Louis de Niverville: Pentimenti

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Louis de Niverville (19332019) was a painter and collagist. His experimental and thought-provoking art, often mislabelled as "surrealist," defied simple categorization.

The ninth of thirteen children, young Louis was sent to a sanatorium in Ottawa for treatment of spinal tuberculosis at age six. He remained there for four and a half years. This long-term confinement would become a major influence on his art. Hired as an illustrator by the CBC in the late 1950s, de Niverville quickly immersed himself in the burgeoning Toronto art scene. His work relied heavily on his dreams and daydreams, and explored aspects of the individual, culture and nature, and often featured surreal "inside-outside" spaces. At a time when Abstract Expressionism and its offshoots were dominant in the international art world, Louis's early exhibitions in Toronto quickly seized the attention of respected art critics, and de Niverville was flagged as an artist to watch.

This reputation plus a number of private commissions, including large-scale murals for Pearson International Airport and Spadina subway station, both in Toronto, helped thrust de Niverville to the forefront of the Toronto scene in the 1960s and 1970s.

Edited by Thomas Miller-de Niverville's partner of many decades and an artist in his own right-and international art dealer Philip Ottenbrite, Louis de Niverville: Pentimenti includes texts from renowned art critics and curators Tobi Bruce, Ihor Holubizky, and E.C. Woodley, which trace de Niverville's rise in the Toronto scene, and which also provide critical art historical context to the depth and breadth of his unique practice. Heather Bell's biographical piece on de Niverville's childhood illuminates a practice seemingly born of childhood trauma and whimsy. Featuring more than 140 art reproductions and archival images, this is an in-depth examination of an artist who, in his unique portrayals of the individual, encouraged the exploration of the universal.

Author Bio

Thomas Miller was born in Detroit, Michigan in 1943. Since childhood, when playing with puppets and making pictures were a vital part of learning, Thomas wanted to be an artist. He majored in art at the University of Redlands in California, and received his MFA in painting from the University of Iowa in 1969. In 1969 Thomas moved to Nova Scotia to become the art consultant for the Kings County School Board. As well as teaching art in elementary schools he began experimentation in puppet theatre. In 1972 Thomas left teaching to co-found Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia, which specializes in mixed media puppet productions for young people. For fifteen years Thomas was the resident designer for Mermaid Theatre and created several award winning productions which toured Canada, England, Wales, Australia, Japan and the United States. In 1987 Thomas resigned from Mermaid Theatre and began painting full time. His favourite medium is acrylic on canvas. Early works included landscape and still life. Since 2006 his paintings have featured references to historical artists and artifacts. Thomas has exhibited regularly since 1987, participating in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and the United States where his paintings are part of private and corporate collections. Thomas is a Canadian citizen. During his years in Canada he has lived in Wolfville, Nova Scotia; Toronto, Ontario; Victoria and Vancouver, British Columbia; and Oakville, Ontario. In 2019, Thomas moved to Toronto, where he participates in the art scene and manages the Estate of Louis de Niverville. Philip Ottenbrite was born in Windsor, Ontario. After graduating with a BFA from the University of Windsor he became the assistant director of the Pollock Gallery in Toronto from 1975 until 1978 when he was employed by Mira Godard Gallery, becoming the director in 1983. He left that position in 1989 to direct the Paolo Baldacci Gallery in New York where he became vice president and partner in 1991.While at Mira Godard Gallery he organized major exhibitions of important artists including Alex Colville, David Milne, Louis de Niverville and Christopher Pratt. He went on to mount critically acclaimed exhibitions of Modern Italian artists de Chirico, Morandi, Fontana and a survey of the Italian Futurists while in New York, along with many well-known contemporary painters. Philip has written on a wide range of artists, from David Milne and Mark Tobey to contemporary artists like Paterson Ewen and Medrie MacPhee. He is the advisor to the estate of Louis De Niverville and is working on a biography of New York City ball culture legend Angie Xtravaganza. Tobi Bruce is head of exhibitions and collections, and chief curator at the Art Gallery of Hamilton. With over thirty years experience, Tobi has curated over 75 exhibitions, lectured and published extensively, and participated as a panelist at conferences nationally and internationally. Notable exhibitions and publications include Tom Thomson The Art of Authentication; The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Women Artists; Into the Light: The Paintings of William Blair Bruce; The French Connection: Canadian Painters at the Paris Salons, and William Kurelek: The Messenger. Tobi has taught Canadian art at McMaster University, and has been a board member with the International Association of Art Museum Curators, and Galeries Ontario / Ontario Galleries. Ihor Holubizky is an art historian and senior curator based in Canada and has been a trustee of the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation since 2009. He has held several public gallery curatorial positions, including curator at The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, from 1979 to 1988 and the Art Gallery of Hamilton from 1989 to 1997. He has been a guest curator for retrospective exhibitions of Don Jean-Louis, Walter Tandy Murch, and Kazuo Nakamura at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa. In Australia he was a curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and the Art Museum at the Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane. He was awarded a senior Canada Council grant for independent curators in 1998, and an Australia Council grant in 2004 for a research residency at the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama, in Japan. Holubizky holds a PhD in art history from the University of Queensland, Australia, and has contributed writing to numerous publications on historical, modern, and contemporary topics in art and culture in North America, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand. Some recent writing includes The Ordinary Photograph: Its Agency and Aesthetics for Artmatter; The Bestof a hopeless situation for Volumes; Michael Belmore: Shorelines, Flux and Dark Waterthe slowness of things for HIDE: Skin as Material and Metaphor; and The Enactments of Citizen Kuball for Mischa Kuball...in progress, Projekte 19802007. He lectures on a wide range of topics across Canada, and in the United States, Brazil, and Australia, and was a sessional instructor in the New Media Department at the Ontario College of Art from 19861991. Heather Bell is from Toronto, Canada, and lives there with her family. She has degrees in art and fine art history as well as a Masters in Library Science from the University of Toronto. She has done curatorial work and research in museum settings. Currently, she applies her research skills to various projects for authors and filmmakers. Through these projects she has developed particular expertise in genealogical research and Asian textile history. E.C. Woodley is a critic, curator, and artist who lives in Toronto. He has been a regular contributor to Art in America, Vie des Arts, Canadian Art, Border Crossings, and Momus. As a curator his exhibitions include Fernand Leduc, Microchromies 19701999, Olga Korper Gallery; Soul of a Shoe: Three Generations of Painting, Wynick/Tuck Gallery; The Last Things Before the Last, McMaster Museum of Art; Leopold Plotek: No Work, Nor Device, Nor Knowledge, Nor Wisdom, Koffler Gallery, and Howard Podeswa: Dpaysement | Studio, Birch Contemporary. As an artist his site-specific work includes: Augustrasse 25 for the Koffler Gallery at the Kiever Synagogue in Toronto; Tales from an Empty Cabin at The Tree Museum, Gravenhurst; and 10h20h, in collaboration with Laura Belem at the Palacio do Comercio de Maceio, Brazil, as part of the Premio CNI SESI Marcantonio Vilaca para as Artes Plasticas.