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The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue $35.95)
Sheryl Salloum's The Life and Art of Mildred Valley Thornton (Mother Tongue $35.95) challenges the assumption that Emily Carr stands alone. Historically these roughly contemporary B.C. painters have been compared because they were women and because they painted this province's landscapes and Native subjects. But the comparison has not been kind to Thornton who has been dismissed as technically inferior and lacking an artistic vision.
When researching her subject Salloum showed Gordon Smith photos of Thornton's work. She tells us he was surprised by how "really, really good"; Thornton is. "She did not make pretty pictures"; like most women of that era, he observed: "she was gutsy."; Smith's response is key to this book and its place in Mona Fertig's important "Unheralded Artists of BC"; series because, as part of a younger generation that included B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt, Smith had dismissed Thornton chiefly because she was not moving towards abstraction. As art critic for the Vancouver Sun she had carried the banner for representational art into the 1940s and 50s and seemed dated, out of touch. But Smith now sees her work differently, as containing something of "the freshness of Tom Thomson,"; and has pronounced certain pieces such as the remarkable Hao Hao Dance of the Bella Coolas as "terrific.";
Terrific is also a way of describing the production values of this fourth volume in the "Unheralded"; series: selected watercolours and oils have been given excellent reproduction to highlight the vibrancy of their rich colours and the painter's bold brush strokes. Thornton may not have embraced abstraction, but she was thoroughly modern when she highlighted the act of painting itself by making visible the rough textures of paint and brush, this post-impressionist technique is especially evident in the book's cover scene of boats at Kitsilano Beach.
Salloum gives us a lucid, engaging account of the artist's life. Mildred Valley Thornton (1890-1967), the seventh in a farm family of fourteen children, was born and raised in southern Ontario, attended classes at the Ontario College of Art and, like Carr, had some training in the United States. In 1913, when she was 23, she moved on her own to Regina where she met her future husband and established herself as one of Saskatchewan's prominent artists. But the Depression ruined her husband's restaurant business and they relocated with twin sons to Vancouver in 1934 where Thornton immersed herself in the city's artistic and cultural communities. Her generous, outgoing personality and energetic style were the opposite of the shy and abrasive Emily Carr. Forthright and sociable, she was a devoted wife and mother, and enjoyed friendly relations with her clients and members of the community. But she was like Carr in that she was a woman determined to realize her ambitions as an artist.
Especially important to that goal were her relations with First Nations. Salloum gives us a very balanced view of those relations. Thornton admired and respected Native people and worked hard to dispel negative stereotypes on their behalf, but in today's terms her efforts were limited by being outside the culture. For example, she advocated for better educational opportunities, but did not recognize the destructive nature of residential schooling. Her retelling of Native myths and stories was unintentionally romantic and patronizing.
At the same time her admiration and respect for Native people was at the heart of what she regarded as her life's mission-to paint portraits of as many Native elders as possible. Like Carr, she wanted to record a way of life she feared was disappearing and, again like Carr, she went on long expeditions to find her subjects. She travelled wherever she could get a ride, toting her heavy supplies, and sometimes her young sons along. The result was more than 250 portraits of the Native people of western Canada. It was what she considered to be the heart of her life's work, but it also became the source of heartache. Her goal was to find a gallery or government agency that would buy her "Collection,"; but as she was excluded from the art establishment none was to be found. In her last years, Salloum tells us, she experienced the kind of discouragement that Carr knew much of her life, and in a codicil to her will she directed that her First Nations portraits either be auctioned off or destroyed. Fortunately that codicil was improperly witnessed and the work remained intact.
Ultimately, Thornton and Carr should not be compared because, in what is perhaps their best work, they do very different things. Carr, who painted few portraits, moved beyond Native materials to paint the forests and the skies. Here lies her transcendental, what some might call self-absorbed, romantic vision. Thornton's vision, on the other hand, remained earth-bound. She created her monumental collection of Native portraits, but went on in her larger canvases to portray the activities of the aboriginal people-carving, whaling, assembling for potlatch, engaging in ceremonies, dancing. She is especially good at portraying women at work-cleaning fish, erecting teepees on the plains. These were different subjects and required different technical skills.
There is an unfortunate note in an otherwise informative foreword supplied by Sherrill Grace. She writes that for every major artist like Emily Carr there are hundreds of artists like Thornton who play minor roles in the development of an art form, its appreciation by the public, and its acquisition by less wealthy art lovers. To keep Thornton in the shadows this way is exactly what Salloum's book does not want to do. Rather it is designed to celebrate a painter whose work is unique and to extend the boundaries for making judgments about art. This Salloum does exceptionally well.
