Kenneth Lochhead
Kenneth Lochhead (1926 - 2006) has an international exhibition history that spans over fifty years. His work has been collected by major institutions across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Musee des Beaux-Arts de Montreal among others. Lochhead explored a gamut of styles, known most for his Post-Painterly Abstraction in the 1960s, and later moved to landscapes infused with romantic surrealism in the 1980s. His last decade saw bold and vibrant figures and landscapes.
Lochhead was also a dedicated and innovative educator. From 1950 –1989, he held esteemed professorial and/or directorial positions at Carleton University, the Universities of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, York University and the University of Ottawa. He was a cofounder of the Emma Lake Artist’s Workshop, established in 1955.
In 1971 Lochhead made the Governor General's Honours List and was awarded the Order of Canada in the same year. In 1996 Lochhead became a member of the Royal Canadian Academy, and in 2006, he was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. "He brought modernism to Canada," said critic and broadcaster Robert Enright, who was on the Canada Council jury.
In addition to his distinguished career as a Canadian artist and educator, Lochhead served on many national and provincial public boards, committees and organizations.
Kenneth Lochhead passed away on July 15, 2006 but his influence in the Canadian art community lives on through his paintings and his many years of teaching art.
As The Globe and Mail declared, remembering Kenneth Lochhead on July 22, 2006: "His importance was in three signally and equally significant ways: as a painter himself, as an educator, and as a cultural figure who was interested in the dynamic of what a culture is and what comes into its frame of reference."
Read More on Kenneth Lochhead's recent exhibition Post-Painterly Abstractions
RBC Curator Stefan Hancherow includes "Blue Grey Field" amongst Art Toronto selections
