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Alex Colville
Alex Colville
Alex Colville
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In spite of his work's very public appeal,
Colville has remained an enigma. His paintings inspire
questions: What is this painting about? What makes Alex
Colville choose the things he paints? What makes this
man tick?
Though art experts have said that Colville's work, meticulous
and calculated, captures a mood of disquiet through his unique
vision and classical artistic approach, the artist himself
reflects, "I'm not looking to present confrontational stuff.
One proceeds without knowing what it means. You just accept
that 'this interests me' so you just go ahead with it. I suspect
that what troubles people about my work, in which they find
mystery and intrigue, may well be the idea that ordinary things
are important."
In Studio we see a personal side of the maritime artist.
Visiting his home in Wolfville, Nova Scotia, we see his two
startling new paintings that define his ascent into old age,
"Studio" and "Living Room." And we hear frank, often
moving interviews about what it is like to grow old: for the
first time Colville talks about having cancer and heart ailments,
about his brushes with death, his views on life, and how his
awareness of his own mortality has inspired his art.
His children reflect on what they see as an erroneous public
perception of their father's personality and temperament.
Colville, born in Toronto, first came to prominence as an
artist during the Second World War when, at age 24, he was
chosen to serve as a member of the elite Canadian War Art
Program. When he returned from Europe in 1946 he took
a position teaching art at his alma mater, Mt. Alison University
in Sackville, New Brunswick. And he painted, building
an impressive body of work that eventually allowed him to
paint full-time.
To Prince Edward Island by Alex Colville
Many of Colville's paintings, including "To Prince Edward
Island", "Nude and Dummy", "Church and Horse", "Hound in Field",
"Pacific", "Couple On Beach", "Woman With Revolver" and "Horse
and Train" are familiar to art lovers worldwide.
Couple on Beach by Alex Colville
At 80, Colville is still producing provocative pieces that
arise from a lifetime of asking one question: What is life
like? Or, as Colville puts it, "You spend your whole
life telling people what it's like to be alive." Colville
has wrestled with life and its meaning by examining his surroundings:
the Annapolis Valley, the shores of the Minas Basin, his home
and his family. He has used all of his children as his
models, but no one has posed more often than his wife and
muse of nearly 60 years, Rhoda.
Original Air Date - October 31, 2000
Links
Alex
Colville at the National Gallery
Mira
Godard Gallery
The
Artists' Garden
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