Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

figurative

painter Painting is a Visual arts, visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix" or "Support (art), support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with ...

Biography

Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert,

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street west. The MMFA ...

School, then attended the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD U, is a public art university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Its main campus is located within Toronto's Grange Park and Entertainment District neighbourhoods ...

, graduating in 1953 with a travelling scholarship. Abroad, he travelled to

Ibiza Ibiza (; ; ; #Names and pronunciation, see below) or Iviza is a Spanish island in the Mediterranean Sea off the eastern coast of the Iberian Peninsula. It is 150 kilometres (93 miles) from the city of Valencia. It is the third largest of th ...

, an island which is part of the Balearic group, which would in time become his home. In Toronto again, he worked with Graphics Associates as a film graphic designer for television and later with the television department of the

Canadian Broadcasting Company The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is the Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a Crown corporation that serves as the national public broadcaster, with its English-language and F ...

until 1959. In 1955, he had his first exhibition with

Michael Snow Michael James Aleck Snow (December 10, 1928 – January 5, 2023) was a Canadian artist who worked in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are ''Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Rég ...

at Toronto's Hart House,

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...

(now the Justina Barnicke Gallery). ''Figure on a Bed'', a thickly painted study of an interior space, influenced by his favourite artist, the French Post-Impressionist

Pierre Bonnard Pierre Bonnard (; 3 October 186723 January 1947) was a French painter, illustrator and printmaker, known especially for the stylized decorative qualities of his paintings and his bold use of color. A founding member of the Post-Impressionist gr ...

, was bought by the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

. His first one-man show with the

Isaacs Gallery Avrom Isaacs, D.F.A. (March 19, 1926 – January 15, 2016) was a Canadian art dealer and tastemaker. Career Avrom Isaacovitch, known as Av Isaacs, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and moved to Toronto with his family in 1941. Isaacs graduated ...

was in 1956 and he continued to show with the Isaacs thereafter. For that reason, he has been called one of the Isaacs Group of artists which includes Michael Snow,

Joyce Wieland Joyce Wieland (June 30, 1930 – June 27, 1998) was a groundbreaking artist and cultural activist who used diverse media to explore feminism and Canadian identity. Wieland found success as a Painting, painter when she began her career in Tor ...

, Gordon Rayner and John Meredith, among others. He also was a founding member of the Artists' Jazz Band, along with

Nobuo Kubota Nobuo Kubota (born 1932) is a Canadian multimedia artist. Life Kubota grew up with a strong Japanese focus in his home and with an early interest in the writings by Jack Kerouac and D. T. Suzuki. These two factors partially explain his later ...

Robert Markle Robert Markle (August 25, 1936July 5, 1990) was a Canadian painter of the female nude. Early life and career Markle was born in Hamilton, Ontario, in 1936. In 1954, he began attending the Ontario College of Art in Toronto, where he met his wife, ...

, Dennis Burton and Richard Gorman, formed in 1962. His national reputation was made with semi-abstract paintings that showed one or two figures floating in space, but, as he said, colour came first, along with heavy

impasto Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface thickly, usually thick enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides tex ...

. In some of the canvases the figure might be hardly perceptible. In the years which followed, he continued to create this crucial subject of art for himself while exploring different media. In 1960, with

Edmund Alleyn Edmund Alleyn (June09, 1931 December24, 2004) had an art career that underwent many stylistic changes. He explored various styles of painting including abstraction, narrative figuration, technology and pop art, as well as different media.Josée D ...

Jean-Paul Lemieux Jean Paul Lemieux, (; 1904 - 1990) was one of the foremost twentieth century painters in Canada. He worked in several different styles, as represented by his five artistic periods. Biography He was born in Quebec City, where he also died. He ...

Frances Loring Frances Norma Loring LL. D. (October 14, 1887– February 5, 1968) was a Canadian sculptor. Biography Loring was born in Wardner, Idaho on October 14, 1887 to mining engineer Frank Curtis Loring (1859-1938) and Charlotte Moore.Amy Marshall Furne ...

, and

Albert Dumouchel Albert Dumouchel (April 15, 1916 – January 11, 1971) was a Canadian printmaker, painter and teacher. Dumouchel also was a photographer and musician. His work as an artist ranged from abstract to figurative.A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, vol ...

, he represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

. In 1962, he painted a major mural at the

Toronto Pearson International Airport Toronto Pearson International Airport is an international airport located in Mississauga, Ontario, Canada. It is the main airport serving Toronto, its metropolitan area, and the surrounding region known as the Golden Horseshoe. Pearson is the ...

. He was elected to the

Canadian Group of Painters The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933. Its Archives is in Queen's University, Kingston. Formation The Canadian Group of Painters succeeded the disbanded Grou ...

and

Canadian Society of Graphic Art Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

. Coughtry died on January 13, 1999, in Toronto, at the age of 67.

Selected public collections

, Toronto *The

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to ...

Art Bank Collection *

Detroit Institute of Arts The Detroit Institute of Arts (DIA) is a museum institution located in Midtown Detroit, Michigan. It has list of largest art museums, one of the largest and most significant art collections in the United States. With over 100 galleries, it cove ...

MacKenzie Art Gallery The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; ) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building holds eight galleries totaling to of ...

, Regina *

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

, New York *

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

, Ottawa *

The Robert McLaughlin Gallery The Robert McLaughlin Gallery is a public art gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest public art gallery in the Regional Municipality of Durham, of which Oshawa is a part. The gallery houses a significant collection of Canadian conte ...

, Oshawa *

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

Awards

* 1975

Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award The Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award is a monetary award given since 1971 by the Canada Council for the Arts to Canadian artists judged to be outstanding in their mid-careers. Since 2005, the award is given to one recipient in each of the follow ...

Biography

Selected public collections

Awards

References

Further reading