Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Herbert Siebner at Winchester Modern

 Herbert Siebner: A Sixty-Year Legacy

Winchester Galleries proudly presents a special exhibition to celebrate the sixtieth anniversary of Herbert Siebner's arrival in Victoria.

Following the Second World War, this passionate, spontaneous artist found nothing to keep him in Berlin, and decided to come to Canada, "the land of opportunity." Travelling across the country by train with his young family, he didn't stop until he got to Victoria.

It was 1954,  sixty years ago, and Victoria warmly embraced him.

Here, Siebner was able to live the artistic, bohemian life he valued, filled with good friends and outrageous parties. And most importantly, he was able to develop his art from the gentle European watercolours and mythological figurative sgraffitos to the riveting, narrative abstract oils and acrylics.

Siebner came into his own here, due in no small part to his infectious self-promotion, but also to the timely one-man exhibition organized for him at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria by then-director Colin Graham. From that ground-breaking exhibit in 1955, and from many other solo exhibitions and group shows with The Limners over the years, Siebner's work became firmly entrenched in the West Coast canon.

Winchester Modern 758 Humboldt Street
March 8 to 29, 2014
Opening reception: Saturday, March 8, 2:00 to 4:00 p.m.

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