Joyce Wieland

Crash Comic

1968

Joyce Wieland (1931-1998) is one of the most accomplished and versatile Canadian artists. She achieved a level of commercial and critical success in her lifetime that was exceptional for a woman in her era in a male-dominated field. Wieland established new benchmarks for what was possible for a female artist to achieve. Notably, she was the first female artist to have a solo exhibition at the National Gallery (Ottawa) in 1971. Many of her innovative creations predate similar works by female artists...

Louise Nevelson (1899-1988) stands as one of the most important artists of the 20th century. She is renowned for her monochromatic sculptural wooden constructions. However it is imp...

This work clearly has homosexual overtones which in the mid-'40s was as daring as showing nudity. I am not sure if this was the artist's intention but the salesgirl and the model look identical and she signs it twice Shermond. Added to this is a strobe light effect where the model's image is partly replicated giving the impression of 2 figures. She's lost in thought pondering the notion of removing the bows and seeing the consequences. Meanwhile, the sales girls ( perhaps her alta ego - perhaps an admirer ) eggs her on. Caption: "You can always remove the bows if you think they're too fussy." Cover cartoon for unknown publication - Signed "Shermund" twice in the lower right image, dated on verso, and captioned in graphite in the lower margin. Original Matte and not framed - Barbara Shermund...

The red series are vermilion drawings with cotton/diya baati wicks used in prayer, the fruit of the artist's longstanding preoccupation with gender, religion and rituals. The interfe...