Caven Atkins (1907–2000) was a Canadian figurative and landscape painter.

Early years

Born in

London, Ontario London is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada, along the Quebec City–Windsor Corridor. The city had a population of 422,324 according to the 2021 Canadian census. London is at the confluence of the Thames River (Ontario), Thames River and N ...

, Caven Atkins was raised in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. From 1925 to 1928 he studied with

Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald L.L. D. also known as L. L. FitzGerald (March 17, 1890 – August 5, 1956) was a Canadians, Canadian artist and art educator. He was the only member of the Group of Seven (artists), Group of Seven based in western Canada. ...

at the Winnipeg School of Art. After graduation, Atkins worked at Brigden's commercial art firm, where he met Bertram Brooker and

Charles Comfort Charles Fraser Comfort, LL. D. (July 22, 1900 – July 5, 1994) was a Scottish-born Canadian painter, sculptor, teacher, writer and administrator. Career and biography Early life Born near Edinburgh, Scotland, Comfort moved to Winnipeg in ...

. Atkins later became friends with Fritz Brandtner, who introduced him to

German expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radi ...

Career

From 1930 to 1934, he was an instructor at the Winnipeg School of Art. He taught painting at Queen’s University summer school in 1943 and at 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 ...

in 1945. Other teaching positions he held included the appointments at the

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 ...

Central Technical School Central Technical School is a Canadian composite high school in Toronto, Ontario. The school is run by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB); before 1998, it was run by the Toronto Board of Education (TBE). Central Tech is located in the H ...

and elsewhere. While teaching at the Ontario College of Art in 1945, he wrote an article for ''Canadian Art'' magazine on using different media. Atkins was not selected to be an official war artist, but he was determined to be in the war effort. He recorded day and night scenes of the activity in the Toronto Shipbuilding Company in a painting and 24 drawings he made in 1942. These he donated to 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 ...

in 1951 (they subsequently became part of the war art collection prior to their transfer to the

Canadian War Museum The Canadian War Museum (CWM) () is a National museums of Canada, national museum on the military history of Canada, country's military history in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The museum serves as both an educational facility on Canadian military hist ...

in 1971), where they were acknowledged because of their home front subject matter. Like many artists, Atkins found employment in the immediate post-war period difficult to find. In 1945, he moved to

Birmingham, Michigan Birmingham is a city in Oakland County, Michigan, Oakland County in the U.S. state of Michigan. It is a northern suburb of Detroit located along the Woodward Corridor (M-1 (Michigan highway), M-1). As of the 2010 United States Census, 2010 censu ...

where he worked as an illustrator and designer for the

Ford Motor Company Ford Motor Company (commonly known as Ford) is an American multinational corporation, multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, United States. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. T ...

until he retired. Atkins never returned to live in Canada. He died in Birmingham, Michigan December 22, 2000 at the age of 93.

Selected exhibitions

Atkins had a

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of his

watercolours Watercolor (American English) or watercolour (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), also ''aquarelle'' (; from Italian diminutive of Latin 'water'), is a painting method"Watercolor may be as old as art itself, going back to the S ...

at Hart House (now part of the Art Museum of Toronto) in 1945. In 1979, the Art Gallery of Windsor curated a survey by curator Ted Fraser, titled ''A Retrospective Exhibition of Selected Works by Caven Atkins Spanning Fifty Years of the Artist's Life''. In 1987, the Art Gallery of Windsor organized the circulating exhibition ''Caven Atkins: the Winnipeg years'' curated by Ted Fraser.

Selected collections

His work is included in the

, the Canadian War Museum, the Art Gallery of Algoma, 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

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 ...

(56 works) the

Beaverbrook Art Gallery The Beaverbrook Art Gallery () commonly referred to simply as The Beaverbrook, is a public art gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada. It is named after William Maxwell "Max" Aitken, Lord Beaverbrook, who funded the building of the gallery ...

, Fredericton and the

Remai Modern Remai Modern is a public art museum in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. The art museum is situated along the west bank of the South Saskatchewan River, at the River Landing development in Central Business District, Saskatoon, Saskatoon's Central Bu ...

, Saskatoon.

Memberships

Atkins belonged to the Manitoba Society of Artists, 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 ...

(1941-1943);

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 ...

(1941-1943); and the

Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour The Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour (), founded in 1925, is considered to be Canada's official national watercolour Society. Since the 1980s the Society has enjoyed Vice-regal Patronage from the incumbent Governor General of Canada. Re ...

(1943-1945) (he was president of the latter two societies). He also belonged to Ontario Association of Teachers of Art (1944-1945).

Early years

Career

Selected exhibitions

Selected collections

Memberships

References

Further reading