Maxwell Bates and Fellow Expressionist William Leroy Stevenson

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Maxwell Bates, "Prairie Woman," 1947

oil on board, 64.5 x 49.5 cm. The Glenbow Museum Collection

EXHIBITION: Maxwell Bates and Fellow Expressionist William Leroy Stevenson, Curated by Nancy Townshend.

BOOK LAUNCH:Calgary Allied Arts Foundation:20th and 21st Century Cultural Aspirations For A Loved City extended essay by Nancy Townshend

OPENING RECEPTION + BOOK LAUNCH: Friday, September 29, 2017 from 5 – 7 PM. LOCATION: Gallery 505 is a Window Gallery located in the lobby of 505 – 8th Ave SW

The reception is free to the public - light refreshments will be served.

Alberta Centennial Medalist, Nancy Townshend is an art curator, writer, art historian, and educator. She is the author of three books: Maxwell Bates: Canada's Premier Expressionist of the 20th Century (Calgary: Snyder Hedlin Fine Arts, 2005); A History of Art in Alberta 1905 - 1970 (Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 2005), and Art Inspired by the Canadian Rockies, Purcell Mountains and Selkirk Mountains 1809-2012 (Calgary: Bayeux Arts, 2012). Her latest extended essay titled Calgary Allied Arts Foundation: 20th and 21st Century Cultural Aspirations for a Loved City gives the extraordinary history of this remarkable organization.

Nancy Townshend’s most recent curatorial work and newly published essay will be showcased during the opening reception of Gallery 505, a fitting event for Canada’s 150 and Alberta Culture Days. The exhibition will include works from both the Glenbow Museum and The City of Calgary Public Art collections and will highlight exceptional works by both Maxwell Bates and William Leroy Stevenson. The book will be available for viewing and sale.

Townshend is a Maxwell Bates and Roy Stevenson specialist. She curated the Virtual Museum of Canada website, Maxwell Bates: Artist, Architect, Writer (2003 – 2013) for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Townshend also co-curated Maxwell Bates: At The Crossroads of Expressionism for the Edmonton Art Gallery/Art Gallery of Alberta (2004 - 2006). This 90-pieced exhibition traveled to Calgary (during Alberta's Centennial Year), Saskatoon and Victoria.

Excerpt from Townshend’s Gallery 505 curatorial statement:

“An austere-faced prairie woman frontally faces the viewer with her weathered right hand prominent and isolated pictorially. Despite the wind, she stands steadfastly. She will endure any prairie hardship that could be thrown her way.Bates also knew manual labour. As a prisoner of war in Stalag IXC in Germany from 1940 to 1945, he and other transport gang members “filled two or three coal cars a week, sometimes for months on end, in all seasons. A car was full if it weighed twenty-two tons when pushed by our shoulders onto the weighing machine....”Upon his return to Calgary in 1946, Bates painted Prairie People paintings that show the environment and its effect on people. Prairie Woman 1947 is an important Canadian Expressionist work and a Western Canadian icon.”

Join us in celebrating Townshend’s new book as well as her curated exhibition, which includes Prairie Woman 1947 along with 6 other historical artworks by Bates and Stevenson