The Jack Bush retrospective at the National Gallery in Ottawa Canada, holds some 130 works of treasures and pleasures. The late artist’s show is a celebration of colour and form, colour as a field, colour as life-force. I met Jack a few years before his death in 1977. When you see a show by an artist you use to know it has special meaning. When you read his diaries and notes about his wife, and his three sons (who I also know) the show takes on an extra special meaning. Jack’s work was also very influential on my own paintings at the time. A 1968 entry in the daily diaries he kept for 25 years until his death at 68, Jack Bush wrote of his desire to “come up with a show that goes pow! pow! pow!” He’s surely succeeded, and the work in this show is proof of that. Distinguished as one of Canada’s first artists to achieve international recognition, Jack Bush’s life is a fascinating story of a mid-century commercial artist turned abstract painter. The exhibition spans Bush’s total career. There are little-seen or never-before-seen gems – a generous sampling from his years as a highly accomplished commercial illustrator in Toronto. Jack was a Camels-smoking, jazz-loving, martini-drinker, so determined to play in the major leagues of world art, and to “go out and try to beat Matisse.” This show is a must see.
Posted on: Sat, 03 Jan 2015 01:26:14 +0000
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