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Location
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King - Magna Hall - Level 1- Room 1085
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Technique
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Flocked silkscreen on paper
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Description
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David Thauberger’s subject matter is closely related to the prairie landscape. As a young art student, Thauberger despaired of contemporary non-objective painting. Believing, as he did, that it’s overarching universality denied the historic specificity of place, he, like many of his fellow western Canadians including Joe Fafard and Victor Cicansky, drew on Saskatchewan folk art. “Here,” he wrote, “was a whole community of artists living around me, concerned with all of my own art concerns. Their influence on me was immediate and profound.” He intuited that not only could serious art develop in a place like Saskatchewan but could, in fact, be predicated on it. Having built a large collection of local folk art, he adopted their use of smooth flat surfaces, unmodulated colour and the incorporation of commercial elements like Mactac and glitter. Thauberger investigates how the commercial world has influenced our perception of landscape. Focusing almost exclusively on vernacular architecture and, to a lesser extent, animals, his postcard-like images, accented by Pop Art and popular culture, create a distinctive regionalist vision. As one critic has noted, you fully expect when you look at the back of a Thauberger painting or print to see the words “Wish You Were Here”. From the perspective of regionalism, Thauberger is to western Canada what Pratt and Alex Colville are to the Atlantic Provinces. (David Phillips, Seneca Polytechnic)
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Provenance
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Purchased from Mira Godard Gallery.
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Inscription
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Signed bottom right corner, David Thauberger '81
