VAN GOGH KEEPS AN EYE ON PRAIRIE ART LOVERS
Calgary gallery unveils large bronze portrait by renowned Saskatchewan artist Fafard
CALGARY Passersby in the Calgary neighbourhood of Mission are now under the watchful eye of Vincent Van Gogh.
Van Gogh Observes, one of the last large-scale works by legendary Prairie artist Joe Fafard, was unveiled in front of Mission’s Masters Gallery last week. The eightfoot by eight-foot bronze portrait of Vincent Van Gogh was one of the last pieces Fafard completed before he died in March.
Fafard designed the piece two years ago and Calgary commercial gallery Masters Gallery bought it because president Ryan Green thought it would make for a fantastic outdoor sculpture.
He also had a specific young audience in mind. Around the same time, the gallery had started a program with the Calgary Board of Education called Young Masters, which brings kids to the gallery to learn about art.
“My primary reason was to see the looks on the kids’ faces when they come for this program,” Green said. “It’s going to be right in front of the gallery. The bus pulls up, they all get off the bus and they wait for a little bit out front. Right where they’re waiting to come into the gallery, they’ll all be standing, looking at this big portrait of Vincent Van Gogh by Fafard.”
The piece is an edition of three. Another copy sits outside Mayberry Fine Art in Toronto and a third has yet to be cast by Fafard’s Saskatchewan foundry.
The portrait uses what’s called a “hollow face illusion” that makes it seem as if Van Gogh’s eyes are following you regardless of what angle you’re looking at it. The front is brightly coloured and concave — Van Gogh is wearing a similar-coloured shirt to his famous 1889 self portrait — while the back is more monochromatic and convex.
“Effectively, he’s making you see something that’s not there,” said Green.
“When you think about what Vincent was famous for, he was famous for seeing a world in colour and paint texture that nobody else at the time was seeing. Everybody thought he was mad. He himself in a journal said I’ve given my heart and my soul to my art and I’ve lost my mind in the process. I think when you’re looking at the big piece, Joe is trying to put you in the shoes of Van Gogh. What was he seeing?”
Fafard was fascinated with Van Gogh, starting in the early 1980s when he picked up a copy of the famed artist’s letters to his brother, Theo, Green said.
Van Gogh was his favourite artist, Fafard’s son Joel added.
“He was always sculpturally extending what Vincent did with a brush,” said Joel, who was in town for the unveiling along with Joe’s partner, Alyce Hammon.
The unveiling coincides with an exhibition of some of Fafard’s work at the Masters Gallery, including his first sculpture of Van Gogh, Dear Vincent, which was completed in 1984. The largescale work Van Gogh Observes is for sale for $165,000, which means Van Gogh might not be observing Mission indefinitely.
But Green hopes that if it does sell, he can convince the buyer to keep it on display for at least six months if not a year. Green says he’s been in contact with at least one potential buyer from Edmonton.
Fafard, born Sept. 4, 1942, was Saskatchewan’s most famous artist and his work is installed in prominent public locations across Canada.
He was known for his depictions of Prairie animals, including horses and cows. Fafard has two major sculptures in downtown Calgary: Do Re Mi Fa So La Ti Do, a collection of eight steel-cut horses that sits near the Calgary Courts Centre; and Pacific Paskwamostos, a stainless steel bison, that sits outside the Shaw building.
Joel wasn’t sure how he would react to seeing his late father’s large work unveiled in person.
“Things are still very fresh and raw for me, it could be a very emotional moment,” he said the day before the unveiling. “It’s hard to tell when that’s going to happen, but there’s many of those this year. I was spending a little bit of time thinking about this the other night and certainly choked up. I’m prepared for it to go that direction.”