ALEX COLVILLE

'David Alexander Colville', PC, CC, ONS, BFA, LL.D (born August 24 1920 in Toronto, Ontario) is a Canadian painter.
He studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University in Sackville, New Brunswick from 1938 to 1942.
Colville exhibited extensively across Canada and internationally including the Tate Gallery in London, England and the Beijing Exhibition Centre in Beijing. In 1983 an international touring retrospective of his work was organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Alex Colville's work is found in many collections including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Musée National D'Art Moderne in Paris, the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, the Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Wallraf-Richartz Museum in Cologne and Kestner Gesellschaft in Hannover, Germany.

Contents

Honours

Trivia

External links

Honours

★ In 1967, Colville was commissioned by the Royal Canadian Mint to design the coins for Canada's centennial year.

★ In 1967, Colville was made an Officer of the Order of Canada, raised to Companion of the Order of Canada in 1982.

★ From 1981-1991 he served as Chancellor of Acadia University.

★ In 1992, Colville was named to the Queen's Privy Council for Canada in honour of his work. The appointment allows him to use the style ''The Honourable'' before his name with the postnomial letters P.C.

★ In 2002 Colville was inducted into Canada's Walk of Fame

★ He has received 8 honorary degrees from universities across Canada.

Trivia

★ His painting "Horse and Train" (1954), was inspired by two lines from the poet Roy Campbell:
:''Against a regiment I oppose a brain''
:''And a dark horse against an armored train.''

★ "Horse and Train" appears on the cover of the album ''Night Vision'' by Bruce Cockburn.

★ His mural at Mount Allison University, known officially as "The History of Mount Allison" or "The Circuit Rider," features a centrepiece of a very large rear end of a horse. This "horse's ass painting," as it is often known, is viewed by some as brilliant and by some as appalling. Colville chose not to explain the significance of the work.

★ In contrast to many of his contemporaries, Colville aligned himself with the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada and was a card-carrying party member for many years.

★ "Pacific" inspired a scene in the film Heat with actor Robert De Niro.

External links

★ Ten Dreams Galleries

★ Courage Remembered

★ Art Encyclopedia Page

★ Alex Colville at Mira Godard Gallery, Toronto

★ Alex Colville listed in the Art History Archive

★ Alex Colville in the Canadian Encyclopedia