Tony Urquhart
| Tony Urquhart | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Born |
April 9, 1934 Niagara Falls, Ontario |
| Occupation | Artist |
| Language | English |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Notable awards | Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, CARFAC Outstanding Contribution Award. |
| Spouse | Jane Urquhart |
| Website | |
| tonyurquhartartist |
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Anthony Morse (Tony) Urquhart Order of Canada, (born April 9, 1934) is a Canadian painter born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. He was recognized in the late 50s and early 60s as one of Canada's pioneering abstractionists, having been variously linked with the Toronto painters associated with The Isaacs Gallery and The Heart of London group that included Jack Chambers, Greg Curnoe and Murray Favro. In 1967 with Jack Chamber and Kim Ondaatje, he helped found CAR/FAC (Canadian Artists Representation/Frontes des Artistes Canadiens), the artists' 'union' that first established a fee schedule for public museum and gallery exhibitions of contemporary artists. Since the 60's Urquhart has followed an independent and autonomous path centred upon his distinctive 'box' format.
"When I was a child,” Urquhart says, “there were creative people in my family: a great aunt who painted pottery; my mother who did little watercolours under instruction at school and my father who was a photographer at one time, and serious about his work. But I never had a relative who was an artist per se. Actually, my grandmother was quite a strong influence throughout my life. She was an artist in the sense that she liked landscaping the grounds of our house, which were considerable, given the fact that we lived in the centre of the town of Niagara Falls on half an acre. She had ponds made; there was a wood; there was an old barn in the back of the house. It was like an oasis of quiet”.
Between 1954 and 1958 Tony Urquhart was trained at the Albright Art School and the State University of New York at Buffalo. There, he trained under Seymore Drumlevitch, an influential painter in Western New York, and Larry Calcagno who both showed with the Martha Jackson Gallery in New York, Don Nicholls, an advertising design teacher and Robert Bruce, a Canadian who taught illustration. He also attended Yale University summer school in 1955.
Urquhart’s first marriage was in July 1958. The couple had four children together including two sons and two daughters. The couple later divorced.
In 1976, Urquhart married the Canadian novelist and poet Jane Urquhart. Together, the couple had one daughter named Emily who was born in 1977. The couple now live in a heritage home in Colborne Ontario.
Tony Urquhart began his career as a painter. Some of his earliest work includes landscapes such as Primavera, 1957. His association with Av Isaacs, the owner of the Isaacs Gallery (one of Toronto’s most cutting-edge art venues which emerged in the mid 1950s). In 1956, Isaacs asked Urquhart to join his growing stable of artists, including Michael Snow, Joyce Weiland and Graham Coughtry. Urquhart had his first works shown at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto when he was only 22. He also had a one-man show in January 1957 and a second in November of the same year with Isaacs. At the time, Urquhart’s influence was from Buffalo, directly from the New York Abstract Expressionists and in 1956 the influence of this movement was still new to the Toronto public.
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