978-1-896949-05-5
David Stouck is a novelist, short story writer and the biographer of Ethel Wilson.
[BCBW 2011]
When researching her subject Salloum showed Gordon Smith photos of Thornton's work. She tells us he was surprised by how "really, really good"; Thornton is. "She did not make pretty pictures"; like most women of that era, he observed: "she was gutsy."; Smith's response is key to this book and its place in Mona Fertig's important "Unheralded Artists of BC"; series because, as part of a younger generation that included B.C. Binning and Jack Shadbolt, Smith had dismissed Thornton chiefly because she was not moving towards abstraction. As art critic for the Vancouver Sun she had carried the banner for representational art into the 1940s and 50s and seemed dated, out of touch. But Smith now sees her work differently, as containing something of "the freshness of Tom Thomson,"; and has pronounced certain pieces such as the remarkable Hao Hao Dance of the Bella Coolas as "terrific.";
Terrific is also a way of describing the production values of this fourth volume in the "Unheralded"; series: selected watercolours and oils have been given excellent reproduction to highlight the vibrancy of their rich colours and the painter's bold brush strokes. Thornton may not have embraced abstraction, but she was thoroughly modern when she highlighted the act of painting itself by making visible the rough textures of paint and brush, this post-impressionist technique is especially evident in the book's cover scene of boats at Kitsilano Beach.
Salloum gives us a lucid, engaging account of the artist's life. Mildred Valley Thornton (1890-1967), the seventh in a farm family of fourteen children, was born and raised in southern Ontario, attended classes at the Ontario College of Art and, like Carr, had some training in the United States. In 1913, when she was 23, she moved on her own to Regina where she met her future husband and established herself as one of Saskatchewan's prominent artists. But the Depression ruined her husband's restaurant business and they relocated with twin sons to Vancouver in 1934 where Thornton immersed herself in the city's artistic and cultural communities. Her generous, outgoing personality and energetic style were the opposite of the shy and abrasive Emily Carr. Forthright and sociable, she was a devoted wife and mother, and enjoyed friendly relations with her clients and members of the community. But she was like Carr in that she was a woman determined to realize her ambitions as an artist.
Especially important to that goal were her relations with First Nations. Salloum gives us a very balanced view of those relations. Thornton admired and respected Native people and worked hard to dispel negative stereotypes on their behalf, but in today's terms her efforts were limited by being outside the culture. For example, she advocated for better educational opportunities, but did not recognize the destructive nature of residential schooling. Her retelling of Native myths and stories was unintentionally romantic and patronizing.
At the same time her admiration and respect for Native people was at the heart of what she regarded as her life's mission-to paint portraits of as many Native elders as possible. Like Carr, she wanted to record a way of life she feared was disappearing and, again like Carr, she went on long expeditions to find her subjects. She travelled wherever she could get a ride, toting her heavy supplies, and sometimes her young sons along. The result was more than 250 portraits of the Native people of western Canada. It was what she considered to be the heart of her life's work, but it also became the source of heartache. Her goal was to find a gallery or government agency that would buy her "Collection,"; but as she was excluded from the art establishment none was to be found. In her last years, Salloum tells us, she experienced the kind of discouragement that Carr knew much of her life, and in a codicil to her will she directed that her First Nations portraits either be auctioned off or destroyed. Fortunately that codicil was improperly witnessed and the work remained intact.
Ultimately, Thornton and Carr should not be compared because, in what is perhaps their best work, they do very different things. Carr, who painted few portraits, moved beyond Native materials to paint the forests and the skies. Here lies her transcendental, what some might call self-absorbed, romantic vision. Thornton's vision, on the other hand, remained earth-bound. She created her monumental collection of Native portraits, but went on in her larger canvases to portray the activities of the aboriginal people-carving, whaling, assembling for potlatch, engaging in ceremonies, dancing. She is especially good at portraying women at work-cleaning fish, erecting teepees on the plains. These were different subjects and required different technical skills.
There is an unfortunate note in an otherwise informative foreword supplied by Sherrill Grace. She writes that for every major artist like Emily Carr there are hundreds of artists like Thornton who play minor roles in the development of an art form, its appreciation by the public, and its acquisition by less wealthy art lovers. To keep Thornton in the shadows this way is exactly what Salloum's book does not want to do. Rather it is designed to celebrate a painter whose work is unique and to extend the boundaries for making judgments about art. This Salloum does exceptionally well.
978-1-896949-05-5
David Stouck is a novelist, short story writer and the biographer of Ethel Wilson.
[BCBW 2011]
Submitted on September 1, 2011 in By David.
