1969 Virgil Hammock in The Edmonton Journal, April 11, 1969.
Twenty-six drawings by a young woman artist, who recently arrived from England, are on view at the Jacox Galleries 10518 99th. Ave.
Ann Clarke has been in Edmonton since last August and this is her first local exhibition, although she has shown in a number of important exhibitions in England.
Miss Clarke was in Young Contemporaries 1966, the annual exhibition that shows the best of the graduates from British art schools. She attended the Slade School of Fine Art, part of the University of London, and won the Slade Painting Prize in 1966.
The drawings make me wish that we could see her paintings. They are what I would call painterly and cry for larger scale. The drawings are, however, in no way just small scale models for paintings. They work quite well as drawings. It is her imagery that I would like to see enlarged on canvas.
The drawings might be compared to watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey on TV rather than in Cinema. You look at drawings – large paintings can engross you, making you forget the outer limits of the canvas, drawing you to the centre. Miss Clarke’s drawings demonstrate a talent capable of making major statements.
She has used a variety of mediums to produce these works, but it is all drawing, not collage or paintings on paper.
It is as different as night and day from the Pat Fairhead exhibition that was held at the Jacox a couple of months ago. Where I found the Fairhead works to be decorative and pretty, the Clarke drawings owe their strength to the artist’s vision.
I don’t like to guess what goes on in the mind of an artist like a second-rate Freud or Jung, but rather try to see what I can in the art for my own satisfaction.
I might suggest that this is the way to approach art. It is not whether the artist cuts off his ear, but if you feel like cutting off yours after you see a painting. I do know that, while I enjoyed Miss Fairhead’s exhibition, I was moved by Miss Clarke’s.
If there is a place for painting or drawing in the future (and I am not sure there is) it must transcend entertainment and say, or become, something important in our culture. As long as art is confused with decoration and luxury, or photographic copies of camp clichés, it can be nothing more than a diversion when it should be a guide or at least a mirror.
Ann Clarke is saying something. It is up to us to look.
Twenty-six drawings by a young woman artist, who recently arrived from England, are on view at the Jacox Galleries 10518 99th. Ave.
Ann Clarke has been in Edmonton since last August and this is her first local exhibition, although she has shown in a number of important exhibitions in England.
Miss Clarke was in Young Contemporaries 1966, the annual exhibition that shows the best of the graduates from British art schools. She attended the Slade School of Fine Art, part of the University of London, and won the Slade Painting Prize in 1966.
The drawings make me wish that we could see her paintings. They are what I would call painterly and cry for larger scale. The drawings are, however, in no way just small scale models for paintings. They work quite well as drawings. It is her imagery that I would like to see enlarged on canvas.
The drawings might be compared to watching the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey on TV rather than in Cinema. You look at drawings – large paintings can engross you, making you forget the outer limits of the canvas, drawing you to the centre. Miss Clarke’s drawings demonstrate a talent capable of making major statements.
She has used a variety of mediums to produce these works, but it is all drawing, not collage or paintings on paper.
It is as different as night and day from the Pat Fairhead exhibition that was held at the Jacox a couple of months ago. Where I found the Fairhead works to be decorative and pretty, the Clarke drawings owe their strength to the artist’s vision.
I don’t like to guess what goes on in the mind of an artist like a second-rate Freud or Jung, but rather try to see what I can in the art for my own satisfaction.
I might suggest that this is the way to approach art. It is not whether the artist cuts off his ear, but if you feel like cutting off yours after you see a painting. I do know that, while I enjoyed Miss Fairhead’s exhibition, I was moved by Miss Clarke’s.
If there is a place for painting or drawing in the future (and I am not sure there is) it must transcend entertainment and say, or become, something important in our culture. As long as art is confused with decoration and luxury, or photographic copies of camp clichés, it can be nothing more than a diversion when it should be a guide or at least a mirror.
Ann Clarke is saying something. It is up to us to look.