The Chinese cafe has been an institution across the prairies since the earliest days of settlement. A couple of years ago, Al Gaspar, now a Saskatoon artist, then a United Church minister in the west-central Saskatchewan town of Eston, produced a series of 14 paintings of the town’s Great West Cafe.
The paintings depict a typical day in the life of the cafe – regulars drinking coffee, the owners going about their duties chopping vegetables and washing dishes and, in quieter moments, enjoying a cup of coffee and a read of the local newspaper.
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The collection is now touring the province under the outreach program of Regina’s MacKenzie Art gallery.
It came home to Eston recently. At a well-attended evening reception, Gaspar said that wherever he goes with the collection, he hears comments such as, “it’s just like the cafe where I grew up.”
Comments like that are what validate the paintings, he said.
Timothy Long, curator of the MacKenzie Art Gallery, writes in the exhibition program that “this world, as familiar as it appears, isn’t permanent; a fact that Gaspar is quick to point out. Cafes everywhere are closing as small towns disappear and as the children of aging owners move away. The half light of the cafe is quickly entering the twilight of its existence.
“In creating his images, Gaspar successfully walks a tightrope between an outsider’s cool understanding and an insider’s sympathetic eye. … Gaspar’s images bring to life a familiar prairie institution without sentimentality or cynicism. At a time when change threatens to erase the past and replace it with false memories, his paintings are a welcome reflection on the truth of community in transition.”
It was interesting listening to the insights of students as they examined the paintings.
The cafe is part of their lives too, young as they are, and they were able to identify people and situations depicted in the paintings.
For instance, examining a painting of one of the owners at the back door, there was a debate as to the time of day and as to whether he was locking or unlocking the door and the meaning of the blue plastic carton he held in one hand.
Gaspar’s timing in painting the Great West Cafe collection was bang on.
After having been under the ownership of one family for more than 30 years, the cafe was recently sold. It will have new owners before the summer is over.
