Artist Biography & Facts

Gregory Richard (Greg) Curnoe

Gregory Richard Curnoe (1936 - 1992)

An important and influential Canadian, painter, printmaker, illustrator, sculptor, muralist and educator, Gregory Richard Curnoe (AKA: Greg Curnoe) was born in London, Ontario, lived there most of his life, and died in a cycling accident on a road in Strathroy, Ontario, about 15 miles west of London.  Curnoe was an outspoken regionalist as his primary subjects were his immediate surroundings, his family and his hometown of London, Ontario.  However, his influence was far beyond his region as virtually all Canadian art history books (written since the mid 1960s) discuss Curnoe at length, and hundreds of examples of his works are in the permanent collections of almost every major Canadian art museum from coast to coast. (1)

His mediums included oil, acrylic, watercolor, gouache*, enamel, day-glo paint, pastel, ink, ballpoint, graphite, collage*, rubber-stamp, monotype*, serigraph*, linocut*, lithograph*, found objects*, photography, film, assemblage* and mixed mediums. His subjects were portraits, figures, nudes, interiors, genre*, cityscape, landscape, social commentary, politics, philosophy, history, satire, irony, and bicycles. His styles included Regionalism*, Cubism, Dada*, Pop Art*, Fauvism*, Surrealism*, Happenings*, and Lettrism*; AskART has some good illustrations. (2)

His formal art education includes the H.B. Beal Technical School, London, Ontario (1954) under Herb Ariss; the Doon School of Art, Kitchener, Ontario (1956), where Ariss also taught; and the Ontario College of Art, Toronto (1957 - 1960) where he would have studied under Jock MacDonald, Carl Schaefer, Frederick Hagan and John Alfsen; however Curnoe does not speak positively of the experience there which he perceived as too influenced by international art movements, specifically Abstract Expressionism*. (3)

Curnoe's career as an educator includes periods as an artist-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, London (1975 - 1976) and the Ontario College of Art (1976 - 1977); he taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, Halifax (1978); and he lectured at the University of Guelph, Ontario; Agnes Etherington Art Gallery, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario; the University of Windsor, Ontario; and St. Lawrence College, Kingston, Ontario.

He was an activist and leader in the artist community and along with John Chambers, Tony Urquhart, Kim Ondaatje and Ron Martin, was a founding member of the artists' rights group CARFAC*. He was a founder-editor of Region magazine (1961 - 1968) and contributing editor to 20 Cents Magazine, both based in London, Ontario. He was also a founder of the Nihilist Party of London, the Association for the Documentation of Neglected Aspects of Culture in Canada, and a member of the Societe pour l'Etude du Mouvement Dada.

Curnoe began exhibiting his work in the late 1950s and by the mid 1960s he was being included in many important Canadian and international exhibitions. Some of these public venue shows were "John Chambers, Greg Curnoe",  MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan (1964); 6th Biennial of Canadian Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1965); Canadian Pavilion, Expo 67, Montreal (1967); "Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art", National Gallery of Canada (1967); "Canadian Art Today", Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France (1968); 7th Biennial of Canadian Painting, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1968); "Canadian Artists 68", Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1968); "Canada 101", Edinburgh Festival, Scotland (1968); "The Heart of London", National Gallery of Canada and touring (1968 - 1969); 10th Sao Paulo Art Biennial*, Brazil (1969), "The Isaacs Gallery at the Owens Art Gallery", Owens Art Gallery, Sackville, N.B. (1974); "Narrative in Contemporary Art", University of Guelph, Ontario (1975); the Venice Biennale* (1976); "Modern Painting in Canada: Major Movements in Twentieth Century Canadian Art", Edmonton Art Gallery [now Art Gallery of Alberta] (1978); "Pasted Paper: A Look at Canadian Collage, 1955 - 1965", Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontario (1979); "Greg  Curnoe, Paterson Ewen, Gathie Falk, Ron Moppett", Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan (1982); and "The Language of Colour: An Educational Exhibition", Art Gallery of Ontario (1983). He also exhibited at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts spring shows between 1964 and 1970 and with the Ontario Society of Artists* in 1964 and 1965.

Posthumously, his works have been included in "The Heart of London Revisited", Museum London, London, Ontario (1993); "Empowering the Word", Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa (1993); "Gifts 1989 - 1994", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1995); "Making it new!: (the big sixties show)", Glenbow Museum, Calgary (1999); "ABC's of Pop Art: America, Britain, Canada: Major Artists and their Legacy", Florida State University Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, Florida (2000); "Vancouver Collects", Vancouver Art Gallery (2001); "Story board", Museum London (2001); "Canadian Kunstkammer: The Moore Collection in the Museum", Museum London (2004); "The Shape of Colour: Excursions in Colour Field Art, 1950 - 2005", Art Gallery of Ontario (2005); "Pop Pop Pop: Pop", MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan (2006); "A Personal Choice: The Roy L. Heenan Collection", Beaverbrook Art Gallery (2007); "Is There a There There?", Museum London (2008); and "First Nations, Second Nature", The Audain Gallery, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, B.C. Campus (2010).

