EXHIBIT
Building a University Art Collection: 50 Years
When: Aug. 29 to Nov. 24
Where: Legacy Art Gallery
Admission: Free
If you've taken a look at the walls of the Victoria Cool Aid Society's Access Health Centre, studied the bronze double killer whale sculpture at Government House or noticed the portrait of Pierre Trudeau at Swans Hotel & Brew Pub - you've already experienced some of the pieces in the University of Victoria's art collection.
The city is strewn with about 5,000 sculptures, prints and paintings on loan from the school's approximately 27,000-piece collection, one of the largest university holdings in sa国际传媒.
And while several pieces have been shown in exhibitions celebrating one artist or a certain style, a special show opening Wednesday will demonstrate the collection's own diversity and strength.
Building a University Art Collection: 50 Years looks back on the history and evolution of the collection - which has included pieces by Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, William Morris and more.
The half-century anniversary is also a chance to look at its place in the fabric of academic life.
"I think that at any major university, it's thought that there should be an art collection - that culture is important not only to academic life, but to life in general on campus," said recently appointed director of collections Mary Jo Hughes.
The show will feature 50 pieces, balancing works that represent strong areas of the collection - such as local First Nations prints - with works by well-known artists, like the stained glass designed by American architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
A university collection has a different mandate in the community than public or private art collections, according to its keepers.
"What was unique about this collection, that is maybe different from a public art gallery, is that ours is a teaching and research collection," said Martin Segger, who came out of retirement to guest curate the show, having headed the collection for 35 years.
As such, the collection has come to reflect the interests of the faculty and subjects taught on campus, said Hughes. PreColumbian artworks supplement lessons and research in that area, for example.
"What you want to build is context," said Segger.
"So at the simplest level - if we purchased a print, for instance - sometimes we try to get the artist's original sketches, notes, colour separation details and copies of communications between the artist and printmaker."
That philosophy means UVic houses sketches, plans, finished and unfinished works by local artists like sculptor Bob De Castro and perhaps the largest collection of portrait artist Myfanwy Pavelic's work - both of whom belonged to The Limner Group.
"The focus on contemporary art over the past few years has been to document artists in Victoria and British Columbia, from the 1950s to the current time," said Segger.
It's also a place where donors have a lot of influence on the direction of the collection - their contributions will be acknowledged in the show.
Michael Williams donated the Legacy Gallery and a large endowment, as well as a huge collection to complement the school's, for example.
S.W. Jackman also donated his collection of blue-and-white Chinese porcelain covering four centuries - then he built a second collection and donated it anew.
"We've never had a huge collection fund," said Segger. "But very generous donors have gone out and put together collections for us."
The school's collection began during a national era of academic growth, he said.
"A lot of university art collections will go back to the big expansion of universities in sa国际传媒 in the 1950s and 1960s," he said.
"So we're part of a cohort."
Three elements provided the seeds for UVic's collection.
The modern art collection began with Victoria College in the 1950s, under principal Harry Hickman, a well-known supporter of the arts.
"They developed a small collection, including many British Columbian artists," he said.
Hickman also brought concerts, films and other multimedia teaching materials to the school.
In the early 1960s, the school commissioned works for buildings on the new Gordon Head campus - especially sculptural works, such as the facade panels designed by sa国际传媒 sculptor George A. Norris for the McPherson Library.
The third component was a bequest by artist Katherine Maltwood, which included the Maltwood Art Gallery at Royal Oak, many of Maltwood's own works, as well as decorative arts that she and husband John had collected while travelling through Asia and elsewhere.
Segger and Hughes are narrowing the show down to 50 pieces, in celebration of the collection's 50th anniversary.
"They represent both the growth of the collection and the breadth of the collection," Segger said.
