A Refuge: Arthur Erickson

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Selwyn Pullan, “Arthur Erickson in His Home,” 1972

(Collection of the West Vancouver Art Museum)

Exhibition Opening: Tuesday, May 14, from 6 to 8 p.m.

Presented in collaboration with the Arthur Erickson Foundation, this exhibition explores Arthur Erickson in the context of his own home in Point Grey, Vancouver, where he lived from 1957 to 1992. Central to this exhibition are photographs from the collection of the West Vancouver Art Museum by Selwyn Pullan of Erickson in his home and garden. Surrounded by the objects that inspired him that were collected during his extensive travels, these photos are an intimate portrait of this well-known figure at home. 

The house was converted from conjoined garages: a humble structure taking up a small portion of a large lot, which accommodated a verdant, Japanese-style garden. In 1981, Erickson said: “When I moved into this house, in 1957, I was teaching architecture at the University of British Columbia and collecting pottery. The things that surrounded me were more important to me…Architecturally, this house is terrible, but it serves as a refuge, a kind of decompression chamber. The nice thing about the garden is that I started it and it’s been doing its own thing ever since."1

1. Edith Iglauer, Seven Stones: A Portrait of Arthur Erickson, Architect, 1981, Harbour Publishing/University of Washington Press, pp. 30-31.