Helen Barbara Howard (March 10, 1926 – December 7, 2002) was a Canadian

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 ...

wood-engraver Wood engraving is a printmaking technique, in which an artist works an image into a block of wood. Functionally a variety of woodcut, it uses relief printing, where the artist applies ink to the face of the block and prints using relatively lo ...

drafter A drafter (also draughtsman / draughtswoman in British English, British and English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English, draftsman / draftswoman, drafting technician, or CAD technician in American English, American and Canadia ...

bookbinder Bookbinding is the process of building a book, usually in codex format, from an ordered stack of paper sheets with one's hands and tools, or in modern publishing, by a series of automated processes. Firstly, one binds the sheets of papers alon ...

and

designer A designer is a person who plans the form or structure of something before it is made, by preparing drawings or plans. In practice, anyone who creates tangible or intangible objects, products, processes, laws, games, graphics, services, or exper ...

who produced work consistently throughout her life, from her graduation in 1951 from 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 ...

until her unexpected death in 2002. Her work is represented in many permanent collections, including the

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

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 ...

, the

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

, the

Bodleian Library The Bodleian Library () is the main research library of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1602 by Sir Thomas Bodley, it is one of the oldest libraries in Europe. With over 13 million printed items, it is the second-largest library in ...

in Oxford, United Kingdom and

The Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

in Washington. Her work also hangs in private, public and corporate collections in Canada, the United Kingdom and the United States.

Life

Howard was born in Long Branch, Ontario, in 1926, the younger of two children. Her father, Thomas Howard, a secondary school teacher, was an English immigrant. Her mother, Helen Mackintosh, who was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Manitoba. It is centred on the confluence of the Red River of the North, Red and Assiniboine River, Assiniboine rivers. , Winnipeg h ...

, was of Scottish ancestry. Having decided early to become an artist, Howard studied at the

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

from 1948 to 1951, where she was a pupil of Will Ogilvie, who taught her figure drawing, and

Jock Macdonald James Williamson Galloway Macdonald (31 May 1897 – 3 December 1960), commonly known in his professional life as Jock Macdonald, was a member of Painters Eleven (Painters 11, or P11), whose goal was to promote abstract art in Canada. Macdo ...

, who taught her painting and composition. In her final year she won the silver medal in drawing and painting. Howard taught art classes in Toronto until 1953, when she moved to London in the UK, where she studied at

Saint Martin's School of Art Saint Martin's School of Art was an art school, art college in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1854, initially under the aegis of the church of St Martin-in-the-Fields. Saint Martin's beca ...

, immersing herself in the English landscape and the cultural life of postwar London. She also travelled to Europe to visit the art museums of Rome, Venice, Florence, Paris and Madrid, and saw the Paleolithic cave paintings at

Lascaux Lascaux ( , ; , "Lascaux Cave") is a network of caves near the village of Montignac, Dordogne, Montignac, in the Departments of France, department of Dordogne in southwestern France. Over 600 Parietal art, parietal cave painting, wall paintin ...

in southwestern

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

, an experience which influenced many of her later illustrations. In London she met her future husband, the Canadian poet, Richard Outram. Returning to Canada in 1956, Howard and Outram made their home in Toronto for the next 46 years. In the late 1950s and early sixties Howard showed regularly at the Picture Loan Society, a Toronto gallery established by Douglas Duncan in 1936 to present the work of contemporary Canadian artists such as

Emily Carr Emily Carr (December 13, 1871 – March 2, 1945) was a Canadian artist who was inspired by the monumental art and villages of the First Nations and the landscapes of British Columbia. She also was a vivid writer and chronicler of life in her sur ...

Fred Varley Frederick Horsman Varley (January 2, 1881 – September 8, 1969) was a member of the Canadian Group of Seven (artists), Group of Seven. Career Early life Varley was born in Sheffield, England, in 1881, the son of Lucy (Barstow) and Samuel James ...

, David Milne,

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 ...

and A.Y. Jackson. Several Canadian public collections possess Howard drawings and paintings acquired through the Douglas Duncan estate, as Duncan was also a collector of her work. In 2002, Howard and Outram moved to

Port Hope, Ontario Port Hope is a municipality in Southern Ontario, Canada, about east of Toronto and west of Kingston, Ontario, Kingston. It is at the mouth of the Ganaraska River on the north shore of Lake Ontario, in the west end of Northumberland County, Onta ...

