Arnold Shives (born December 27, 1943) is a Canadian multimedia artist and printmaker living in North Vancouver, British Columbia. Shives was childhood friends with the concrete poet

Barrie Phillip Nichol Barrie Phillip Nichol (30 September 1944 – 25 September 1988), known as bpNichol, was a Canadian poet, writer, sound poet, editor, creative writing teacher at York University in Toronto and grOnk/Ganglia Press publisher. His body of work ...

. Nichol's exchanges with Shives in life and letters offered a mutual exchange and "opportunities to explore or expand ideas".

Education

In 1962, Shives entered the

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a Public university, public research university with campuses near University of British Columbia Vancouver, Vancouver and University of British Columbia Okanagan, Kelowna, in British Columbia, Canada ...

where he audited painter Gordon A. Smith's art classes. This was followed by two years at the

San Francisco Art Institute San Francisco Art Institute (SFAI) was a Private college, private art school, college of contemporary art in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1871, SFAI was one of the oldest art schools in the United States and the oldest west of the Mis ...

(1964–1966) where he studied painting with Julius Hatofsky and

Richard Diebenkorn Richard Diebenkorn (April 22, 1922 – March 30, 1993) was an American painter and printmaker. His early work is associated with abstract expressionism and the Bay Area Figurative Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. In the late 1960s he began ...

. In 1966 he won a Carnegie Corporation of New York Fellowship and entered the Graduate Program in Painting and Sculpture at Stanford University (MA 1969) and studied with

Frank Lobdell Frank Lobdell (1921–2013) was an American painter, often associated with the Bay Area Figurative Movement and Bay Area Abstract Expressionism. Life and career Frank Lobdell was born on August 23, 1921, in Kansas City, Missouri, and raised in ...

and

Nathan Oliveira Nathan Oliveira (December 19, 1928 – November 13, 2010) was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor, born in Oakland, California to immigrant Portuguese parents. Since the late 1950s, Oliveira has been the subject of nearly one hundred s ...

and came in contact with Elmer Bischoff and Italian sculptor Arnaldo Pomadoro. As

Edward Lucie-Smith John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith (born 27 February 1933), known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is a Jamaican-born English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster. He has been highly prolific in these fields, writing or editing over a hundred ...

, author of ''Art Today'', wrote in his essay "Shives the Transcendentalist": "Shives was caught up in the radical climate of that time, but for him it triggered a spiritual quest - one that led him first to an exploration of the Eastern religions and philosophies then in vogue, and finally back to Christianity - specifically, in 1972, to Roman Catholicism." Not only this tendency but equally a spiritual search led Shives to learn of Saint Josemaria Escriva whose doctrines of freedom and understanding provided a point of reference for his visionary way of seeing nature, spirit and art. Art historian, curator and writer Edward Lucie-Smith sees this as a key to Shives' art stating, "His images are about freedom – the freedom not just to hike the mountains, but to be – by which I mean the freedom to exist in the natural world, in harmony with its age-old laws; the freedom to think; and the freedom to create in accordance with what both thought and emotion tell him."

Work

After returning to Vancouver, B.C. in 1968, Shives continued painting. In 1973, he also began making prints. Mainly self-taught, Shives produced monochromatic relief and intaglio prints. Feeling the urgency to introduce colour, and influenced by jigsaw woodcut technique of Norwegian

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( ; ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His 1893 work ''The Scream'' has become one of Western art's most acclaimed images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dread of inher ...

, in 1975 he began creating large multi-colour block prints. Throughout much of his career and during the print revival of the 1960s and 1970s, Shives achieved recognition as one of Canada's strongest graphic and print artists.

Toni Onley Toni Onley (November 20, 1928 – February 29, 2004) was a Manx-Canadian painter noted for his landscapes and abstract works. Born in Douglas on the Isle of Man, he moved to Canada in 1948 and lived in Brantford, Ontario. Later he moved to Va ...

commented: "Arnold is one of the most talented printmakers Canada has produced." For a show held at Calgary in 1984, in a ''Calgary Herald'' review Nancy Tousley wrote: "Shives is justly known for his accomplished, unusually large linocuts that recall the bold, decorative contemporary Japanese colour woodcut...The engagingly eccentric personal qualities of his work recall

Milton Avery Milton Clark Avery (; March 7, 1885 – January 3, 1965Haskell, B. (2003). "Avery, Milton". Grove Art Online.) was an American Modern art, modern painter. Born in Altmar, New York, he moved to Connecticut in 1898 and later to New York City. He wa ...

