Works from the U of L Art Collection
Curated by Andrea Kremenik
Selected from the U of L Art Collection, this exhibition features an array of artworks in various stages of creation. With sketchbooks to finished works and everything in between, the artworks on display include a range of pastel, pencil and charcoal drawings, ink prints, and watercolour sketches. Specific examples include the comprehensive sketchbooks of A.Y. Jackson and Illingworth Kerr, preliminary drawings by Jessie Ursenbach and Nicholas de Grandmaison, and deceivingly finished artworks by David Hockney and David Blackwood.
Curatorial Statement
Work in Progress examines the artistic process from beginning to end and everything in between. It also offers insight into how an artist determines when a work of art is truly finished. Some artists might say an artwork is finished based on their intuition of knowing when to stop, whereas others may have the desire to revisit their work time and time again, making changes or becoming fixated on things they should have changed. Some may give up entirely, scrapping a work despite what stage it is in, or happily leaving it in what looks like a perpetual state of incompleteness.
This exhibition includes sketchbooks, preliminary studies and a variety of completed artworks in a range of media and styles. Examples of sketches can be found in sketchbooks by Mary McEvoy and Bartley Pragnell, whereas preliminary studies are exemplified by E.J. Hughes, Cooper’s Cove, Saseenoos, B.C. which led to the completed work, Cooper’s Cove, Sooke Harbour, B.C. as well as the watercolour study of Kakabeka Falls, 1881 by Lucius O’Brien, better known as the completed work Kakabeka falls, Kamanistiquia River, 1882 which resides at the National Gallery of Canada. Lastly, on view are a number of deceiving works that ride a fine line between sketch and finished artwork, such as David Hockney’s, Celia Smoking and Jessie Ursenbach’s, Calla Lily.
– Andrea Kremenik