, but soon after their arrival Howard fell and broke her hip. While undergoing surgery on December 7 in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

, she suffered a pulmonary embolism and died on the operating table.

Work

Howard and her husband were part of a circle of artists, writers and designers who were interested in visual images, in language and in the book arts. One close associate was the graphic designer

Allan Fleming Allan Robb Fleming (7 May 1929 – 31 December 1977) was a Canadian graphic designer best known for having created the Canadian National Railway logo, designing the best-selling 1967 Centennial book ''Canada: A Year of the Land/Canada, du ...

, whose Martlet Press published ''Twenty-Eight Drawings by Barbara Howard'' in 1970, a period when she was drawing the figure. The Canadian wood engraver

Rosemary Kilbourn Rosemary Kilbourn is a Canadian printmaker, illustrator and stained glass artist known for her work in the wood engraving. Early life and education Born in Toronto, Canada, Kilbourn attended high school at Havergal College. She graduated fro ...

, a close friend since art college, taught Howard to carve images that could be printed in conjunction with text. In 1960 Howard and Outram launched the Gauntlet Press, a small private press which produced hand-bound letterpress volumes of Outram's poetry and Howard's wood engravings. These limited editions, prized by collectors, can also be found in such public collections as

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

, the

Library of Congress The Library of Congress (LOC) is a research library in Washington, D.C., serving as the library and research service for the United States Congress and the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It also administers Copyright law o ...

, the

and the University of Toronto

Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library The Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library is a library at the University of Toronto's University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus, constituting the largest repository of publicly accessible rare books and manuscripts in Canada. The librar ...

. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s the Gauntlet Press also issued a series of letterpress broadsheets of Outram's poems, all of them designed (and many illustrated) by Howard. Digital facsimiles of the books and broadsheets of the Gauntlet Press in the collection of the Memorial University of Newfoundland can be viewed at the website dedicated to ''The Gauntlet Press of Richard Outram and Barbara Howard,'' together with extensive background material and an exhaustive bibliography. Imagery derived from the natural world was always at the heart of Howard's painting. Throughout her life she painted horizons, shorelines, skies, sun and water, although she was more concerned with the essence of a subject than with its precise representation. In her sixties she devoted a decade of work to an extensive series of cetacean studies, ''Encounters with Whales.'' In his essay ''Encounters and Recollections in the Art of Barbara Howard and Richard Outram,'' the poet

Jeffery Donaldson Jeffery William Donaldson is a Canadian poet and critic. Born in Toronto, Ontario, Donaldson was educated at Victoria College, University of Toronto. He teaches American literature, poetry, and creative writing and literary criticism in the Eng ...

writes: "For the most part, these are portraits of the mammals in something like their private element. Their appearances are brief, ecstatic revelations, fortuitous glimpses, sudden soundings. They seem to break forth abruptly from their solitude and then slip away as quickly again." These enormous canvases, some as large as across, have never been publicly exhibited. In the late 1990s until her death in 2002, Howard returned to her lifelong fascination with light, night skies, the reflective surface of water. In these last paintings, there is a recurrence of circular elements, an abstraction of natural forms and a balancing of darkness and light. Howard has stated: "In my painting (as in all my work) I am deeply involved with light as the movement and inter-action of colours; the integrity of colour and form, hence with the integrity of the total work which has to do with spirit and abstract essence, not representation. I am preoccupied with life's ambiguities and dualities and in my later work I am reaching more and more from the dark toward light, freedom, and a transcending exuberance." Howard's paintings, drawings, wood engravings and book designs can be viewed on the website ''Barbara Howard's Unfolding Visual World.''

Critical reception

With the exception of the very large whale canvases, Howard's paintings sold steadily throughout her lifetime. However, while she had her champions, she was never a part of the mainstream of Canadian art and so did not attract the kind of public critical attention that attends most successful careers. In her introduction to the catalogue for Howard's 1980 solo exhibition ''The Event in the Mind,'' sculptor Rebecca Sisler wrote:

Classification, school? Barbara Howard's work defies specific slotting, although we sense her recognition of the heritage left by great masters,
Turner Turner may refer to: People and fictional characters * Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name * Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name *One who uses a lathe for tur ...
being the most obvious. But she draws and paints in direct response to her own muse and as such cannot be aligned to any particular art movement ... ... for in common with other maverick artists throughout art history, her work, although bound to no age, is relevant to all.

Writing about Howard's wood engravings in her 2006 essay ''Drawing Attention: Barbara Howard's Ecologies,'' the artist, curator and academic Martha Fleming states:

Wood engraving is a demanding process, and Howard was a virtuoso. he creatures she portrayedecho the floating, frameless engravings pioneered by
Thomas Bewick Thomas Bewick (c. 11 August 1753 – 8 November 1828) was an English wood engraving, wood-engraver and natural history author. Early in his career he took on all kinds of work such as engraving cutlery, making the wood blocks for advertisements, ...
in the 18th century, and yet they are startlingly modern. As much about form as they are about anatomical accuracy, they hover at the brink of typology but have nothing of zoological rendering's reduction to taxonomy. Her counterintuitive use of colour upholds the monochrome dignity inherent in the technique.

Howard was elected to the

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Victoria of the United Kingdom, Queen Victoria on 16 ...

in 1975 and served on the RCA Council from 1980 to 1982.

Selected public collections

Public collections *

Art Gallery of Hamilton The Art Gallery of Hamilton (AGH) is an art museum located in Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The museum occupies a building on King Street (Hamilton, Ontario), King Street West in downtown Hamilton, designed by Trevor P. Garwood-Jon ...

* Art Gallery of Peel, Brampton * Tom Thomson Art Gallery, Owen Sound *

Art Gallery of Windsor Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

* Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg *

Museum London Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. It is located near the forks of the Thames River. It started its operations in 1940 with London Public Library and amalgamated with London Regional Art Gallery and Lon ...

, London *

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 ...

* Glenhyrst Art Gallery of Brant *

Agnes Etherington Art Centre The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is located in Kingston, Ontario, on the campus of Queen's University. The gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries ...

, Kingston * Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery * Rodman Hall, St. Catharines *

Province of Ontario Ontario is the southernmost province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it is home to 38.5% of the country's population, and is the second-largest province by ...

Art Collection Public collections of the Gauntlet Press *

(formerly the National Library of Canada), Ottawa * The

, University of Toronto * The Gauntlet Press Collection of the Queen Elizabeth II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland * Bruce Peel Special Collections Library, University of Alberta * The

University of British Columbia Library The University of British Columbia Library is the library system of the University of British Columbia (UBC). The library is one of the 124 members of the Association of Research Libraries (ARL). In 2017, UBC Library ranked 29th among members of ...

University of Western Ontario The University of Western Ontario (UWO; branded as Western University) is a Public university, public research university in London, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on of land, surrounded by residential neighbourhoods and the Thame ...

, London, Ontario * The MILLS Research Collections,

McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...

, Hamilton, Ontario * The

Trent University Trent University is a public liberal arts university in Peterborough, Ontario, with a satellite campus in Oshawa, which serves the Regional Municipality of Durham. Founded in 1964, the university is known for its Oxbridge college system, sma ...

Archives, Peterborough, Ontario * The

University of Calgary {{Infobox university , name = University of Calgary , image = University of Calgary coat of arms without motto scroll.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of arms , former ...

, Alberta, Special Collections * The

Berg Collection The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building (commonly known as the Main Branch, the 42nd Street Library, or just the New York Public Library) is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system in the Midtown neighborhood of Manhattan in Ne ...

New York Public Library The New York Public Library (NYPL) is a public library system in New York City. With nearly 53 million items and 92 locations, the New York Public Library is the second-largest public library in the United States behind the Library of Congress a ...

* The Harris Collection of Poetry and Plays,

Brown University Brown University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Providence, Rhode Island, United States. It is the List of colonial colleges, seventh-oldest institution of higher education in the US, founded in 1764 as the ' ...

, Providence, Rhode Island *

, Washington, DC *

University at Buffalo The State University of New York at Buffalo (commonly referred to as UB, University at Buffalo, and sometimes SUNY Buffalo) is a public university, public research university in Buffalo, New York, Buffalo and Amherst, New York, United States. ...

, New York, Special Collections * The

Houghton Library Houghton Library, on the south side of Harvard Yard adjacent to Widener Library, Lamont Library, and Loeb House, is Harvard University's primary repository for rare books and manuscripts. It is part of the Harvard College Library, the library s ...

, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts *

, Oxford, UK * The

, London

Exhibitions

The first solo exhibition of Howard's paintings was at Toronto's Picture Loan Society in 1957. Pearl McCarthy, then art critic for ''

The Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Newspapers in Canada, Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in Western Canada, western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on week ...

