Seven Oaks Magazine.

It was a time when artists embraced the aphorism “less is more,” when the art world shed its preconceived notions of “good” design based on tried and true methods, and an era when artists adopted bold, new criteria for their art that included ease of use, minimalism, and an unapologetic devotion to everything high tech. It was the dawn of the age of modernism. And it occurred very vividly in post-war Vancouver, B.C.

Whether one goes as far as to call Vancouver the “embodiment of modernism in Canada,” as the curators of Vancouver Art Gallery’s dared to in the opening of “A Modern Life: Art and Design in British Columbia 1945-1960,” the exhibition nonetheless revealed some outstanding pieces. Opening in mid-May and running until mid-October, the exhibition displays some of the best visual art from B.C.’s artists and designers in the post-war era.

Murray Dune’s simply titled “Chair” (1949), a slumped, metal, and worn leather recliner, testifies to the ease with which B.C. artists melded “high” art, craft, and applied design. A seemingly unimpressive structure for today’s Ikea standards, the “Chair” is more than a piece of furniture. Its streamlined skeleton structure and simple, curved gesture, juxtaposed with its simple, square leather “pouch”, is a striking artefact in itself, speaking of how well beyond his time Dune and other B.C. designers were when they first designed their minimalist home collections in the late 1940’s for the “Design for Living” exhibition. At a time when ornate, dining room sets were de rigeur amongst B.C.’s conservative, post-war, post-colonial audience, recently emerged from its logger-mill background, the fact that the “Design for Living” exhibition garnered such a large response was a remarkable feat in itself.

Orville Fisher’s “The Props” (Oil on Canvas, 1949), a thoughtfully executed, organic composition is evidence of an emerging, playful style in the artist’s choice of dramatic light, shadow, and bold, brush strokes. The subject of choice, a heap of post-war aviation debris, suggests that war, like almost any subject, can be diminished to a mere artefact devoid of its original pomp and glory.

The VAG’s “A Modern Life” would not have been complete without at least one piece from a high-profile artist. On this occasion, it was the notable Jack Shadbolt and his sophisticated “Medieval Town” (Oil on Canvas, 1946), a dynamic and brilliantly sunshine-coloured piece that appeared uninhibited by its structured, tightly bound grid composition to reveal an almost ideal union of modernity’s love for precision and of the pre-modernity tendency toward sentimentality. Widely regarded as the pre-eminent, seminal painter in Western Canada, he is probably best known in the B.C. art community for introducing the approaches used by Cezanne and Picasso at the Vancouver School of Art.

“Event, Horny Island” (Oil on Canvas, 1950) by Molly Lamb Boback is a striking adaptation of Cezanne’s playful, abstract style, whereas Jack Macdonald’s “The Black Quartette” (Watercolor on Paper, 1946) reflects the shift from era dependent on naturalist, painting techniques to a more whimsical, mythical and very Miro-reminiscent approach. The fact that painters unapologetically borrowed from the European schools suggests reconciliation with Canada’s colonial past, while serving as a brief reminder to the extent that WWII bridged the gap between the Old and New World.

While Boback and Macdonald looked abroad for inspiration, designer, artist and architect Bertram Charles Bining (better known as B.C. Bining) remained fascinated by the events stirring in his own backyard. “Maquette for Imperial Bank Mural” (Oil on Canvas, 1957), composed like an urban mural, has satirical undertones. At the heart of “Maquette” is a blunt comment about the somewhat skewed way industrial-consumer society has managed to compartmentalize almost every living form, from fruit trees to livestock, to create, in return a sterile, living environment. Instructor, advocate, and visionary, Bining continually encouraged his students to incorporate the design principles they learned in class and incorporate them in the real world. He envisioned a day when his students took on the responsibilities of urban designers and proposed plans for a more harmonious urban landscape.

Tony Onley’s “Untitled” (Oil on Canvas, 1960), with its stylised, frenetic, and stylishly broad paint strokes epitomised the height of the B.C. modernism art movement. Evident in this exceptional work is its “shedding” of formal approaches, curiosity with trans-national techniques and development of a distinct, albeit trendy, autonomous style. Onley’s piece signalled the closing of an exciting time for artists and designers across B.C.: a time when the bold and dramatic were encouraged and artistic “guts” were admired.

The seminal works by artists such as Onley, Bining, Boback, Macdonald, Shadbolt, and the countless number of artist’s showcased in “A Modern Life” nonetheless became an inspirational legacy for a new generation of artists. At its root, the exhibition served as a reminder of B.C. artists’ original optimism and enthusiasm for the high ideals of modernism: beauty, sincerity, and simplicity. In today’s post-modernism (some might argue post-post-modernism) era, it is with some sentimental regret that the VAG looks back at modernism and reveals to what extent we have become estranged from its ideals.

“A Modern Life: Art and Design in British Columbia 1945-1960”
will be displayed at the Vancouver Art Gallery until mid-October