New work in Permanent Collection launches curatorial project
The Recent Acquisitions exhibition is a collection of work donated to the Permanent Collection within the past two years. However, there is one painting donated to the collection and created by Canadian artist William Perehudoff (1919-2013) that you will not see here. Consummation (1985) is a larger than life celebration of Post-Painterly Abstraction and it’s the subject of a new curatorial project.
Before being donated to the Gallery nearly two years ago, it belonged in the private collection of art critic Karen Wilkin and has not been seen by the public for several decades. The painting is not included in the exhibition, due to the fact that the painting shows signs of age and was removed from its canvas stretcher for shipment, resulting in the work needing to be restored before it can be shown again.
For a curator, the pleasure of working with a collection is in being asked to interpret, investigate and preserve the history of works of art. It was during this process of discovery that Curator of Exhibitions and Collections, Derrick Chang, began to ask himself, “How do we recover the voice of this painting so that it can be exhibited to the public again?”
The Art Gallery of Grande Prairie is committed to the complete restoration of William Perehudoff’s Consummation (1985). Over the course of the next year, and as part of a new artistic and curatorial project, Derrick will be working in collaboration with artist Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay as they explore how lost histories can be brought to life. The unexamined life of an artwork holds many discoveries. We hope that you will join us on this journey.
This project is made possible with the support of the British Columbia Arts Council.
William Perehudoff
William Perehudoff (1918-2013) is a Canadian painter most recognized for his contributions to colour field painting in Canada. He is noted for his participation in the Emma Lake Artist Workshops in Saskatchewan at various times between 1957-1990. In 1999 he was made a member of the Order of Canada for his contributions to Canadian painting.
Perehudoff’s work has been represented in numerous public and private collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Mendel Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay
Benny Nemerofsky Ramsay is a Montreal-born artist and diarist based in Edinburgh. His artistic work mediates emotional encounters with musical, art historical and Queer cultural material, encouraging deep listening and empathic viewing. In his work you will find bells, bouquets, ceramic vases, enchanted forests, folding screens, gay elders, glitter, gold leaf, love letters, imaginary paintings, madrigals, megaphones, mirrors, naked men, sex-changing flowers, sign language, subtitles, and the voices of birds, boy sopranos, contraltos, countertenors, and sirens.
Nemerofsky’s work has been exhibited internationally, and is part of the permanent collections of the Kunsthistorisches Museum Vienna, the Polin Museum for the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, Thielska Galleriet Stockholm and the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa.
