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.
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Famous quotes containing the words return to, return and/or canada:
“Return to her? and fifty men dismissed?
No, rather I abjure all roofs, and choose
To wage against the enmity o’ th’ air,
To be a comrade with the wolf and owl—
Necessity’s sharp pinch.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Compassion is frequently a sense of our own misfortunes, in those of other men; it is an ingenious foresight of the disasters that may fall upon us hereafter. We relieve others, that they may return the like when our occasions call for it; and the good offices we do them are, in strict speaking, so many kindnesses done to ourselves beforehand.”
—François, Duc De La Rochefoucauld (1613–1680)
“What makes the United States government, on the whole, more tolerable—I mean for us lucky white men—is the fact that there is so much less of government with us.... But in Canada you are reminded of the government every day. It parades itself before you. It is not content to be the servant, but will be the master; and every day it goes out to the Plains of Abraham or to the Champs de Mars and exhibits itself and toots.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)