Robert Markle
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

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 Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...
, in 1936. In 1954, he began attending 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 Toronto, where he met his wife, Marlene Shuster. Since his wife worked at the Isaacs Gallery in Toronto, his work came to the attention of
Avrom Isaacs 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 ...
, and he held his first solo exhibition at the Gallery in 1963. He is considered one of the "Isaacs Group" of artists. In 1965, he participated in a group show called ''Eros '65'' at the Dorothy Cameron Gallery in Toronto. A police raid on the show led to an obscenity trial which Cameron lost. She had to close the gallery but the media attention brought Markle celebrity status. In 1968, 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 work was held at the McIntosh Memorial Art Gallery at the
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 ...
. In 1989, the
Thunder Bay Art Gallery The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is Northern Ontario's largest art gallery specializing in the work of contemporary Indigenous artists. It is located on the campus of Confederation College in Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada. The Thunder Bay Art Gallery is ...
curated ''The Painter and his Model: Markle since '85''. The Durham Art Gallery organized Markle
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. ...
s in 1990 and 2002. In 2003, Anna Hudson for 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 ...
, Toronto, organized an exhibition entitled ''Woman as Goddess: Liberated Nudes by Robert Markle and Joyce Wieland'', in which Markle's work was sharply criticized, and Markle called a misogynist by the Toronto
Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of more than 6 million in 2024, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it fall ...
. In 2011, ''Blazing Figures: A Retrospective of Robert Markle'' opened at the Gallery de Boer in Owen Sound. Markle's work has been collected by public institutions such as the
National Gallery of Art The National Gallery of Art is an art museum in Washington, D.C., United States, located on the National Mall, between 3rd and 9th Streets, at Constitution Avenue NW. Open to the public and free of charge, the museum was privately established in ...
, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the
Philadelphia Museum of Art The Philadelphia Museum of Art (PMA) is an List of art museums#North America, art museum originally chartered in 1876 for the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia. The main museum building was completed in 1928 on Fairmount, a hill located at ...
. The Robert Markle fonds (SC076) in the Edward P. Taylor Library & Archives, Art Gallery of Ontario, documents his life and work. There is also a J.A. Wainwright – Robert Markle collection in this repository. Markle taught at The New School of Art (founded in 1965) from around 1966 to 1976. In 1977, he was a founding member of Art's Sake Inc., an artist-run post-secondary art school in Toronto, where he also taught. In addition, Markle taught at the
University of Guelph The University of Guelph (abbreviated U of G) is a comprehensive Public university, public research university in Guelph, Ontario, Canada. It was established in 1964 after the amalgamation of Ontario Agricultural College (1874), the MacDonald I ...
.


Commissions

In 1980, he won a commission to decorate a hamburger restaurant in the city, named Markleangelo’s in his honour. Markle used acrylic, neon tubing, electrical wiring, mirrored panels, and Plexiglas on wood for the panels in the restaurant which had depictions of angels. When the restaurant closed, Markle's works there were given to 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 ...
in Oshawa. (The Art Gallery of Ontario in its "Close-Looking" series discusses one of the angels.) Markle also did wall-sculptures for the Ellen Fairclough Building in Hamilton (1981) and the
Metro Toronto Convention Centre Metro Toronto Convention Centre (originally and still colloquially Metro Convention Centre, and sometimes MTCC), is a convention complex located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada along Front Street (Toronto), Front Street West in the former Railway Lan ...
(c. 1984), and painted outdoor murals in Mount Forest (1986) and
Owen Sound Owen Sound (2021 Canadian Census, 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat, seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi River, Pottawatomi and Sydenham River ...
, Ontario (1987). Markle based the mural in the Metro Centre on Mohawk symbols.


Personal life and death

An accident while riding his motor bike in 1969 left him with two broken arms and internal injuries. After recovering from his accident, he moved with his wife to a farm at Holstein, Ontario, near Mount Forest. About then, he began to examine his
Mohawk Mohawk may refer to: Related to Native Americans *Mohawk people (Kanien’kehá:ka), an indigenous people of North America (Canada and New York) *Mohawk language (Kanien’kéha), the language spoken by the Mohawk people *Mohawk hairstyle, from a ...
heritage, followed by a trip to the Caughnawaga reserve. In 1990, Markle's truck hit a tractor in
Mount Forest, Ontario Mount Forest is a community in Wellington County, Ontario, Wellington County, Ontario, Canada. It is located at the junction of Ontario Highway 6, Highway 6 and Ontario Highway 89, Highway 89 and is a part of the township (Canada), township of We ...
, near the farm that he and his wife shared. He died of his injuries, at the age of 53.


References


Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Markle, Robert 1936 births 1990 deaths 20th-century Canadian painters Canadian male painters Artists from Hamilton, Ontario 20th-century Canadian male artists Canadian muralists