An all-encompassing view of the life and work of one of Canada’s greatest living artists
Michael Snow is rightly recognized as one of the greatest Canadian artists. In a productive, lengthy career, he has, in a wide variety of genres and media, asked (and often answered) some of the most vexing and important questions in the history of art. During his lifetime, the notion of what constitutes a work of art has undergone many changes, and his work has consistently been at the forefront of that discussion.
Michael Snow: Lives and Works examines all aspects of the artist’s work and provides a guide to understanding its subtleties and complexities. The book also charts the life of Snow: his early years as a student and artist in Toronto, his stay in New York City, his turbulent marriage to Joyce Wieland, his reputation as a lady’s man, and his adventures in movie making and improvised music.
In many ways, Snow is the visual artist as intellectual: his images are vibrant and compelling, but so are the ideas behind them. Ultimately, his work is about perception. What do we really see when we look at a work of art? What is the act of looking all about? What exactly is a work of art?
Michael Snow: Lives and Works is a personal and intimate portrait of an artist who has helped shaped the face of Canadian art in our time.
James King is the author of six novels and twelve biographies, including books on David Milne, Margaret Laurence, Jack McClelland, and Lawren Harris. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, James lives in Hamilton, Ontario.
List of Figures Introduction
Part One 1928–1962 One: Origins Two: Conversion Three: Jazz Band Four: A Man Drawing Lines Five: Intimations Six: Gestures Seven: Drawn Out Eight: A Lot of Near Mrs. Nine: Surveying
Part Two 1962–1970 Ten: Cool City Eleven: Eye and Ear Control Twelve: More Snowgirls Thirteen: Wavelengths Fourteen: New Surfaces Fifteen: Canadians in Manhattan
Part Three 1970–1979 Sixteen: The Presence of the Past Seventeen: The Painterly Photograph Eighteen: The Canadian WIlderness Nineteen: A Giant Sentence Twenty: No Longer in Play
Part Four 1979–1994 Twenty-One: Between Alchemy and Chemistry Twenty-Two: The Everyday Twenty-Three: The Presence of the Absent Twenty-Four: Audiences
Part Five 1994–Present Twenty-Five: Blockbuster Twenty-Six: Sound Shaping Twenty-Seven: A New Painterliness Twenty-Eight: Repeat Offences Twenty-Nine: Reshaping Fragments Thirty: New-Found Things Thirty-One: Smoke and Mirrors
Acknowledgements Short-Titles Notes Selected Bibliography Index