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Art Canadian

Cells of Ourselves

by (author) Tony Urquhart

Publisher
Porcupine's Quill
Initial publish date
Oct 1987
Category
Canadian
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780889841147
    Publish Date
    Oct 1987
    List Price
    $19.95

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Where to buy it

Description

Some drawings by Tony Urquhart, edited, elaborated and arranged around the idea of a cage by Gary Michael Dault.

About the author

Tony Urquhart is a painter, a sculptor and draughtsman. In the early sixties Urquhart was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts. He later resigned from these organizations to found CAR (Canadian Artists Representation) with Jack Chambers and Kim Ondaatje. He has taught in the art departments of McMaster, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Waterloo. `Worlds Apart: The Symbolic Landscapes of Tony Urquhart`, a major retrospective curated by Joan Vastokas toured Canada in 1988-89.

Tony has been involved in the illustration of works by his wife, the writer Jane Urquhart, as well as those of Michael Ondaatje, Matt Cohen, Louis Dudek, and Rohinton Mistry. Named to the Order of Canada in in 1995, Tony Urquhart was named to the Order of Canada in 1995, he divides his time between Stratford, Ontario and Ireland.

Tony Urquhart's profile page

Awards

  • Winner, Alcuin Award for Excellence in Book Design

Editorial Reviews

'It is very often a delight to catch a glimpse of what's inside a sculptor's notebook, since it is there, perhaps always, that the genesis of the creative work in three dimensions takes place. The array here of tiny notebook pages by Tony Urquhart (a sculptor of boxes, fantastic cupboards and such) is an intriguing anthology of just such glimpses.

'Through Urquhart's eyes, recorded by cat-scratch ink lines and warmed by quiet watercolour and ink washes in France, Britain and America, we are given views of a tomb in a wrought-iron enclosure, curiosity-cabinets of things picked up on nature walks, railings and fences, a bear cage in the Paris zoo, a grated door in a French lane. These are not atmospheric or gentle drawings: they bite hard on the page, and carry a quick psychological grasp of what they portray, which is almost always a limit or confinement.'

Globe & Mail

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