Tags
Abstract art, Alex Colville, Apartment, Canada, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Personal space, Wolfville, World War II
Dear Readers,
Matters have not improved. I cannot even use the “Add Media” feature. I copied and pasted the pictures in this message. “Add Media” doesn’t work, nor do the “tags.” However, WordPress’ Happiness Engineers will fix the problem. I will also contact the computer company. Just in case. In the meantime, I feel totally abandoned. I miss reading your posts and writing my blog is now part of my daily routine. Life is quite the challenge.
The weather is glorious. I own one ninth of a small apartment building and my personal space is a large apartment facing various backyards. My neighbours have lovely gardens and I can see mature trees. Moreover, on this side of the building, one does not hear cars.
I have inserted videos featuring Alex Colville speaking about his art. In my earlier posts, I did not mention that Mr Colville was very meticulously in his work. He drew lines, a grid, and then made his sketch. The results were magnificent, but his perfect renditions have sometimes been interpreted as realism. There is no doubt that the “Skater” is a perfect drawing and that it is a representational painting, i.e. it’s not an abstract painting. Nor is it a realist painting. We see a skater, or rather, the back of a skater, but why did he chose to paint the skater in reverse? At times, he paints a mundus inversus, a world in reverse. Colville’s “realism” is therefore deceptive, but his compositions are stunning.
Video dated 24 July 2013
The video dated 24 July 2013, the video I inserted in my last post, is like an exhibition. It includes a few artworks that depict World War II. Please click on the following link to view it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUkokSs3JR4.
Love to all of you,
Micheline
Alex Colville Speaks (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation)
Skater, by Alex Colville, 1964
Micheline's Blog 
I find his paintings intriguing.
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They are very intriguing. I saw a news clip of Colville’s funeral. The commentator mentioned that Colville had long remembered Bergen-Belsen. He came back convinced that evil existed because he had seen it and it had wounded him. Fortunately, his wife was a loving and true partner. She was his muse. I believe that his stable marriage and family life helped him carry on. However, he chose to live in small towns and, eventually, in the house where his wife was born and where he died. I wonder if he ever realized that he was considered Canada’s best artist. But he painted to technical perfection a topsy-turvy world. I am inclined to think that depicting a world in reverse the world makes his art intriguing. There is only one Alex Colville. Thank you for writing Gallivanta. I wish you the best.
Micheline
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In the video clip he said he stayed relatively isolated in a small town because he was not interested in playing the art game. He said he only wanted to paint so perhaps even if he heard he was Canada’s best artist he wouldn’t have cared.
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Gallivanta, I agree. I don’t think he would have cared. He was doing his work and looking after his family. There was no vanity in this man. He had been too profoundly wounded to drive in the fast lane. He would have been afraid. He drove a tiny yellow car, even if he could afford a luxury vehicle. However, he bought his wife the best stove on the market and died about six months after she died. Love, Micheine
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Micheline, thank you for persevering. i loved reading about, and hearing, Alex Colville. What a wonderful artist! I do hope your problems abate soon…
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Kate, matters have improved, but my computer seems fragile. The problem was relatively easy to remedy. A Happiness Engineer told me to delete the little torn page icon (the compatibility icon) in Internet Explorer’s address bar, the very top. It worked. I can still see the icon, but it has been disabled. This morning, the “Add Media” button is working, but custom characters are not available.
Colville’s paintings are perfect, but they seem to depict a world in reverse. As an official war artist, he made paintings of Bergen-Belsen, where Anne Frank died. It was a traumatic event. He spoke about it for years and it may have influenced his art.
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