John Nugent wanted to celebrate wheat with a monumental sculpture representing its importance to Western Canada.
But Nugent unintentionally built himself a controversy that has made Number One Northern an unhappy objet d’art, one that has been condemned, spurned, cut up in pieces and left to rust.
Number One Northern, a large steel sculpture set up in Winnipeg two decades ago, has also evoked fierce loyalty from artists and the public.
“The ghosts of the past will haunt it until doomsday,” said Nugent, a Lumsden, Sask. artist, about his 1975 work. It was named after the grade of wheat that used to dominate the Prairies.
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Nugent recently discovered that Number One Northern had been cut into three pieces and left in an open enclosure. He complained, as did many Canadian artists, about the way the federal public works department stores pieces of art it owns.
The department has now committed to restoring the sculpture and finding a prominent, public setting for it.
This recent controversy is an echo of the original debate that raged when Number One Northern was unveiled.
In 1975 a new Canadian Grain Commission building was opened in Winnipeg and the government commissioned a large work of art to stand in front of the building.
Nugent’s idea was to build a large steel sculpture, an abstract representation of the multi-layer rectangular shapes that dominate the Prairies in the fall.
It was painted the brilliant yellow of harvest wheat.
But the abstract nature of the piece drew the wrath of some in the grain commission, Nugent said, and even the agriculture minister of the time, Eugene Whelan, condemned it.
“I went there with joy in my heart and got slammed in the teeth,” said Nugent.
After a few years the grain commission had the sculpture hauled to a Revenue Canada building, and in 1993 it was moved and chopped into three.
Public Works spokesperson Bill Rodger said Number One Northern was removed because new pathways to the revenue building passed near the sculpture and the department was concerned children might climb on it.
Public reaction to news of its deterioration has prompted Public Works to find a new home for it.
That might not be easy, considering the piece is 7.3 metres long, 5.4 m wide and 2.4 m high (24 x 18 x 8 feet).
Rodger said the department will try to find a visible location with some connection to agriculture.
Nugent wants Number One Northern to be put back in front of the Canadian Grain Commission.
“The idea was that it would be a metaphor for wheat fields, and be in front of the grain commission,” he said. “I think that was appropriate.”
He is now rallying Winnipeg artists for support.
If Nugent gets his way, Number One Northern may once more rise from prairie soil.
