Description
The quiet revolutionary of Canadian art. Marion Nicoll (1909–1985) is widely acknowledged as a founder of Alberta art — a visionary painter and printmaker, and a ground-breaking educator whose embrace of abstraction changed Canadian art forever. Silence and Alchemy brings four distinguished scholars together to paint her rounded portrait.
Ann Davis, Elizabeth Herbert, Jennifer Salahub, and Christine Sowiak trace Nicoll’s journey from traditional training to bold abstraction: the pioneering prints, the luminous paintings, and the decades she spent teaching at Calgary’s Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, shaping generations of artists. She worked in silence, the book’s title says — and transformed it into gold. The four scholars complement each other beautifully, combining archival research with genuine critical insight.
A beautiful, serious tribute to an artist who deserves wider fame. For lovers of abstraction and Canadian art. A model of how to write about an artist’s life — thorough, humane, and beautifully produced.
Marion Nicoll (1909–1985) is a widely acknowledged and important founder of Alberta art — a visionary artist and ground-breaking educator whose quiet revolution in abstraction changed Canadian art forever. In Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy, four distinguished scholars paint a rounded portrait of a woman who worked in silence and transformed it into gold.
Ann Davis, Elizabeth Herbert, Jennifer Salahub, and Christine Sowiak trace Nicoll’s journey from traditional training to bold abstraction: her pioneering prints, her luminous paintings, and her decades of teaching at Calgary’s Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, where she shaped generations of artists. Drawing on her fascination with Theosophy and her belief in art as a spiritual practice, the book reveals an artist who pursued her vision with extraordinary independence in a world that rarely made room for women.
Published by the University of Calgary Press in 2013 as part of the acclaimed Art in Profile: Canadian Art and Architecture series, this beautifully illustrated volume (35 illustrations) is essential reading for lovers of Canadian art, abstraction, and the remarkable women who built modern art in the West.
This e-book edition brings Nicoll’s story to your screen.
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