Alma Duncan

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Alma Duncan
BornOctober 2, 1917
Paris, Ontario, Canada
DiedDecember 15, 2004 (aged 86)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
PartnerAudrey McLaren
AwardsBAFTA

Alma Mary Duncan (October 2, 1917[1] – December 15, 2004[2]) was a Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker from Paris, Ontario. A prolific artist working in a variety of mediums including charcoal, chalk pastel, ink, watercolour, oil paint, puppetry, and film, Duncan's style evolved drastically over the course of her career to include portraiture, precise representational drawings, machine aesthetic, and abstraction.[3]

Early life

Alma Duncan was born in the southern Ontario town of Paris, but attended high school in

Art Association of Montreal.[6] During this period, Duncan exhibited her artwork regularly at the spring exhibitions at the Art Association of Montreal.[7] In 1941, Alma joined other prominent Montreal artists on the executive of the Quebec branch of the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA),[6] and attended their first meeting in Kingston, Ontario at Queen's University with 150 artists, curators, and members of the arts community.[8]

War work

In 1943, the same year she served as treasurer of the Writers', Artists' and Broadcasters' War Council in Montreal,

war workers and the members of the Canadian Women's Army Corps with her sketches.[1] Several of these pieces are now held by the Canadian War Museum in its Beaverbrook Collection of War Art.[9][10][11] These drawings of machinery sparked Alma's ongoing interest in industrial subject matter, even inspiring her to take leave to draw industrial subjects around Ontario in 1947, while she was working in the animation department at the National Film Board.[12]

Film work

In 1943, the

stop-motion animation technique.[1][13] It was nominated for a BAFTA award in 1954 as a documentary film.[14] They produced two other films, Hearts and Soles (1955), which used the same animation techniques as Kumak, and Friendly Interchange (1959), which was made with chalk drawings. Though the production company never disbanded, it became inactive after 1960.[1] Duncan retired from animated filmmaking in 1960 to allow herself to concentrate on her drawings and paintings,[12] which became increasingly abstract despite taking inspiration from her natural surroundings.[15]

Mid-career

Duncan began experimenting with abstraction in the 1960s, with her Woman Series which deconstructed the female figure through circular forms.[16] Works from this series appeared in the exhibition Canadian Water Colours, Drawings and Prints 1966 at the National Gallery of Canada and then circulated across Canada, as well as appearing in international exhibitions and collections such as the Brooklyn Museum, the Canada Council Art Bank, and Museum London.[17] Her work coincided with and reflects the sexual liberation of second wave feminism, though she did not explicitly identify as a feminist at the time.[16] Duncan's earlier painting Self-Portrait (1943) also embodies a feminist outlook, according to art historian Jaclyn Meloche, as her depiction of herself as a young and confident working artist defied prevailing gender norms.[18] Duncan produced her "dot" series of pen-and-ink drawings of celestial bodies using simple circular forms the same year as her Woman Series.[19] In 1966, amid her exploration of abstraction, Duncan joined the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts.[20] Duncan was particularly fascinated by the works of Painters Eleven as well as the Abstract Expressionists, both influencing her abstract works, seen in her 1967 series of paintings expressing pure colour and form.[4]

Canada Post

In 1970, Canada Post commissioned Alma Duncan to design stamps. She produced the series Maple Leaf in Four Seasons (released in 1971) and the series Floral Aerogrammes (released in 1973). Her "Autumn" stamp from the Maple Leaf in Four Seasons series (illustrated right) was selected as the stamp of the month by the Scott Monthly Journal, a periodical from the creators of the Scott catalogue that commented on stamps worldwide.[1][5][21]

Later life

From 1960 until her death, most of Alma Duncan's time was devoted to her painting and drawing, much of it done on location near her home outside of

Oshawa, Ontario) and the Canadian North (spending two months in 1975 on a sketching trip to Baffin and Ellesmere Islands).[1] Duncan became a board member of ATAI Arctic Creative Development Foundation in 1974, joined the Print and Drawing Council of Canada in 1976, and joined the Canadian Artists' Representation in 1978.[22] Duncan also taught at various points in her career including teaching the course "Visual Presentation of Ideas" at Laval University and at Macdonald College in Quebec, lectures on "The Art of Animation" at the Advertising Club in Montreal and later to the National Gallery Association, a three-year teaching position in painting and drawing at the Ottawa Municipal Art Centre (now the Ottawa School of Art), painting and drawing courses at the Rockcliffe Public School Art Club, and a lecture on "The Art of Collage" to the National Gallery Association.[20] Among her pupils was the printmaker Betty Davison.[23]

Alma died on December 15, 2004, after living with Alzheimer's disease for nearly ten years.[24]

Legacy

In 2014, Catherine Sinclair and Jaclyn Meloche curated the exhibition Alma: The Life and Art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004) for the Ottawa Art Gallery and Judith & Alix Norman Art Gallery in Sarnia, Ontario.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i "Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds [multiple media]". Library and Archives Canada. Library and Archives Canada, LAC. 2016-04-12. Retrieved 2018-10-28.
  2. ^ a b "Alma Duncan". D & E Lake, Ltd. Archived from the original on 21 January 2008. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  3. ISBN 978-1-894906-49-4
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  9. ^ "Rivetting ships' boilers". warmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  10. ^ "Interior of boiler shop (ship building)". warmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  11. ^ "Shaping hot metal under hammer (ship building)". warmuseum.ca. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  12. ^
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  13. ^ "Kumak, the Sleepy Hunter". National Film Board of Canada collections page. Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2009-09-15.
  14. ^ "IMDb: BAFTA Awards: 1954". Archived from the original on 2013-02-10. Retrieved 2008-02-23.
  15. ISBN 978-1-894906-49-4
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  18. ^
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  19. ISBN 978-1-894906-49-4
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  20. ^
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  21. ^ "Stamp of the Month." Scott Monthly Journal 52 (19 Sept. 1971): 3.
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  23. ISBN 978-1-135-63882-5
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  24. ISBN 978-1-894906-49-4
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