|
|
| |||||
 |
|
|
|||
| |||||
 |
|||||
Tuesday, May 13, 2008 |
Subscribe | News Research Centre | Place a Classified Ad | Advertise | |
|
|
Artists help us see the city in a way that triggers memories and inspires closer observation.
COVER STORY: Art explores the cityscape in forms we can cherish
They give us glimpses into the downtown we only thought we knew. Contemporary artwork depicting the core of London is a popular and enduring phenomenon. The first military men who dabbled in sketching the river landscape knew what it was like to capture a moment in time and place. So do the urban artists whose grafitti-like pieces challenge us to think beyond the conventional. "For a lot of people, it's the whole nostalgia element," says art gallery owner and patron Jonathon Bancroft-Snell. "It positions people in a way that's all about memory." They're hot sellers, too. "I just sent a painting that big" -- he stretches his arms to full span -- "of the Delta Armouries to Florida." All across London and beyond, home-owners and office-dwellers can glimpse the city's core without looking out their windows. They range from pen-and-ink sketches -- notecard art of familiar landmarks -- to multi-panel installations of lustrous oils. They make us see the familiar in a new light. Look closely at today's Covent Garden Market, built in 1999, and you will see Paul Peel's 1883 painting of the same place, of a building long-ago torn down. Or check out London artist Gord Buxton's watercolour of the bridge approaching the old courthouse and jail on King Street. "Most of us, when you drive that road, you don't see that. You wouldn't think that was London at all," says Barb MacPhail, proprietor of Artistix Gallery and Gifts. More than 150 years ago, George Russell Dartnell painted a similar watercolour scene. "Some of the earliest painters were the guys doing military duty here and this was their hobby. Some of them were quite talented," says Brian Meehan, head of Museum London. Some are coy: David Hall's alley- and rooftop-view paintings needle the viewer's memory -- you know you've seen that place -- or have you? -- and its precise location dances around the edges of memory. There's a Delta Armouries painting by John Climenhage that brings a unique sparkle to the historic building, and intriguing hand-tinted photographs by Scott Woods of alleyways and metal staircases. Or the bold works of Jamie Jardine, one of Bancroft-Snell's favourite artists. In his personal collection is a painting of the New Yorker repertory theatre, now GT's, at York and Wellington streets. "They're so, so London. It takes me back to the London I knew," Bancroft-Snell says. "We look at buildings and we don't realize there's an ephemeral quality to them until they're gone." Look in any commercial or public gallery in London and you'll be sure to find images of downtown through the eyes of artists. Many also hang in the corporate world. In the boardroom of the John Timmerman Insurance office, for example, there's a Jardine of Prince Albert's Diner so vivid you can almost smell the French fries. A three-panel commissioned work behind the reception desk shows the Forks of the Thames, a recurrent and favourite theme of artists. And always there's the public art, of downtown London in downtown London. They include massive second-storey murals that decorate storefronts . . . and the street-level art that's as accessible as a donation. Sketcher Kenny Blatchford pencil-draws the people he watches while panhandling and finds a never-ending canvas for his imagination. Often, passersby yell at him to get a job but he enjoys creating images and, "Once in a while people offer to buy my stuff." Debora Van Brenk is a Free Press reporter.
Home
|
News
|
Opinion
|
Today
|
Sports
|
Business
|
Classifieds
Place an Ad | Subscribe | Become a Carrier | Your Newspaper
|
|
|
E-MAIL: Debora Van Brenk