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Guest Curator's Introduction
To speak of mystery through mystery, that is art
- Wassily Kandinsky, 1910
I consider Ronald Bloore to be one of the finest artists that this unwieldy country has yet produced. Wonderfully serene, yet fraught with a vibrating hum of tension, his work sings to my soul.
I have had the honour to know and work with Mr. Bloore for the past four years, and have been privileged to witness a larger fraction of his prodigious output than many. The sheer abundance of the work... all of it perfect, magnificent, sublime... is overwhelming.
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A Bloore among Bloores: Ron's son Paul
The process of selection has been an awe inspiring responsibility. At first glance, the choice of work may seem wildly disparate. Upon closer inspection, however, and after some thoughtful contemplation, you will find that this notion drifts away quite naturally.
While looking at hundreds of works that span decades of time, it became obvious to me that there are certain elements - the radiating circle, the hooked line, the semi-curve, and the space both within and without that curve - that appear again and again. Mr. Bloore has developed his own meaningful symbolic systems whereby these specific elements represent complex systems of thought and emotion. His work is a codex for his life experience, the merging of rigorous logic and brilliant intuition.
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Three from 1983: August 16, June 12 #1 and Jan. 8 #1, Ink on Arches paper, 58 x 77cm
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Chasuble Series Sketches 6, 14 and 4, charcoal on Arches paper, Sept. '82; 46 x 61cm |
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It is the marks themselves, and the combinations of marks, that form an iconography that transcends the personal. Each mark is made with an exacting certitude, with an authority that affirms its precise location within the context of the work as absolutely right. The mark, or symbol, acts as one facet of an oracle that, when combined with other marks, has transformative power. The work achieves an autonomous existence. It is the cause of an effect.
The remorseless and purposeful creation of great works of art - the modus operandi of Ronald L. Bloore.
- Y.M.Whelan, January 2002.
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Three from the Magius Series, Scythian Stag Sequence, July 25 1981, Gouache on Arches paper, 46 x 61cm
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Smaller works on 36 x 51cm Arches paper, 1980 May 30 and 27, Sumi Ink and 1979 Aug. 15 #1, Oil |
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Three large works, ink on T. H. Saundres paper 57 x 78cm, from September 1987
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The Y. M. Whelan Touch
- assistant's note
"This is the part I hate to have given up. This is the fun part," said our host, David Taylor as he, Ron, and I watched the works go round and round, with itching hands.
"I used to love it when the crates came in." Bloore was speaking of his days at the Mackenzie Gallery. "It was like Christmas!" He stepped back as Yvonne swept by him again.
Whelan was wheeling around those walls for over four hours that Tuesday afternoon. And by God wasn't it worth it? It was a challenging mix but she had foreseen that. We brought 30 pieces and only 16 would make the cut. The center of the exhibition was the reuniting of the three Stags. One brought in courtesy of Illi Tamplin at the Art Gallery of Peterborough. One from the studio, framed for this occasion. And the Red one from the private collection of Yvonne M. Whelan. The fourth Stag, a blue one in the collection of Carlton University, would have been too much.
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(left) Arranging the installation (right) David Taylor introduces the artist and the curator at the opening |
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David knew Yvonne as having worked her way up to being Director of The Moore Gallery, Ron's Toronto dealer. Ron had seen shows she'd hung and knew her eye. I knew of her years as a professional interior designer. But mainly we knew she is a painter. She was hanging the show as only an artist can and we just stayed out of the way.
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This page, in an earlier version, was the first on the site to highlight a single exhibition. It was a show that went without a hitch, in no small part due to the forethought and organizational skills of Mr. Taylor who first had the idea of letting the woman in the middle curate. The page is offered as a tribute to what Yvonne pulled off that Tuesday; so it won't be just another small show in a small room of a small gallery for five small weeks.
- H. Roest, March 2002.
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