." For another show at the California Palace of the

Legion of Honor The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

, ''San Francisco Chronicle'' critic Abby Wasserman wrote: "Shives has some of the power and poetry of the landscapes by the late

Lawren Harris Lawren Stewart Harris LL. D. (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970) was a Canadian painter, best known as one of the founding members of the Group of Seven. He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art, as a visionary in Canadian landsc ...

of Canada's famous Group of Seven."

Joan Murray Joan Murray (born August 6, 1945) is an American poet, writer, playwright and editor. She is best known for her narrative poems, particularly her book-length novel-in-verse, ''Queen of the Mist''; her collection ''Looking for the Parade'' which ...

commented in ''The Best of the Group of Seven'': "(…) to younger painters, the Group of Seven seems removed from their own concerns. Only the painter and print-maker Arnold Shives in Vancouver has found their imagery in his work (often birches in snow)." An ongoing member of the British Columbia Mountaineering Club, Shives has explored mountainous areas of British Columbia and made first ascents of mountains in the north Cascades, and northern B.C. It was this closeness to nature that made it the source for Shives' painting and printmaking. This has continued throughout his career, so much so that as an artist he participated in the Western Canada Wilderness Committee's campaigns to save the Carmannah Valley and the Stein Valley from logging. As literary critic and author, Trevor Carolan has written, "Thirty-five years into his vocation as a landscape-based painter, printmaker and sculptor, Vancouver's Arnold Shives still hears the Big Song in his walkabouts through British Columbia's backcountry... Currently working at the top of his creative form, at fifty-seven the introverted Canadian is secure in his place as one of the most ecologically attuned visual artists of his generation. It is not an achievement come lightly. In an easy, amoral age when the legitimacy of "risk" has become debased in our arts discourse as the adjective "legendary" has among rock journalists, Arnold Shives - painter, public individual, father of five, activist - puts it on the line for an etiquette of personal self-discipline, community harmony, and environmental responsibility."Trevor Carolan. "The Wilderness Sacraments of Arnold Shives" Image, Summer 2001, Number 31

Exhibitions

Shives has held numerous exhibitions of his prints and paintings regionally and internationally, notably with the Pollock Gallery (1975) in Toronto and the ''Arnold Shives – Prints'' show held at the

Art Gallery of Greater Victoria The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (AGGV) is an art museum located in Victoria, British Columbia, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. Situated in Rockland, Greater Victoria, Rockland, Victoria, the museum occupies a building complex; made up of ...

in 1983. ''In the Heart of the Wild'', was held at the DeLeon White Gallery, in 1996 and at the Bond Gallery, Queensland, Australia in 2004. ''and they faded into the landscape'' was held at North Vancouver’s Seymour Art Gallery in 2018.

Books and collaborations

In the tradition of Canada's

Group of Seven The Group of Seven (G7) is an Intergovernmentalism, intergovernmental political and economic forum consisting of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States; additionally, the European Union (EU) is a "non- ...

, who worked at Grip, Brigdens and other Canadian commercial design and illustration firms, Shives has played a significant role as the producer of artist's books, notably ''Mountain Journal'' and ''At Stonehenge & Avebury'', the latter, a collaboration with poet John K. Grande won a design award from the Alcuin Society in 2009. Shives' graphics and illustrations in books on mountaineering, on beat writer Jack Kerouac's west coast experience, in Thomas Merton and the Beats of the North Cascades explore the links between nature and culture. Over the years, Arnold Shives has produced and illustrated numerous artist's books.

Public art collections

Shives' art is represented in the collections of the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

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 ...

, the

Burnaby Art Gallery The Burnaby Art Gallery (abbreviated as BAG) is an art museum in Burnaby, British Columbia, Canada. The museum is located on the northern periphery of Deer Lake Park, situated off of Deer Lake Avenue. The museum occupies Fairacres Mansion, designa ...

, the Kelowna Art Gallery and many other public collections.

Awards

Alternate Special Edition Purchase Award, San Francisco Art Institute, World Print Competition, 1976 In 1991 Arnold Shives won the District of North Vancouver Centennial Distinguished Citizens Award Since 2005 he has been a member the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts