Robert Amos talks about new book: E. J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island

Connections by Philip Willey – July 2014

 

It’s summer and time to get out and make connections. And where better than the Moss  Street Paint In where there are lots of connections to be made. … Carollyne Yardley, Robert Amos and there’s Linny D. Vine, a few clouds don’t bother Linny. Connected with Godfrey Stephens who I hitchhiked with in Greece. 1962 I think it was. I don’t make this stuff up. Seen Godfrey a few times since of course. Ucluelet, James Bay. He’s living in Esquimault and he has a book out…. ‘Wood Storms, Wild Canvas’… Irma Soltonovich, Lesli Ellis, Lyle Schultz...it was non-stop connections.
 

And then there’s Deluge Gallery… an opening for Tamsin Clark. She is showing some intriguing photographs representing, says Clark, ‘conversations I’ve had with these spaces and places.’ These are captured moments made into art. Polaroid shots of rooms, tables, gardens loaded with associations.

Perhaps from the rather suggestive picture of a bed on the invitation I had been expecting something more…er…Tracey Emin. Not to worry. Tamsin’s polaroids are evocative and dreamlike enough and her grand-children are delightful.

Tamsin is living in the Annapolis Valley. I lived there once too. Wolfville to be precise. Same time as Alex Colville (with whom I connected). ….she knows Michael Coyne at Acadia University so bingo there’s another connection right there.




I was talking to Bill and She-she Blair at the Ravenous show in Alcheringa. They were just back from London where they’d met Duggie Fields. Who used to share his place with Syd Barrett. Poor Syd. I’d often drive him from the Grove to Duggie’s place. He never would have made it otherwise.

Connected with some panhandlers briefly on Douglas before deciding I needed to connect with a washroom. So I slipped into the user-friendly one at the Bay Center. That went well so I continued through the mall and reconnected with Government Street and had a browse around Munro’s Bookshop. What should I see there but ‘American Smoke’ by Iain Sinclair! Talk about synchronicity…I’d just been reading it! Iain Sinclair likes places and connections too. In the book he travels across America meeting people like Gregory Corso and William Burroughs, both of whom I met in London in the Sixties. Excuse the name-dropping. Sinclair uses these meetings as springboards for his own literary meanderings. He’s late to the party but the book is loaded with interesting references which are well worth following up. And it’s another excuse for a bit of what used to be known as creative writing now called self-indulgent rambling depending on your point of view. The next place I connected with was Commercial Alley (between Yates and Bastion Square) where I had hoped to find Roy Green painting on a wall. No such luck. He has got some sheets of plywood however and he’s off to a good start. Relax….it’s all perfectly legal. Roy’s efforts are sponsored by Open Space and sanctioned by the city. The project will coincide with Integrate Arts Festival.

Only connect….who said that? If you said Timothy Leary you’d be wrong. It was E.M.Forster.
Watch this space.

Downtown thoughts. Shawn Shepherd, Gareth Gaudin & Rachel Berman. Philip Willey, 14th June 2014

Shawn Shepherd has a new series of prints at Polychrome. He has taken some old Times Colonist plates and used them to explore the idea of anonymity. The result is a series of small prints.

He says…“Downtown, there’s lots of people and you think they’re anonymous — they’re lost, nobody knows them. So that was the idea of titling the show Downtowners. I’ve taken these celebrities and made them invisible.”

These are the vague half-remembered faces we pass on the street. Shawn Shepherd is always coming up with neat ideas. There’s something very appealing about this one.
The show is at Polychrome until June 26^th.

Gareth Gaudin of Legends Comics & Books has a show at Dales. It’s collaboration with Shane Koyczan about cyberbullying and internet trolls. But there’s more going on than that. Gaudin is a very prolific artist. He is is the mastermind behind the well-known comic character Perogy Cat. A lot of the work at Dales is based on comic books he’s made about his daughters’ adventures in Victoria. The show runs until June 30^th.

I just want to mention Rachel Berman. She passed away recently. I can’t say I knew her well. I’d run into her in Chinatown occasionally. We had coffee a couple of times. It was as if we both had a lot to say but words were somehow inadequate. She struck me as being on some kind of quest. She travelled a lot and it all went into her paintings. She lived with feelings, memories, her paintings evoke a world of dusty boarding houses, waiting rooms and diners populated by characters who look like extras from old movies. I wish I’d written something more substantial. Robert Amos did a good job in the Times Colonist I thought.

http://www.timescolonist.com/robert-amos-artist-embraced-darkness-and-light-1.1119272

Harold Mortimer-Lamb - The Art Lover - curated by Robert Amos

November 15, 2013 - February 23, 2014

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria 

 

 

 
Who was Harold Mortimer-Lamb? The first to write about A.Y. Jackson; the leading pre-WWI Canadian art photographer; and father of Molly Lamb Bobak. He was a patron of Frederick H. Varley; associate of photographer John Vanderpant; neighbour of Lawren Harris; and friend of Jack and Doris Shadbolt. At the age of 70, he married Varley's 30-year-old model and lover, artist Vera Weatherbie. They enjoyed 28 years of marriage.

