Guest Artist Lecture Series

Presents

Kent Monkman

March 3, 2010 at 6: 30 – 8:30pm

Toronto School of Art, 3rd Floor, Studio 1

410 Adelaide Street West

(pay what you can)

Clouds in the Canyon 30” x 40” — 2008 acrylic on canvas

Kent Monkman is a Canadian artist of Cree ancestry who works with a variety of mediums, including painting, film/video, performance, and installation. He has had solo exhibitions at numerous Canadian museums including the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art in Toronto, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. He has participated in various international group exhibitions including: “We come in peace…” Histories of the Americas, at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, and The American West, at Compton Verney, in Warwickshire, England.

Monkman has created site specific performances at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, The Royal Ontario Museum, and at Compton Verney, and has also made super 8 versions of these performances which he calls “Colonial Art Space Interventions.” His award-winning short film and video works have been screened at various national and international festivals, including the 2007 and 2008Berlinale, and the 2007 Toronto International Film Festival.

His work is represented in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum London, The Glenbow Museum, The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, The Mackenzie Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Simthsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian. He is represented by Bailey Fine Arts, Toronto, and Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK.

TSA @ The Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books

Tucked neatly into the upper-most floors of the Lillian H. Smith branch of the Toronto Public Library is a place where our childhood friends hang out. From Cinderella to Ali Baba, Snow White to the Little Prince, they are at home in the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books. If you think of libraries primarily as a place where people go to find things to read, the Osborne Collection will change your mind.

Comprising of over 80,000 (yes, there’re that many zeroes) items, the Osborne Collection includes over 5,000 items of original artwork, an array of games, valuable literary archives, and abundance of ephemera, not to mention children’s books ranging from medieval manuscripts (copied by scribes and illustrated by hand on vellum!) to modern day Canadian publications just off the press.

The best thing about all this: it’s a public facility. You don’t need to be a scholar of children’s literature, or have a letter of reference certifying your worthiness to consult its stacks; all that is required is that you register by filling out a reader’s card and agree to abide by materials-handling guidelines to protect the collection.

Recently a group of students from the Toronto School of Art were given an opportunity to tap into this incredible resource. Leslie McGrath, the department head of the Osborne Collection conducted for us a one-hour tour on the history of illustration. In that time we traveled from the Middle Ages to the present day in a journey that spanned continents and cultures: literature, history and art came together in a lively parade of material under her knowledgeable guidance.

Starting from the aforementioned medieval manuscript (Aesop’s Fables, 14th century, written in Latin on vellum), we were shown woodcuts and engravings, including an original wood engraving by Thomas Bewick on a block of boxwood (from a publication of 1802 ); a facsimile of The Butterfly’s Ball and the Grasshopper’s Feast (originally published 1807) by William Roscoe, with engravings after William Mulready; an original Randolph Caldecott wood block for Babes in the Wood, ( from the publication ca. 1879 ) an Arts & Crafts (and socialist) take on Cinderella, as illustrated by Walter Crane (first published 1873); a sumptuously illustrated copy of Queen Victoria’s coffee-table sized book In Fairyland, by Allingham, with illustrations by Richard Doyle ( 1871); illustrations by Ludmila Zeman from her Gilgamesh books; a plasticine and found-art collage by Barbara Reid from The Subway Mouse (2003) and outsize collage by Bushra Junaid for Nana’s Cold Days by Adwoa Badoe (2002 ); and Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as well as Through the Looking-Glass, with illustrations by Toronto’s own George Walker, where the former volume tinkles with music when opened while the latter (for obvious reasons) is a full-scale chess-board (both by Cheshire Cat Press, 1988 and 1998 respectively). This list is by no means exhaustive. My personal favourite? A board game entitled Paths of Life (J. H. Cotterell, ca. 1835), the precursor to Snakes and Ladders, where players start out at “Parental Care Hall” can go down either the path of righteousness or of debauchery. Landmarks along the right way include “Discreet County” and “Happy Old Age Hall,” as contrasted with “Misery Square,” “Agony Whirlpool” and the “Bottomless Pit.” I eagerly await its re-release.

Typically, children’s books have always been more exuberant than their grown-up counterparts. Like kids at a family gathering, they liven things up. Even if children’s literature or book history is not your niche, the Osborne Collection remains an invaluable resource for graphic designers, illustrators, printmakers, bookbinders, collage artists, typographers and of course, your inner child. If for no other reason than to become reacquainted with yourself, age 10, drop in for their exhibitions and talks, which are held regularly throughout the year. Believe me, the Osborne Collection will delight and surprise you, free of charge. Heed this warning though: visitors may very well come away with a renewed desire for creativity, adventure, and fun.

For further reading, check out:

Prints: Art and Techniques by Susan Lambert, and English Illustrated Books for Children, By Margaret C. Maloney.

What: The Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books.

Where: The Lillian H. Smith branch, Toronto Public Library, 239 College Street, just east of Spadina (look for griffins flanking the entrance to the library).

When: Mondays to Fridays, 10-6; Saturdays 9-5.

Phone: 416-393-7753

Web: http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/uni_spe_osb_index.jsp

Upcoming Talks Thursday, April 29th, 8 p.m., at the Osborne Collection

The 7th Annual Albert Lahmer Memorial Lecture

Bringing it Home: A second-generation Canadian children’s author and book editor shares collected wisdom from the publishing trade and explains why every child’s bookshelf needs a few titles that make adults squirm. Hadley Dyer is an award-winning children’s book author, freelance editor, and instructor in the publishing program at Ryerson University. She has also worked as a bookseller, publicist, reviewer, and library coordinator of the Canadian Children’s Book Centre. Admission is Free.

** For upcoming talks check out: www.torontopubliclibrary.ca > collections > Osborne > events & exhibits * Class visits and Group Tours: Teachers and instructors are welcome to contact the Osborne Collection to arrange group visits, subject to space and scheduling. Classes starting at grade 4+ may enjoy exhibits and talks, while high school, college and university-level students may be given subject presentations on Osborne material.   I am told this year class visit are limited, because of a major cataloguing initiative, but a full schedule should resume next autumn.