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Before '58

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Juvenalia and Early Abstraction

Ron Bloore was an artist from the moment he could hold a pencil. He resolved to be an artist at a very young age. As he told the story: at about the age of five, when a milkman saw him drawing and said he could be an artist some day, his mother said, No! there's no money in that. And in that instant his mind was made up.

In his school years he always drew. He would do themed murals on the chalkboard at the side of the room during class because it would keep him, and his classmates, from looking out the windows. In high school he would get study credit for spending many hours alone at the Royal Ontario Museum doing drawings of animals and art treasures. In his undergraduate years in Toronto he studied art and archeology and he won many art competitions and his works were frequently used in the student paper.

Bloore did post-grad studies at New York University in the early fifties. Then he went to Washington University as an instructor, then to the Courtauld in London and Paris, and finally back to Toronto, then Regina. As he studied and taught, he painted and he drew.

1954 (540040000), mixed media and collage, private collection

Ron Bloore used to quip, when the subject, or rather subjects came up, as they in those days constantly did, “where would Picasso be if it weren't for Harold Towne?” These juvenalia of Bloore's clearly show where he himself was for some years because of Picasso. The collage above was actually directly derived from a collage by Picasso which hung over his own desk in St. Louis.

The first and last of these four works were reproduced in the 1990 retrospective catalog Not Without Design but they did not hang, nor did any other pre-'58 work hang in that show nor any other post-'58 show, nor were any available, nor are any available to this day.

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1958-9

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The Stovepipe Enamel Paintings

After a broad and eventful education spanning the years from 1945 to 1957, and a stressful year teaching in Toronto, discussed with some detail in the Interview with Joan Murray, Bloore moved west to be part of what was seen as, and indeed was, a great cultural and political experiment going on in, of all places, Regina, Saskatchewan. He would be Director of the new Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery.

1959 (590040066), 172x172cm, stovepipe enamel on masonite, National Gallery of Canada

Bloore broke free of abstraction in Toronto in 1958 while experimenting with stove-pipe enamel on masonite panels applied with paint scrapers. The scrapers gave close control without conveying gesture. And the panels withstood the use of large, stiff tools and pressures that would not be possible with canvas. But crucially, the enamel hardened with a glossy surface whose reflections, with the slightest of movements by the viewer, constantly asserted the texture and contour of the paint itself which subverted most kinds of imagery.

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1959-60

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White Relief Oil Paintings

As Heath tells the story here, “Bloore hit the Regina art scene like one of the sudden storms the region is so famous for. Within a short period of time, he had examined the Gallery's legacy of art works donated by Norman Mackenzie and declared them falsely attributed to major European artists. He immediately started replacing the names of the masters with ‘Anonymous’ or ‘School of.’”

May 1960 (600070548), Double Sun Painting, 48x96" 122x244cm, oil on masonite

Stove-pipe enamel did not come in a very wide range of colours, so this made for some quite monochrome images. This narrowness of colours promoted the works' sculptural aspect.

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1960-61

Ten of these thumbnails link to the Sign Series Page. Two of them do not.

The Sign Series

1961, Sign No. 5, 48x78", 122x198cm, oil on masonite, private collection (610050047)

Ronald Bloore is a romantic Euclidean, interested in constant speculation rather than a final order. He is also a teacher and talker with positive, sharply defined, tersely expressed opinions. These often display a nice balance between humour and scorn.

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1961-62

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The Mandalas Series

1961, Blue Green and White Painting (610100044), 48x48" 122x122cm, oil on masonite
Permanent Collecton, Art Gallery of Ontario

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1962

Three of these thumbnails link to the White Line Series Page. Four of them do not.

The White Line Series

1962, White Line Painting No.2, 48x78" 122x199cm, oil on masonite (620020047)
Permanent Collection, National Gallery of Canada

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Early Drawings

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Pen and Ink, 1959-61

Bloore made drawings with limning tools only until about 1968. After that his works on paper were done with brushes and ink or gouache, or with scrapers and oil paint. Many of these early pen and ink pieces were done on summer holidays when he was away from his easels at some northern lake or bay, the names of which he inscribed on the back: Fanny Bay, Emma Lake, Lac la Ronge.

1961, 20x26" 51x66cm, ink on paper, estate collection (612022026)
click to see MUCH larger

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Before 64
period page

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