Greta Dale

Greta Dale
Born	Margreta Lundberg 1929 Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada
Died	1978 Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Nationality	Canadian
Education	Studied with José Chávez Morado
Alma mater	Ontario College of Art
Known for	Murals
Notable work	Mural, Centennial Concert Hall, Winnipeg, Manitoba

Greta Dale (1929–1978) was a Canadian mural sculptor who executed numerous public and private commissions in Canada and the United States, including the mural in the lobby of the Centennial Concert Hall in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

Greta Dale, born Margreta Lundberg in Kelowna B.C., studied at the Ontario College of Art, c1949-1953 alongside photographer and architect, Jack Dale and painter Jack Akroyd. In 1953 Greta moved with Jack Dale to Vancouver where they soon married, and by 1956 the couple had two children. Like many Canadian artists Greta Dale pursued postgraduate studies outside Canada. Around 1959, accompanied by her young family, she used grant money to study for a year in Mexico with the renowned muralist José Chávez Morado. There she was also introduced to the forms and textures of Mayan architecture, which subsequently influenced the sculptural style of her ceramic reliefs.

Upon returning to Vancouver, Dale completed two public mural commissions: one a figurative sgraffitto at 2033 Comox, Vancouver that has recently been restored (2014), while another, representing B.C. industries in encaustic for Johnston Heights Secondary School in Surrey B.C., points to her encounters with Mexican muralism. Dale and her new partner, the architect W.R. (Wilfrid) Ussner, then left B.C. together, and aside from a short time in Montreal, 1962–63, with intermittent travels to Europe and Mexico, were located in Toronto throughout the 1960s. Dale and Ussner collaborated professionally during this time, with Ussner often affording Dale opportunities for relief murals through his architectural projects, and Dale providing the professional expertise to his clients who wished to integrate art and architecture. Their close working relationship is evident in a joint brief Montreal business venture, “Techniques des Arts,” mounted in November 1962, that designated Dale as director and Ussner as architectural advisor. Its opening coincided with Dale’s exhibition of paintings and ceramics at the nearby small Art-tech Gallery, where her continued interest in the abstract sculptural surfaces of Mayan architectural forms is evident in the works represented in the gallery invitation. By the mid-1960s Dale had completed fourteen murals in central Canada and Spain, including works in clay, stained glass, sand casting, concrete and encaustic.

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