William Kurelek's Threshing Outfit Being Brought Lunch was bought directly from the artist in 1972 for $250. It is expected to go for much more at Consignor's auction next week.
Art at Auction
A William Kurelek painting bought for $250 in 1972 is estimated to go for $50,000 to $70,000 at auction next week. The Consignor auction on November 20 in Toronto will feature Threshing Outfit Being Brought Lunch. According to press material, the artwork “was purchased directly from the artist in 1972. Kurelek met the current owner’s mother, a Ukrainian-Canadian student who had just moved to Toronto, at an exhibition of his work at Isaacs Gallery. She couldn’t afford to purchase any of the pieces on exhibit, so he offered to create a painting that she could afford.” (Consignor Canadian Fine Art)
That’s just one of the stories to watch at Canada’s big fall auction week. As we previously reported, Heffel on November 21 will be auctioning a painting by Frederick Banting, discoverer of insulin, as well as Alex Colville’s Two Boys Playing, estimated at $600,000 to $800,000, among other works. On November 20 is Waddington’s Inuit art auction, headlined by a Kenojuak Ashevak Enchanted Owl print estimated at $100,000 to $120,000. The Waddington’s Canadian fine art auction on November 19 is highlighted by Peter Clapham Shepherd’s 1930s painting Elizabeth Street, Toronto, estimated at $40,000 to $60,000. (Heffel, Waddington’s)
“Leonard Cohen: A Crack in Everything” is headed to NYC, and beyond. This week, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal announced tour details for its major exhibition focusing on Cohen’s work and influence. The tour will begin at the Jewish Museum in New York City starting April 12 through September 8. In October 2019 it will go to Copenhagen, at the Kunstforeningen GL STRAND and Nikolaj Kunsthal. And in September 2020, it will open in San Francisco at the Contemporary Jewish Museum. More stops are likely to be added in coming months. (MAC)
National Institutions
The Department of Canadian Heritage’s refusal to chip in for a David purchase at the National Gallery of Canada is part of what prompted the gallery’s controversial decision to sell off a Chagall. This is the finding of an Ottawa Citizen report that dives into redacted access documents. As Tom Spears reports, the gallery sent letters to the minister about the necessity of keeping the Jacques-Louis David painting St-Jérome in Canada after a Quebec church sought to sell it off. But the minister and department apparently did not respond to the letters. (Ottawa Citizen)
The Canada Council has just released its latest open data set. The set covers $205.4 million in grants and prizes and $11.5 million in other programs and activities awarded in 2017–18. It also lists 600 communities where grants and prizes were awarded and offers statistics for the council’s new funding model. (Canada Council)
Attendance is up over the long term at Canada’s public art galleries. A new Hill Strategies study funded by the Canada Council, Ontario Arts Council and Department of Canadian Heritage shows that in 1992, only 20 per cent of Canadians visited public art galleries. In 2016, that had almost doubled to 39 per cent of Canadians, part of a steady trend supported by StatsCan data. (Canadian Art)
Award Wins
Kapwani Kiwanga has won the Sobey Art Award. The $100,000 prize was announced at the National Gallery of Canada yesterday evening. In an interview with Merray Gerges, Kiwanga talks about the work to come: “I’m looking at the impetus behind surveillance technology: it’s the same but what it looks like has changed.” (Canadian Art)
Residency Updates
There’s a new art and AI residency for Montreal-based artists. The National Film Board, the Quartier des Spectacles, Element AI, Google AI and the Conseil des arts de Montréal have just launched the call for applications for Art & AI: a research and creation residency mixing the arts and artificial intelligence. The residency will run April to October 2019, with a budget of $50,000 and 200 hours of support from AI professionals. (press release)
And there’s a new art and science residency at the University of Victoria. Artist Colton Hash is the inaugural recipient of an artist-in-residence program announced by the University of Victoria’s Faculty of Fine Arts and Ocean Networks Canada. “The new ONC residency will strengthen connections between art and science, and broaden perspectives on major issues ranging from technology and the environment to biodiversity and healthy communities,” says a release. Hash will work from now through March on the residency and show results in a public exhibition afterwards. (UVic News)
New Shows
Toronto museum to introduce light therapy room to combat seasonal depression. The room is an installation by Swedish artist and architect Apolonija Šušteršič called Light Therapy. It opens at Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto on November 28, and runs until February 10. The piece has previously been installed at the Moderna Museet in Sweden, and in the Netherlands. (BlogTO)
The lineup for the Push Festival in Vancouver has just been released. The 15th anniversary of the festival includes 11 Canadian premieres and 6 world premieres, including a new work by internationally renowned Emily Carr University alum Naufus Ramírez-Figueroa. Ramírez-Figueroa’s Corazón del espantapájaros (Heart of the Scarecrow) will open at Audain Gallery on January 16 and unfold over four performances until January 19. In all, the program runs January 17 to February 3, and includes the other world premieres Word Sound Have Powah by D’BI on January 17 and X Marks the Movement by Kimmortal & Immigrant Lessons on January 17 as well. (Push Festival)
The first retrospective of Mary Yuusipik Singaqti is now on. The show opened at the Winnipeg Art Gallery last weekend and features 26 drawings recently purchased by the WAG as well as wall hangings and sculptures. Singaqti was born in the Back River area north of Baker Lake, Nunavut, and her drawings are relatively unknown by wider publics. The show continues until March. (Winnipeg Art Gallery)
A Canadian museum is going to issue horoscopes for the new year. Starting tomorrow, the exhibition “David R. Harper: Zodiac” goes on view at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto. The exhibition features 12 works placed throughout the museum, each inspired by a different astrological sign. (In keeping with the museum’s focus on ceramics, part of the sculptures are made of this material.) The Gardiner is also collaborating with Canadian author and astrologer Liz Worth “to create horoscopes that will be unveiled on the museum’s social media channels throughout the month of December with images of each work from the installation,” says a release. The zodiac exhibition continues until January 6. (Gardiner Museum)
