Tony Urquhart

Tony Urquhart (1934 – 2022)

Tony Urquhart  was born in Niagara Falls, Ontario. Between 1954 and 1958 he studied and trained at the Albright Art School, a division of the fine art department of the State University of New York at Buffalo, and Yale University. In 1956 Av Isaacs of the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto recognized Urquhart’s talent and asked the 22 year old Urquhart to join the Isaac’s stable of artists. This group of artists included Michael Snow, Joyce Wieland, and Graham Coughtry. Two years later Urquhart would begin his regular annual trips to Europe to stimulate his artistic development. He was attracted to what he explained as the ‘‘otherness’’ of visual experiences.*

In 1960 he became the first artist-in-residence at the University of Western Ontario, and taught in there art department after his residency. He moved to the University of Waterloo and in 1972 became a full professor of fine art, teaching, drawing, and periodically serving as head of the art department.*

As curator of the McIntosh Gallery of Waterloo, Tony Urquhart was responsible for the first exhibitions of Greg Curnoe, Walter Redinger, Ed Zelenak, and John Boyle.*

Tony Urquhart was recognized in the late 50’s and early 60’s as one of Canada’s early abstractionists. He is associated with the Toronto painters of the Isaac’s Gallery as well as the Heart of London group that included Greg Curnoe, Jack Chambers, and Murray Favro. Since the 60’s Urquhart has taken an independent path focusing on his ‘distinctive’ box format sculpture as well as his painting.*

Tony Urquhart’s first retrospective exhibition was held by the London Regional Art Gallery in 1970. Other retrospective exhibitions were mounted at the Art Gallery of Kitchener(1978) and the Art Gallery of Windsor(1988), both exhibitions travelled extensively from British Columbia to Newfoundland. In 1993, Tony Urquhart had participated in the very important National Gallery of Canada exhibition, The Crisis of Abstraction in Canada, which toured to the Musee du Quebec, Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Glenbow Museum, Calgary, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Ontario. His works are in the collections of most major Canadian public art galleries and museums.*

Urquhart’s work is in the collections of international museums such as New York’s Museum of Modern Art; the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, England; the Hirshorn Collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C.; the Bibliotec National in Paris; the Museo Civico in Lugano; and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis.*

In 1995, Tony Urquhart was named to the Order of Canada for his achievements. Tony Urquhart passed away in 2022.

Video interview with Tony Urquhart

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2022  Tony Urquhart “The Box”, Michael Gibson Gallery, London, ON
2017   Tony Urquhart, Hatch Gallery, Prince Edward County, ON
2015  Tony Urquhart, Intimate Worlds, Celebrating 80 Years, James Rottman Fine Art, Toronto, ON
2013  Winchester Galleries Ltd, B.C, Tony Urquhart, Retrospective,
2010  Ambiguous Geographies, Stewart Hall Art Gallery, Pointe-Claire, QC
2009  Moore Gallery, Toronto, ON, also 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1987
2008  Thielsen Gallery, London, ON, also 2003, 2001, 2000
2002  Power of Invention, Drawings from Seven Decades by Tony Urquhart, Museum London, ON,
Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, Kitchener- Waterloo Art Gallery, ON
2002  Tony Urquhart The Revenants and Long Shadows: Early and Recent Paintings,
University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, ON, McLaren Art Centre, Barrie, ON
2001   Tony Urquhart: Drawings, Boxes and Process, Gallery Stratford, Stratford, ON,
Thames Art Gallery, Chatham, ON, Gallery Lambton, Sarnia, ON
2000   University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Lethbridge, AB
1997    Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1993, 1991,1990
1992    Souvenir, Glendon Gallery, York University, Toronto, ON
1992    Cells of Ourselves, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON, University of Manitoba,
Winnipeg, MB, Mount St. Vincent Art Gallery, Halifax, N.S.,
Memorial University St. John’s, Newfoundland, NL, Grimsby Art Gallery, Grimsby, ON
1992   Dialogues of Reconciliation: The Imagination of Tony Urquhart, Art Gallery of San Antonio Art Institute, Texas, Mary Porter Sesnon Gallery,
University of California, Santa Cruz
1991   Cells of Ourselves, Rodman Hall, St. Catharines, ON, Tom Thomson Gallery, Owen Sound, On,
Art Gallery of St. Thomas, St. Thomas, ON
1988  Worlds Apart: The Symbolic Landscape of Tony Urquhart, retrospective, London
Regional Museum and Art Gallery, London, ON, The Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON,
The Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, ON, The Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, SK
1987   Bau-Xi Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1981, 1978
1978   25 Years: Tony Urquhart Retrospective, Kitchener Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON,
Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON, York University Art Gallery, Toronto, ON, Gallery Stratford, Stratford, ON, The Hamilton Art Gallery,
Hamilton, ON, Art Gallery of Brantford, Brantford, ON, Thames Art Center, Chatham, ON, Confederation Art Center, Charlottetown, PE,
Memorial University, St. John’s, Newfoundland, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS,
University of Victoria, Maltwood Gallery, Victoria, BC
1977   Nancy Poole’s Studio, Toronto, ON, 1972-1975
1975   Richard Demarco Gallery, Edinburgh, Scotland
1974    Edinboro State College, Edinboro, Pennsylvania
1972    University of Waterloo Art Gallery, Waterloo, ON
1972    The Isaacs Gallery, Toronto, ON, 1971, 1961-1969, 1959, 1957
1970   Tony Urquhart, Reunion, (retrospective), London Public Library and Art Museum, London, ON
1960    Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota

