RECOMMEND
 ADD COMMENT  READ COMMENTS (0)  PRINT  EMAIL  SHARE  THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA
0 people recommend this
Gregory Richard Curnoe, artist (b at London, Ont 19 Nov 1936; d at Strathroy, Ont 14 Nov 1992). After studies in Ontario at London (1954-56), Doon (1956) and Toronto (1956-60), Curnoe settled in London to start his career as a painter. He began making the representation of his life there, and strategies of local and personal representation, the source of most of his work as both painter and writer. He helped found the Nihilist Spasm noise band in 1965, the London Centennial Wheelers cycling club in 1967 and the Forest City artist-run gallery in 1973.

While Curnoe's family, friends and surroundings became subjects of countless paintings, watercolours, collages, drawings and prints, they also became occasions for painting about painting - about perspective, colour, ornament and narrative. As his career progressed he became increasingly interested in how printed words could function in a painting, and created numerous paintings of words and sentences, some of which incorporated large rubber-stamp fonts. Among his last works were a series of rubber-stamp and watercolour "auto-portraits" that reflected on cultural perspectives through depictions of the phrase "It is me" in various European and Native languages. His 2 encyclopedic writing projects, Deeds/Nations, a biographical directory of the mostly First Nations inhabitants of southwestern Ontario from 1750 to1850, and Deeds/Abstracts, a history from 8500 BC to the present of the land on which his studio stood, were published posthumously in 1995.

His most important works include the painting/construction Kamekaze (1967), the analytic View of Victoria Hospital Second Series (10 February 1969-10 March 1971), the 194 drawings illustrating David McFadden's The Great Canadian Sonnet (1970), the watercolour Homage to Van Dongen No. 1 (Sheila) (1979-80), his large watercolours and plexiglas silkscreens of his racing bicycles, including Mariposa T.T. (1978-79), and the watercolour and rubber stamp Organic Pigments (1987).

In 1981 Curnoe had a major retrospective at the NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA and in 1985 a large exhibition at La Galerie Esperansa in Montréal. Extensive collections of his work are held by the National Gallery, the ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO and the London Regional Art Gallery.

Curnoe was killed in a bicycle-truck collision while riding the Mariposa T.T. near Strathroy with his London Centennial Wheelers cycling club.


View of Victoria Hospital
Second Series (February 10, 1969 – March 10, 1971), oil, rubber stamp and ink, graphite, and wallpaper on plywood with audio tape and text, by Greg Curnoe (courtesy National Gallery of Canada/Musée des Beaux-Arts du Canada, Ottawa).

Author FRANK DAVEY


Suggested Reading
Pierre Théberge, Greg Curnoe (1982).

Feature Articles
David Thompson: The Greatest Geographer the World has Known
David Thompson was an outsider, struggling to find a foothold in the empire that had consumed his country...
MOST READ ARTICLES
Trudeau, Pierre Elliott
Pierre Elliott Trudeau, politician, writer, constitutional lawyer, prime minister of Canada 1968-79 and 1980-84 (b at ...
Great Depression
Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ...
Riel, Louis
Louis Riel, Métis leader, founder of Manitoba, central figure in the NORTH-WEST REBELLION (b at Red River ...
MOST RECOMMENDED ARTICLES
Great Depression
Few countries were affected as severely as Canada by the worldwide Depression of the 1930s. It is estimated that ...
Evangelical Christian Church in Canada (Disciples of Christ)
Evangelical Christian Church, often called the Christian Church (Christian Disciples), is a denomination stemming from ...
Group of Seven
The Group of Seven was founded in 1920 as an organization of self-proclaimed modern artists. The original members - ...
MOST COMMENTED ON ARTICLES
Sears Canada Inc
Sears Canada Inc, headquartered in Toronto, is a Canadian retailer incorporated in 1952. In 1953 operating under the ...
Ware, John
John Ware, "Nigger John," horseman, rancher (b near Georgetown, SC 1845; d near Brooks, Alta 11 Sept 1905). ...
Land Claims
Land claims are dealt with by a process established by the federal government to enable INDIANS, INUIT and ...
newsletter subscription
* E-mail:
join us on facebook twitter
WIRE BLOG
Survival Kit
by ANNE SEIGNOT
WIRE BLOG
Love Stories
by JENNIFER GIVOGUE
ARTICLE
Pierre Trudeau: Politics and Personality
by WILLIAM CHRISTIAN
ARTICLE
How to Reverse the Decline of Parliament
by NELSON WISEMAN
WIRE BLOG
Prorogation Protest
by WILLIAM CHRISTIAN
INSIDE TCE
Gallery
Browse the rich visual resources of The Canadian Encyclopedia through thematic galleries of Canadian Art, History, Nature, People, and Science and Technology.
Interactive Resources
Illustrations, lively text, animations, sounds and games help make learning about Canadian history, art, geography, architecture and other topics entertaining as well as informative.
Canucklehead
The ultimate test of your knowledge of Canada, trivial and otherwise. You can choose from more than 60 dynamic quizzes with visual or text clues. Your scores depend on the speed with which you answer and the number of clues you need. Results are sent to you by email and high scores are posted on the site.
Timeline
This unique resource includes more than 6000 events from Canadian and world history. It can be searched by era, subject, keyword or date. To find out what happened on your birthday, select the month and day of your birth.
100 Greatest Events
This selection of the 100 "greatest" events in Canadian history was made by editor in chief James H. Marsh to draw attention to events that have left an indelible memory in the minds of later generations.
THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF MUSIC IN CANADA
Lichti, Daniel
Daniel (Lee) Lichti. Bass-baritone, teacher, farmer, b New Hamburg, Ont, 12 Apr 1951. Lichti, who is of Mennonite background, sang in his church choir as a boy. He studied 1969-72 with Victor Martens at Wilfrid Laurier University ...


Who's Who at TCE    |    Our Partners The Canadian Encyclopedia © 2010 Historica-Dominion Copyright Information