Objects

Viewing Record 241 of 453
Previous Record  Next Record
Switch Views: Lightbox | Image List | List

Item Name: Painting
Title: Herons
Maker: David Thauberger
Year: 1972
Country: Canadian
Materials: gouache on paper
Measurements: overall: 51.5 cm x 74.75 cm
ID Number: PC92.4
Legal Status: PERMANENT COLLECTION


Extended Label Info: Throughout his art career, David Thauberger developed a unique artistic voice while experimenting with materials and aesthetic approaches. In this early painting, he renders a grouping of herons into a patterned composition using gouache on paper. Unlike watercolour paint, which is transparent, guache is an opaque medium, and allows for a dense and graphic application. Thauberger prefers this controlled stylistic rendering because it is devoid of expressive brushstrokes, and “take(s) the wrist out of painting”. His work has some affinity with Pop Art, which uses a repetitive imagery inspired by mass production to comment on elements of contemporary life. The pattern developed in this work reads much like wall paper, but contrary to Pop art, Thauberger’s subject matter is based in nature. In the years following this painting, Thauberger continued to experiment with pattern in his silk screens, and inspired by local folk-artists, developed subject matter reflecting local imagery, animals and architecture. David Allan Thauberger (1948 – ) is an artist who has contributed greatly to the promotion and preservation of Canadian heritage and folk art in the province of Saskatchewan. He was born in Holdfast, and studied ceramics at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, earning his BFA (1971). The ceramic “Funk Art” sculptor David Gilhooly inspired Thauberger and other artists of his generation to reject modernism and create artwork based on their own life experience and geographical region. Thauberger earned his MA (1972) from California State University and then a MFA (1973) in Missoula, Montana before returning to Regina. Over his long career, David Thauberger’s work as an artist, collector, educator and philanthropist have been recognized with the Order of Canada (2008), the Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Artist Award (2009), the Saskatchewan Order of Merit (2012) and the Queen's Diamond Medal (2012). He has exhibited internationally, and his work is held in numerous public and private collections, including the National Gallery (Ottawa) and CocaCola (USA).