Amy Scoones and Robert Amos book release

Saturday, April 20, 2:00 PM to 4:00 PM
Winchester Galleries Humboldt Valley
796 Humboldt Street

"Days in The Life" book by Philip Willey

Synopsis
  Simon is a groovy young rock writer in Swinging London who always manages to be in the right place at the right time. We follow him to the TV studios where Ready Steady Go is produced, then on to the flat of art dealer Robert Fraser where only the hippest of the hip hang out. He drives out to Weybridge to visit John Lennon, Abbey Road Studios where Sergeant Pepper is being made, and the Bag of Nails club for the London debut of Jimi Hendrix. Many years later, in Bermuda, he reflects on his life and has an encounter with John Lennon’s ghost. All that in 54 pages, 9 beautifully illustrated. Fact or fiction? Or a mixture of both? Read it and decide for yourself.

 Here you have the new book about John Lennon by our collaborator Philip Willey illustrated by :

Carollyne Yardley, Lance Austin Olsen, Michael Lewis, Lyle Schultz, Robert Amos, Roy Green, Brad Pasutti and Darren White.

to buy the book go to : 

www.philipwilley.com

" Victoria Visionaries" at Eclectic Gallery

Small Works at Eclectic Gallery

Robert Amos, congratulations !!

Congratulations to Robert Amos on his 25th anniversary writing his art column for the Times Colonist !!

The Spring Salon Series by Robert Amos at Winchester Galleries on Humboldt St.

Robert Amos Creates Artistic Life on Fort Street by Brian Grison

    On January 22 Robert Amos wrote an article in the Times Colonist in which he declares art is alive and well on Fort Street, specifically on the two blocks between Blanshard and Cook. He begins with a discussion of Polychrome Fine Art Gallery and the, at the time, current exhibition there. He doesn't note that Polychrome is actually not between Cook and Blanshard. However this small geographic quibble is probably less important to Victoria's art community than Amos' opinions and pronouncements on art.
    
   Being blessed by Robert Amos as a "very talented painter in his own right," must be as mind numbing as being slapped on the cheek by the bishop during Confirmation. How would Amos know what talent is, when psychologists, art theorists, anatomists and even the Pope don't know? How can Amos claim that Shawn Shepherd is talented, let alone "very" talented? Perhaps Shepherd is very, very, or even more very, talented? Considering the rest of Amos' 'creation' of art on Fort Street, we should hesitate to except his declaration of who is and isn't talented.
    
   What does Robert Amos mean by the phrase, "in his own right," with reference to Shepherd's talent. I suspect this cliché phrase is meant to soften the blow of really being declared a failure. Does this phrase not that actually imply that Shepherd is not really talented in anyone's perception, but that's okay as long as he thinks he is? This is like receiving an 'A' for effort to make up for coming in second or worse. Isn't this phrase, "in his own right," pontifical, condescending and dismissive while appearing to be wise and intelligent?
    
   Robert Amos compliments the Polychrome owners' ability to discover fine art and fine craft treasures at garage sales and auctions. He does not mention that Polychrome displays and sells these treasures at (verrrrrry!!!!) reasonable prices, (and good for them). However, the fact that Amos characterizes Shepherd's backroom picture framing practice as keeping "the wolf from the door" has a subtly disdainful tone, seeming to suggest that if Polychrome was a good gallery, it would not need to stoop to either picture framing or garage sale visits.
    
   Robert Amos is even less generous toward Samatha Miniatures, the current exhibition of photographs by Duane Prentice at Polychrome. While he refers to the photographer as a professional (without defining the term), Amos outlines the show with dismissive passages, such as "the title suggests a Buddhist theme," and "Indian Miniatures? Not really," without explanations. He claims "the small scale and surprisingly insipid colours work against engagement with the imagery," again without explanation. His last statement, "While the pictures are not without interest, there doesn't seem to be anything here to elevate them to the realm of art," clinches Prentice's doom. Amos' use of a double negative in the first half of this final sentence eliminates the hint of praise embedded in his grammatical gymnastics, and the second half of the sentence cancels even the faintest possibility of praise with irreversible damnation. However, though probably without irony, Amos' undermines his own omnipotent authourity by misspelling of the exhibition's title. Does the Times Colonist not have an editor?
   
   Following his visitation at Polychrome, Robert Amos tours the Victoria Emerging Art Gallery, a bit further west on Fort Street. Amos establishes this new gallery's credibility by reminding us of its origins in a "high-profile art show and contest at Avenue Gallery" last spring. Like much contemporary cultural products of a student or amateur or commercial nature, the art itself is considerably less high-profile then the promotion - a clear case of 'hype and hoopla'.
    
   Robert Amos describes Ellen Manning, proprietor of the Victoria Emerging Art Gallery as a promoter. According to him, "she has a two-year contract with each [of the winners of the Avenue Gallery contest] and is grooming and representing them for commercial success." As well as not explaining this dubious sounding relationship, he does not tell us who these lucky 'new' artists are, or what Manning's motives are. I admit to certain dark suspicions, and I believe Amos ought to as well. However, he might agree with the gallery's mandate because he too is adept at self-promotion for commercial purposes.
    