Through the years his works have been the subject of numerous solo and retrospective shows; some of the public venue exhibitions were "Curnoe", Vancouver Art Gallery, B.C. (1966); "The Great Canadian Sonnet", National Gallery of Canada (1974); "Greg Curnoe: Some Lettered Works, 1961 - 1969", Museum London (1975); "Recent Paintings by Greg Curnoe", Canada House Gallery, London, England (1976); "Greg Curnoe: Retrospective", Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, National Gallery of Canada and touring (1981 -  1982); "Greg Curnoe: 1936 - 1992", National Gallery of Canada and touring (1992 - 1993); "No Exhibition: The Art and Spectacle of the Nihilist Spasm Band", Museum London (2000); "Greg Curnoe: Life and Stuff", Art Gallery of Ontario (2001); and "Cutout: Greg Curnoe, Shaped Collages 1965 - 68", Museum London (2011).

Curnoe's works are in just about every major museum collection in Canada. According to the Canadian Heritage Information Network* and individual museum websites his works are in the permanent collections of the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario), Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (B.C.), Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), Dalhousie Art Gallery (Halifax, Nova Scotia), Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta), Joliette Art Museum (Quebec), Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina, Saskatchewan), McIntosh Gallery (University of Western Ontario, London), Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Quebec), Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Quebec), Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery (University of British Columbia, Vancouver), Museum London (Ontario), Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), Owens Art Gallery (Sackville, N.B.), Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario), Simon Fraser University Gallery (Burnaby, B.C.), Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, Ontario), Vancouver Art Gallery (B.C.), Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba), and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa) which holds 67 of his works in its permanent collection.

In addition to the 182 Curnoe works in the permanent collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, it is also the repository of a large hoard of Curnoe archival material, textual records, graphics and memorabilia; this includes about 1895 photographs, 1111 works on paper, 394 artifacts, 85 audio cassettes, 34 linoleum blocks, 10 video cassettes, 9 wood blocks, 2 etching plates and 1 video reel.

Curnoe's awards include a Canada Council grant in 1965 and a Canada Council arts bursary in 1966; and, as noted above, he was chosen as the sole artist to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1976.
 
Footnotes:
1.1 Among Curnoe's  illustrated books are The Great Canadian Sonnet (1970) and Animal Spirits: Stories to Live By (1983), both written by David McFadden. Among the books Curnoe authored are Blue Book #8 (1989), Deeds, Abstracts: The History of a London Lot (1995), and Deeds, Nations (1996). Source: Art Gallery of Ontario.

1.2 The baked porcelain on steel mural titled Our Knell at the Toronto Queen Street Subway Station was created by Curnoe in 1980. Source: Contemporary Canadian Art (1983), by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff (see AskART book references) and Toronto Transit Commission (website).

2. In 1962, Curnoe organized a happening titled Celebration at the London Public Library and Art Museum (now Museum London).

3. Please note: All artists and teachers mentioned in this biography and its footnotes have their own pages in AskART.
 
Sources:

The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century (2010), by Brian Foss, Anne Whitelaw, Sandra Paikowsky (see AskART book references)

Abstract Painting in Canada (2008), by Roald Nasgaard (see AskART book references)
"Biographical Index of Artists in Canada" (2003), by Evelyn de Rostaing McMann (see AskART book references)

Canadian Art: From its Beginnings to 2000 (2002), by Anne Newlands (see AskART book references)

The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar (see AskART book references)

Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century (1999), by Joan Murray (see AskART book references)

A to Z of Canadian Art: artists & art terms (1997), Blake McKendry (see AskART book references)

Contemporary Canadian Artists (1997), edited by Robert Lang (see AskART book references) Note: The cover art is Curnoe's painting titled Zeus 10 - Speed.

Art and Architecture in Canada (1991), by Loren R. Lerner and Mary F. Williamson (see AskART book references)

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Spring Exhibitions 1880 - 1970 (1988), by Evelyn de R. McMann (see AskART book references)

The Best Contemporary Canadian Art (1987), by Joan Murray (see AskART book references)

Contemporary Canadian Art (1983), by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff (see AskART book references)

Visions - Contemporary Art in Canada (1983), edited by Robert Bringhurst, et al. (see AskART book references)

Toronto in Art: 150 years through artist's eyes (1983), edited by Edith G. Firth (see AskART book references)

Modern Painting in Canada: Major Movements in Twentieth Century Canadian Art (1978), by Terry Fenton and Karen Wilkin (see AskART book references)

Landmarks of Canadian Art (1978), by Peter Mellen (see AskART book references)

Contemporary Artists (1977), edited by Colin Naylor and Genesis P-Orridge (see AskART book references)

Enjoying Canadian Painting (1976), by Patricia Godsell (see AskART book references)

The History of Painting in Canada (1974), by Barry Lord (see AskART book references)

A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald (see AskART book references)

Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth Century Creative and Performing Arts (1972), by Helen M. Rodney (see AskART book references)

A Concise History of Canadian Painting (1973), by Dennis Reid (see AskART book references)

Contemporary Canadian Painting (1972), by William Withrow (see AskART book references)

Four Decades: The Canadian Group of Painters and Their Contemporaries - 1930 - 1970", (1972), by Paul Duval (see AskART book references)

Art Gallery of Ontario - The Canadian Collection (1970), by Helen Pepall Bradfield (see AskART book references)

Canadian Art Today (1970), by William Townsend (see AskART book references)

Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art (1967), by R.H. Hubbard and J.R. Ostiguy (see AskART book references)

Great Canadian Painting: A Century of Art (1966), by Elizabeth Kilbourn (see AskART book references)

Canadian Heritage Information Network*

Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art*

Archives Canada

National Gallery of Canada

Art Gallery of Ontario (catalogue summaries online)

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com. Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx.

Prepared and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke.