Maxwell Bates

Maxwell Bates, artist, architect, author, poet (b at Calgary 14 Dec 1906; d at Victoria 14 Sept 1980). Apprenticed in his father's architectural office in 1924, he attended life classes at the Calgary Art Club and studied painting at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art 1926-27, identifying strongly with French postimpressionist painters. He lived in London, England, 1931-39, exhibiting regularly. His book A Wilderness of Days (1978) details his experience of internment in a German prisoner-of-war camp 1940-45.

He returned to Calgary in 1946 and joined his father's architectural firm; with partner A.W. Hodges he designed Calgary's St Mary's Cathedral, a unique prairie monument. He was part of the Calgary Group of artists formed by Jock (J.W.G. Macdonald and others (1947). Although suffering a severe stroke that left him partially paralysed in 1961, he moved to Victoria and continued to paint landscapes and boldly coloured and expressive figure studies (Cocktail Party I, 1965). His poetry collection Far Away Flags was published in 1964.