Return To Canada
Although he had achieved a level of success in the United States, with art dealers in both Taos, and Santa Fe, Beam returned to Canada, where he felt his work had an important contribution to make. "A return to Canada in 1983 at first meant no change in format: one ceramic work by Beam of a shaman family, in the collection of the Woodland Cultural Centre in Brantford, Ontario, has the central image Beam favoured in New Mexico, though now one that represents his current situation. Here a shaman figure holds the hands of a figure to either side, likely a veiled reference to his wife, Ann, and his daughter, Anongonse, born in 1980." The family moved to Peterborough, Ontario, and in 1984, Beam was commissioned to make an art work for the Thunder Bay Art Gallery. He titled the piece Exorcism. This became part of a "breakthrough exhibition" for him, which had a catalogue, and was titled Altered Egos the Multi-media Artwork of Carl Beam. It was curated by Elizabeth McLuhan. Living in the east end of Peterborough, Ontario, Beam created an early set of large format etchings, consisting of nine prints. There are many signature images in this print collection, which Beam later used to form the image backbone of his iconic work The North American Iceberg. This work was purchased by the National Gallery of Canada, making Beam the first artist of Native ancestry to have his work purchased into the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada as contemporary art.
Read more about this topic: Carl Beam
Famous quotes containing the words return to, return and/or canada:
“To save the theatre, the theatre must be destroyed, the actors and actresses must all die of the plague. They poison the air, they make art impossible. It is not drama that they play, but pieces for the theatre. We should return to the Greeks, play in the open air; the drama dies of stalls and boxes and evening dress, and people who come to digest their dinner.”
—Eleonora Duse (18591924)
“If he should take back his spirit to himself, and gather to himself his breath, all flesh would perish together, and all mortals return to dust.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Job 34:14-15.
“This universal exhibition in Canada of the tools and sinews of war reminded me of the keeper of a menagerie showing his animals claws. It was the English leopard showing his claws.”
—Henry David Thoreau (18171862)