Name/Title
No. 20Entry/Object ID
2008.05.02Description
Gerald Ferguson (1937–2009) was one of Canada’s most celebrated painters. Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, he received his MFA from Ohio University. He later moved to Halifax in 1968 to teach at Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD) in Halifax. He would continue to teach until his retirement in 2006.
Ferguson developed his own "task-oriented" approach to painting during his time teaching. This method involved both the use of cut stencils to create images on the canvas as well as painting using hoses, boots, ashcans and even grapes to achieve different patterns and effects on the surfaces using the most minimal means possible. His playful practices of painting put aesthetics secondary to the concept and process of making and aimed to demystify and liberate the creation of art. As such, he named several of his works by describing either the subject or the process by which it was made.
No. 20 is one of several artworks made from the used drop canvases found in an artist studios. Covered stains and paint marks, it is unknown if this work was drawn from his own studio or the studio of another artist. The work emphasizes the importance of the creative process and glorifies the detritus that is equally infused with unseen creative development and emotional expression.
Much of Ferguson's art is reactionary to the post-modern views of art and artists. For example, his well-known 1,000,000 Pennies (1979) was intentionally sold for $10,000 CAD—the cost of 1,000,000 Pennies that made the work. Similarly, in his series of numbered drop cloth works, Ferguson stretches used drop cloth taken from both his studio and those of other artists. In doing so, he plays with ownership and authenticity, transforming remnants of the painting process on the drop cloths into art.
Over the years, his work was exhibited and collected internationally and nationally with important exhibitions in Cologne, Los Angeles, New York and Warsaw, and in Canada in Calgary, Halifax, Toronto, Vancouver and Ottawa. A knowledgeable collector of Indigenous and folk art, he donated "The Gerald Ferguson Collection of Nova Scotian Folk Art" to the Canadian Museum of History in 1985. In 1995 he received the $50 000 Canada Council Molson Prize in the Arts.Artwork Details
Medium
enamel on drop clothDimensions
Height
177.8 cmWidth
203.2 cm