Selected Group Exhibitions
2018  Material Discoveries: Tony Urquhart/Henry Saxe/Douglas Haynes, James Rottman Fine Art, Toronto, ON
2017   Toronto: Tributes and Tributaries, 1971 – 1989, Art Gallery of Ontario
2009  Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
2006  Transforming Chronologies, Museum of Modern Art, New York
2005  Art of the Sixties, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
1998  With Michael Snow, The Moore Gallery, Toronto, ON
1995  Korean/Canadian Exchange Exhibition, KitchenerWaterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON, Hart House, University of Toronto
1993  Heart of London Revisited, London Regional Museum and Art Gallery, London, ON
1993  The Crisis of Abstraction, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Norman Mackenzie Gallery, Regina, SK, Glenbow Institute, Calgary, AB,
Hamilton Art Gallery, Hamilton, ON
1992  Painting from 1960 to the Present, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON
1985  Art Bank Sculpture, National Art Centre, Ottawa, ON
1985  Then and Now (Zacks Collection), Agnes Etherington Art Center, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
1985  Save Life on Earth, Yugoslavia and other Countries
1984 The Hand Holding the Brush – Self Portraits by Canadian Artists from Robert Hind to Michael Snow, London Regional Museum and Art Gallery,
London, ON
1983  Regionalism in London Art in the 1960s, McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, ON
1978  Six Artists: The Creative Process with Robert Harris, Alex Colville, John Gould, John Macgregor and Lynn Donahue, Art Gallery of Ontario,
Toronto, ON
1977  Changing Visions – The Canadian Landscape, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
1976  La Boite, Musee d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France
1975  Urquhart-Bates, Maison Culturelle, Paris, France, Canada House,London, England
1974  Present Company, Art Gallery of Ontario, Inaugural Exhibition, Toronto, ON
1973  Drawing Biennale, Lugano, Switzerland
1972  Toronto Painting 1953 – 1965, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
1968  Canadian Artists ’68, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
1967  Heart of London, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
1967  Expo 67, Canadian Pavilion, Montreal, QC
1965  19 Canadian Painters, J.B Speed Art Museum, Louisville, Kentucky
1964  Art of the Americas and Spain, Marid, Barcelona, Rome, Paris
1963  Biennale de la Jeunesse Paris, Musee d’Art Moderne, Paris, France
1962  Recent Acquisitions, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
1958  Guggenheim International, New York
1958  Pittsburgh Bicentennial International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Collections:
The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON
The Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON
The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, QC
Museo-Civico, Lugano, Switzerland
The Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery, Oshawa, ON
The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba
The Victoria and Albert Museum, London, England
The Art Gallery of Vancouver, Vancouver, BC
The Art Gallery of Victoria, Victoria, BC
The Mackenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
The Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, ON
The Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
The Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, ON
The Canada Council Art Bank, Ottawa, ON
The Art Gallery of Windsor, Windsor, ON
University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, ON
University of Western Ontario, London, ON
University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON
University of Guelph, Guelph, ON
Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Hart House, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON
Concordia University, Montreal, QC
Museum London, London, ON
The Hirschorn Gallery, Washington, DC
Art Bank, B.C. Government
The Confederation Art Gallery, Charlottetown, PEI
Lambton Art Gallery, Sarnia, ON

Credits
*Joan M. Vastokas, ArtsCanada May 1973, pg.178-179.
www.ccca.ca website