,'' wrote that Howard was "far ahead of most landscapists in depth" and described her work as "first class ... the answer to a permanent sensuous desire".McCarthy, Pearl (April 19, 1958). ''The Globe and Mail'' The last solo exhibition of Howard's paintings and drawings took place posthumously at the Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, Ontario, in 2006. Solo exhibitions of Howard's work and/or the Gauntlet Press * Picture Loan Society, Toronto 1957, 1958, 1960, 1965 * Wells Gallery, Ottawa, 1966, 1982, 1984 * Fleet Gallery, Winnipeg, 1966 * Victoria College, Toronto, 1966 * Sisler Gallery, Toronto, 1974, 1976 * Hart House, University of Toronto, 1975 * ''The Event in the Mind,'' Prince Arthur Galleries, Toronto, 1980; catalogue * Yaneff Gallery, Toronto, 1983 *

Massey College Massey College is the postgraduate University of Toronto#Colleges, college of the University of Toronto located at the University of Toronto#St. George campus, St. George campus in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The college was established, built and ...

, Toronto, 1984 * Latcham Gallery, Stouffville, 1985 *

O'Keefe Centre Meridian Hall is a performing arts venue in Toronto, Ontario, and it is the largest soft-seat theatre in Canada. The facility was constructed for the City of Toronto municipal government and is currently managed by TO Live, an arm's-length a ...

, Toronto, 1986 *

National Library of Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

, 1986 *

University College In a number of countries, a university college is a college institution that provides tertiary education but does not have full or independent university status. A university college is often part of a larger university. The precise usage varies f ...

, Toronto, 1987 * Georgetown Library & Cultural Centre, 1988 *

The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto is a private members' club in Toronto, Ontario, which brings together writers, architects, musicians, painters, graphic artists, actors and others working in or with a love of the arts and letters. It was foun ...

, 1993 * E.J. Pratt Library, Victoria University, University of Toronto, 1995 *

Robarts Library The John P. Robarts Research Library, commonly referred to as Robarts Library, is the main humanities and social sciences library of the University of Toronto Libraries and the largest individual library in the university, located at the Universit ...

, University of Toronto, 1999 * The Upstairs Gallery, Art Gallery of Northumberland, Port Hope, 2003 * ''Seeking Light: Last Paintings and Selected Drawings.'' Art Gallery of Northumberland, Cobourg, 2006; catalogue Group exhibitions * Ontario Society of Artists, 1958, 1959 * Women's Committee, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1958, 1969 * Douglas Duncan Collection, Victoria College, Toronto, 1962 * Toronto Collects, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1961 * Women Artists, Canadian National Exhibition, Toronto, 1961 * Canadian Artists, Eaton's College Street, 1961 * Canadian Society of Graphic Arts, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1963 * National Home Show, 1960, 1961, 1962 * C.U.S.A.C. Travelling Show, Hart House, 1958–1959 * Women's Committee, London Art Gallery, 1962 * Canadian Watercolours, Drawings & Prints, National Gallery of Canada, 1966 * Douglas Duncan Collection, Windsor, London, Hamilton, 1967 * Drawings and Sculpture, Art Gallery of Ontario, 1976 * ''The Living Image,'' Macdonald Gallery, Toronto (3 artists); catalogue * R.C.A. Centennial Contemporary Exhibition, Toronto, 1980 * Inaugural Exhibition, Academy House, R.C.A., Toronto, 1987–1988 * ''Art Under Fire,'' Academy House, R.C.A., Toronto, 1988 * ''Fine Printing: The Private Press in Canada.'' Travelling exhibition: Toronto, Fredericton, Calgary, Grimsby, Saskatoon, Brandon, Pointe Claire, Halifax, Saint John, 1995–1997; catalogue * ''Women and Texts,'' University of Leeds, 1997 (curated by Special Collections, University of Calgary); catalogue * ''Toronto in Print,'' Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library, 1998; catalogue * ''Earthworks,'' an exhibition of works by Ontario Academicians, John B. Aird Gallery, Toronto, 1998 * ''Traces of Land, Traces of People: Contemporary Images of Ontario,'' Ontario Legislature, Queen's Park, Toronto, November 1999 – July 2000

References

External links

*
Drawing Attention: Barbara Howard’s Ecologies

The Gauntlet Press of Richard Outram and Barbara Howard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Howard, Barbara 1926 births 2002 deaths Artists from Toronto Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Alumni of Saint Martin's School of Art Canadian women artists Canadian wood engravers 20th-century engravers Canadian printmakers

Life

Work

Critical reception

Selected public collections

Exhibitions

Further reading

References

External links