe on their wedding day July 3, 1965
I was not infatuated with him. I was interested. He was interesting. I had met quite a lot of rather boring people that just didn’t interest me. There was nothing there. But with Greg there was something there. When we started dating I would go up to the studio or he would invite me. I would sit there and Greg would get out paper and start to draw. I don’t know why it seemed so normal, but it did. It just seemed right. Greg made the drawings and he liked curvy legs. He had to draw curves. He didn’t like skinny sticklike legs – that didn’t interest him – he had to have something to draw. After the drawings he started working on Sheila’s Legs. I think I was surprised with the finished work. I am not sure if I really liked it that much as they were so astonishingly different from what I had been exposed to. I had no intimidations as a model. I was not shy because I knew I looked good. Brigitte Bardot was my favourite actress and I remember pictures of her lolling around in Saint-Tropez in a bikini that was half falling off looking fabulous. She had all these animals – dogs and things – and I thought, perfect. When we emigrated to
London I was 15. London was quite a change since it was a very conservative town. I was the first person to wear a two-piece bathing suit on the Port Stanley beach. Not a bikini, a two-piece that they sold at Simpsons. I remember that on our honeymoon Greg took me into a store and bought me an orange and blue bikini. We moved to Weston Street in May 1968 when I was pregnant with Galen, my middle son. The studio was perfect for Greg because of the north light. Greg tried to turn the whole thing of going into the studio as a job, which was a good way to look at things because if you are self employed you need to make yourself work. But it was comical the way he did it. In the morning he would have me pack him a lunch. That lasted for about 2 days! Raising a family here was wonderful. It was really a wonderful life. I was looking after two and then three children and there were so many people coming into the studio all the time: writers, poets, artists, CBC reporters, curators. It was a very very busy time, all the time. It was, actually, just wonderful. Sheila Curnoe, December 2013
Sheila’s Legs I, II, III, IV Oil & Enamel on Masonite & Wood, February 1964 overall 24 x 96 in / 61 x 244 cm
Greg liked curvy legs. He had to draw curves. He didn’t like skinny, stick-like legs – that didn’t interest him – he had to have something to draw. Sheila Curnoe
Left to Right: Ron Martin, Elke Town, Sheila Curnoe, Owen Curnoe, James Chavel, Chloe Town, Christopher Dewdney, Murray Favro (at front), Greg Curnoe, David McFadden. Photo taken by Robert Fones at Lagoona Restaurant, 169 Niagara St., Toronto after Murray Favro’s opening at Carmen Lamanna Gallery on Dec 10, 1988.
Favro Speaks Murray Favro, born in Huntsville 1940, artist, member of Nihilist Spasm Band I met Greg in 1964 when I graduated from Beal Art. I was setting up my first studio and visited him at 202 King Street in order to see what a studio was like. I saw all of his paintings at that time. He could paint with all of these people around. I was very impressed. Yes, I thought, this is what I want to do. It looked like fun. You just do what you want. Greg was enthusiastic about all things. He was a real collector, a collector of information and objects. At that time, he was also making collages and pasting things together. He would talk to you and make the stuff. It never bothered him that people were around.
would always play music. Most of the records I was unfamiliar with. He had a real collection of interests and he was able to let the music and the books influence him, but not too much. Greg was able to handle it, with his work. Greg’s studio was the real meeting place. That’s where we would meet to talk. He would have parties there every Saturday, with 200 people, well, it seemed like 200 people, it was jammed. It was a very important hub for London at that time.
Lots of people came up to visit him, and not just artists. There were students and university professors as well. He had a mixture of people. He read a lot and could talk about stuff that I had never heard about before.
Greg’s attitude was that you did not have to be in New York or Toronto to make art. Back then, the attitude was that you had to live in those places to make art and you were encouraged to emulate whatever the school was at that time. Here, there was a real demand that everyone had to be an individual, and that no one could copy anyone else. There was no school. Ed Zelenak, Walter Redinger, Jack Chambers, Greg, me and John Boyle – we all had our own direction.
