Ties to farm, community | Drawings of Louis Riel and early settler life part of exhibit
A new art exhibit touring southern Saskatchewan is showcasing a different side of one of the province’s best-known artists.
A recipient of the Saskatchewan Order of Merit and the Order of Canada, William Perehudoff is a celebrated painter.
His abstract paintings — featuring big blocks of colour — have earned him a place in Canadian art history.
He’s also famous for his mural work. In recent years, several Perehudoff murals in Saskatoon were the subject of a lengthy and expensive restoration process as the building for which they were commissioned faced demolition.
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“He is known as one of the Canadian abstract painters,” said Sandra Fraser, associate curator and extension co-ordinator at Saskatoon’s Mendel Art Gallery, which orchestrated Optimism of Colour, a retrospective exhibit on Perehudoff’s career in 2010.
The retrospective has also made stops at galleries in Kamloops, B.C., Calgary, Windsor, Ont., and Oshawa, Ont.
However, a spinoff of that exhibit, which is appearing in two rural Saskatchewan communities, features drawings from Perehudoff’s less-publicized early commercial work.
Perehudoff was busy through the 1940s and 1950s as an artist and a farmer.
While building a reputation for his mural work in Saskatoon, he also maintained ties to his family farm near Langham, Sask. He added to his growing resume in 1954, taking a job as an artist-designer with Modern Press in Saskatoon. This relationship led to the artist’s illustrations appearing in The Western Producer.
“I enjoyed it because it’s always interesting to see what an artist does to support themselves,” said Sara Fruchtman, a curatorial assistant at the Mendel, who researched the project.
“What I found particularly interesting was the way that he understood himself as an artist, which I thought made this exhibition particularly important, because he thought of an artist as a worker like any other worker,” she said.
The exhibit features 27 Perehudoff pieces, all part of the Mendel’s permanent collection. They were commissioned for two serialized stories that appeared in The Western Producer in 1955: So Soon Forgotten and Louis Riel: Patriot and Rebel. One was a personal account of the experiences of prairie settlers and the other examined Riel’s life and influence.
The images showcase recognizable prairie scenes and familiar faces: drawings of Riel and prime ministers Wilfrid Laurier and John A. Macdonald.
Those familiar with Perehudoff will find that the pieces differ from the artist’s other work. They’re small, black and white and simple, which is a contrast to his colourful abstract paintings.
As commissioned works, they were meant to illustrate a specific story, so they’re also unlike many prairie-inspired images that can be viewed as standalone pieces.
“It isn’t what you would see at an art gallery, but I think that’s why I find it interesting,” said Fruchtman.
“Perehudoff was showing at an art gallery, but he was also really a part of his community.”
The drawings were made in pen and ink on paper and on scratchboard, where an artist creates an image using a blade to scratch through a waxy coating, revealing a white base beneath.
“There’s a real sensitivity that he brings to those two subjects — the Riel and the early settler work — because he was born in Saskatchewan and lived here most of his life, except for when he was travelling and studying abroad,” said Fraser. “This is definitely his home.”
William Perehudoff: Historical Drawings for The Western Producer is making stops at the Grand Choteau Heritage & Cultural Centre in Shaun-avon, Sask., until Jan. 23, and the Allie Griffin Art Gallery in Weyburn, Sask., from Feb. 1 to March 30.
