64/150 Alex Colville – Stories of everyday life

Alex Colville (1920-2013) created some of the most iconic images in Canadian art, each painting the glimpse of an extraordinary story, told in ordinary scenes. His beach & general summer scenes always come to mind at this time of year. (Above: Couple on Beach, 1957. Casein tempera on Masonite, 73.4 x 96.4 cm. Purchased 1959 National Gallery of Canada.)

Colville’s artistic motivation was to shape order from the chaos of everyday life, a path he chose after the Second World War. He had served in the army and then became an official Canadian War Artist. The isolation of the painting Woman on Diving Board is an example of Colville’s philosophical interest in existentialism.

Alex Colville’s quote, “In a sense the things I show are moments in which everything seems perfect and something is revealed,” is in sync with his capture of fleeting moments that hint at something deeper. His style has been characterized as Realism, Magic Realism and Photo Realism.

Colville was an expert at converting those “seemingly mundane figures and events of everyday life into archetypes of the modern condition,” as the Art Gallery of Ontario put it for a retrospective of his work.

I have numerous Colville favourites since he is one of my favourite artists (See No. 10 here) but if I had to choose, it would be Woman, Dog & Canoe, 1982, for its encapsulation of summer, freedom and the heritage of Canadian paddling.

Colville’s summer vignettes are only a small part of his full roster of paintings and prints, all of which are worth exploring. One of the best places to do so is the Art Canada Institute’s downloadable book, here.

Alex Colville official site, here.

His obituary, here.

Where to see Alex Colville works, via ACI here.

A great overview in Canadian Art, here.

Alex Colville previous posts on Canadian Art Junkie, here.

---

This is No. 64 in 150 Artists, an ongoing series on Canadian artists you should know.