   Robert Amos describes the Victoria Emerging Art Gallery as a unique enterprise in Victoria. How can this be? With a bit more painterly and tasteful commercial slickness, much of the merchandise I observed there would be comfortable in any of the local tourist or interior decoration stores that call themselves art galleries.
    
   Saving the most delusional for last, Robert Amos' introduction to SerSon, further down Fort Street, characterizes that strange business as an art gallery. However, this store is only another addition to the growing list of establishments in Victoria that are not art galleries, but pretend to be because Victoria has the reputation of being a cultural hub - and there are a lot of gullible people in this town. SerSon is the equivalent of a cultural dollar store. It is amazing that Amos, who must know the difference between an art gallery and a junk store, would seem to pretend otherwise.
    
   Without considering good taste, Robert Amos praises SerSon for its eagerness to "appeal to any taste." Appealing to any taste is a normal business practice, for house painters, florists and hairdressers, for example. Real artists do not appeal to anyone's taste - not even their own. Commercial artists also will appeal to anyone's taste, though the owners of SerSon who churn out the impasto garbage hanging on their walls don't qualify as even commercial artists. Anyone buying 'fine' art there is being deceived, and, whether or not he realizes it, Amos is perpetuating the affront to real art, real artists and real art galleries, both commercial and non-commercial, that such businesses represent. However, I'll agree with him that SerSon does have lots of inexpensive pretty frames to sell.
    
   Surely the purpose of art criticism is not to tell the viewer/reader what to think. Surely art criticism is not unqualified opinion backed up by an authoritarian and condescending voice. Surely it is not just pontifical bombast. And, surely, there are more interesting art matters in Victoria for Robert Amos to write about - even badly.

Robert Amos " Elsewhere part III "

Robert Amos -"elsewhere" part 2

" elsewhere " exhibition and sale by Robert Amos

Pat Martin Bates & Robert Amos at Eclectic Gallery

Robert Amos celebrating Bloomsday at his studio !

Every year Joyceans the world over celebrate Bloomsday, the day on which James Joyce had his first date with Nora Barnacle. June 16, 1904 is also the day which he immortalized in Ulysses, widely accepted as the most important novel of the twentieth century. Robert Amos too has made this an annual event. This year you are invited to his studio to consider all things Joycean.
Ulysses has been called difficult to read, and Joyce’s ultimate novel, Finnegans Wake, is even more so. To make things easier, Robert Amos is hosting a weekend of Joycean activities in his studio. He will read from Joyce’s novels and discuss them with all and sundry in his unique and artful environment.
Amos has created hundreds of illuminated passages from Joyce’s works. Many of them have been elegantly mounted as scrolls in China and in Taiwan. He has also decorated with Joyceana dozens of pieces of porcelain created by Harumi Ota. Amos will be presiding in his famous suit inscribed with the words of Finnegans Wake.
Robert Amos's unique approach to interpreting the literature of James Joyce has been seen on the cover of the James Joyce Quarterly, at international websites, at Emily Carr House and at the James Joyce Bistro in Victoria’s Peacock Billiards. A hint of what is in store is available at www.robertamos.com.

Saturday, June 12 and Sunday June 13, 11 am to 4 pm

1129 McKenzie Street (Cook Street Village)
www.robertamos.com
for information call 250 389 0303

Robert Amos talks about exhibit-v in his newspaper column

I sat with Robert Amos, the art critic from the Times Colonist, for a chat about exhibit-v and the article appeared today Sunday, here you can read it :

http://www.timescolonist.com/Victoria+scene/2505497/story.html

Robert Amos in " Question Period"

artistic background:
Graduate in Fine Art, York University, 1973
Practiced publishing with Coach House Press (Toronto), performance art with Western Front (Vancouver), mural painting.
Assistant to the Director of Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (1975-80), studied painting by my self and with Jack Wise in Victoria.
Travel to Japan and Thailand, 1980-81 and dedication as a professional artist.
Art writer for Victoria Times Colonist (since 1986).

how do you describe your work:
I paint representational pictures in watercolours and acrylics of the city of Victoria, a documentary project.
I am a self-employed artist specializing in commissioned paintings of homes and gardens.
A prominent public profile is important to my work, which may be seen as a form of performance art.
The documentary aspects are usually coincident with publishing - I have seven books about Victoria published, so far.
And then there is my parallel stream of ink paintings inspired by my study of Chinese and Japanese art...

living artist most interesting?:
My newspaper column every week deals with exactly that question.
Pat Martin Bates is always an inspiration. Zhang Bu sets an unreachable standard. David Hockney has a lot to say to me.

no longer living artists?
Stanley Spencer, Munakata Shiko, to name two.

social/political message?
On the surface I would say no - it gets in the way of the beauty of the well-made object.
But on further consideration I know that no artist can avoid being deeply dyed with the views and the atmosphere of the times.
My work surely has a political message, but I am not going to slow down long enough to find out what it is.

why do you do art?
It's my default-mechanism. when other responsibilities are put aside, I revert to it.

Robert Amos.
www.robertamos.com