York Wilson
was born in Toronto in 1907 and died there in
1984. He studied briefly at the Ontario College of Art
and the Detroit Institute of Arts, but was largely
self-taught. Wilson worked as a commercial artist before becoming
a full-time painter in 1939. In addition to his smaller works,
Wilson achieved a considerable reputation for the mural commissions
he undertook beginning in the mid 1940s. These included perhaps
his best known work, Seven Lively Arts at the
O’Keefe (now Hummingbird) Centre in Toronto.
He was a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts,
the Ontario Society of Artists and the Canadian
Group of Painters. His work has been exhibited internationally
since 1939 and the artist received the J. W. L. Forster
Award twice: once in 1945 and again in 1950. In addition
to his installed murals, his works are displayed in museums across
Canada including the collections of the National Gallery
in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Wilson’s comments on this vinyl acetate on
canvas mural are enlightening: “Ontario has
innumerable lakes, rivers and waterfalls. More than sixty per
cent of Ontario is forested. Gold, silver, cobalt, radium, nickel,
lead and zinc are all mined in Ontario; mainly in the pre-Cambrian
Shield area. With thoughts of Ontario’s resources in mind,
the mural was designed. It is completely non-figurative, but it
does relate to the general colour and form of Ontario.”
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