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Item Name: Print
Title: Granite I
Maker: Don Proch
Year: 1979
Country: Canadian
Materials: silk screen on paper 11/100
Measurements: in frame: 27 cm x 67 cm; work: 20.5 cm x 61 cm
ID Number: ART 198
Legal Status: ART RENTAL


Extended Label Info: In this abstract composition, Don Proch combines two aspects of rural settler life, a prairie field with an aerial view of a curling game: work and play. The image is divided into top and bottom with a majestic cloud floating over the patterns of a plowed field. Superimposed onto this landscape is the field of play, the curling ice. On the right side are concentric rings of red, white, and blue forming a target known as the “house”. The object in curling is to slide a heavy granite stone, or “rock” down the sheet of ice to land on “the button” in the center of the rings. Once the rock is “thrown”, team members sweep the ice to guide the sliding rock onto the target; the broom both cleans the ice and melts the surface to create a slick path for the rock. Recorded history of curling indicates the game was played outdoors on frozen ponds in 16th century Scotland. Moving to North America with European settlers, it became a popular winter sport. Since curling was added to the official Winter Olympics program in 1998, Canadians have won several Gold Medals. This image is a silkscreen print, one of many that Proch created with the team at the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop in Winnipeg. The inscription on the bottom right accredits the print as being done for the “Ophthalmia Company of Inglis, Manitoba” which refers to an artist’s collective that Proch organized in the 1970s. Don Proch (b.1944 - ) was born in Hamilton, Ontario. His family relocated to Grandview, Manitoba and then to the rural area of Inglis, Russell, and the Assesippi Valley when Don was eight. Eventually settling in Winnipeg, Proch earned his Bachelor of Fine Arts (1964) and his Bachelor of Education (1967) from the University of Manitoba, School of Art. He was a part of the core group of printmakers at the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop (Winnipeg), founded by Bill Lobchuk in 1968. Proch has exhibited across Canada and internationally, including in Paris, Brussels, Chicago, and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). His work is represented in numerous permanent collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Art News Collection (New York), The Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa), Vancouver Art Gallery, and The Mancy Collection (New York). In 2019, Don Proch received an honorary Doctorate of Law degree from St. John’s College at the University of Manitoba.