Greg had a huge collection of records and
Murray Favro, December 2013
Transfer Collage 3
Transfer Collage
Stamp Pad Ink, Collage, 1961 13 1/2 x 3 3/4 in / 34 x 10 cm
Stamp Pad Ink, Collage, Spring 1961 9 x 3 3/4 in / 23 x 10 cm
Say Yas
Brenda Starr Reporter #2
Pen & Collage on Paper, May 10, 1962 8 x 6 in / 20 x 15 cm
Collage, July 19, 1962 12 3/4 x 6 in / 33 x 15 cm
Greg Curnoe Biography Greg Curnoe was born in London on November 19, 1936. From 1954-1956, Curnoe attended H. B. Beal Technical and Commercial High School in London and later studied art at Kitchener’s Doon School of Fine Arts (1956) and the Ontario College of Art in Toronto (1957-1960). Upon returning to London in 1960, Curnoe became a highly motivated artist-community organizer. He co-organized the first art “happening” (1962), co-founded Region Magazine (1961-90), Region Gallery (1962-63) and the Forest City Gallery (1973- ). He also played a key role in the founding of the Nihilist Spasm Band (1965), a collection of artists that created “music” on homemade instruments. In 1968, along with Jack Chambers, Tony Urquhart and Kim Ondaatje, Curnoe became one of the first members of CARFAC, an artist collective that advocates for artists’ rights. Beginning in the early 1960s, Curnoe exhibited extensively both nationally and internationally. In 1967, Curnoe received a prestigious mural commission for the Dorval International Airport in Montreal. He represented Canada at the Sao Paulo Bienal (1969) and at the Venice Biennale (1976). Curnoe’s artwork has been included in major exhibitions including “Heart of London” (1968) National Gallery of Canada, “Greg Curnoe: Retrospective” (1981) Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal and “Greg Curnoe: Life & Stuff” (2001) Art Gallery of Ontario. His artwork is included in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, National Gallery of Canada, Oakville Galleries, Vancouver Art Gallery and in many other prominent public and private collections. On November 14, 1992, Greg Curnoe was struck from behind while riding his bright yellow Mariposa bicycle with the London Centennial Wheelers. He was pronounced dead later that day at Strathroy Middlesex General Hospital. He is survived by his wife Sheila, children Owen, Galen and Zoe, brother Glen and sister Lynda. For Greg Curnoe’s complete Curriculum Vitae and available images please visit www.gibsongallery.com
GREG CURNOE - ’61-65 Catalogue of an exhibition held at Michael Gibson Gallery January 10 - February 22, 2014 Thank you to Sheila Curnoe, Murray Favro, Robert Fones, Amy Furness, James Kirkpatrick, Art Pratten, Dennis Reid, Judith Rodger, Pierre Théberge & Charles Vincent All photograph reproductions courtesy of the Art Gallery of Ontario E. P. Taylor Research Library & Archives, Greg Curnoe Fonds. 1988 Lagoona Restaurant photograph: Robert Fones. Curnoe wedding photo and back cover photograph: Don Vincent. All others are unknown photographers Greg Curnoe’s selected chronology is quoted from the Art Gallery of Ontario’s 2001 “Greg Curnoe: Life & Stuff” Exhibition Catalogue Chronology. Originally prepared by Judith Rodger Quotes by Judith Rodger, James Kirkpatrick, Art Pratten, Murray Favro and Sheila Curnoe were transcribed from video interviews conducted on December 11, 2013 Michael Gibson Gallery gratefully acknowledges the assistance of the Canada Council for the Arts
Front Cover Image: detail of middle panel of “Three Pieces”, Oil & Enamel on Masonite & Wood, 1965 Back Cover Image: Sheila & Greg Curnoe in Weston Street living room, January 1969. Image: Don Vincent
Design Michael Gibson Gallery Artwork Images © Estate of Greg Curnoe & SODRAC Printed Carter’s Printing Inc., London, ON ISBN 978-0-9736461-8-4
Michael Gibson Gallery 157 Carling St London On N6A 1H5 5 1 9 . 4 3 9 . 0 4 5 1 1. 8 6 6 . 6 4 4 . 2 7 6 6
www.gibsongallery.com