chrono\Hermetics

CANADIAN WEST COAST HERMETICS The Metaphysical Landscape

Gilles Foisy - Gary Lee Nova - Gregg Simpson - Ed Varney - Jack Wise - david uu

Catalogue cover by Jack Wise

        This exhibition, was conceived by Gregg Simpson, and organized with Alvin Balkind of the University of British Columbia's
        Fine Arts Gallery. The theme of the exhibition was the relationship of alchemy to surrealism, a project for which Simpson
        received a Canada Council grant in 1971, sponsored by VAG Cheif Curator, Doris Shadbolt and former National Gallery
        Director, Richard Simmins.

        With a letter of introduction to the Parisian Surrealists from William Rubin of the Museum of
        Modern Art, New York, Simpson went to Paris and began ended up arranging what would become the first exhibition of
        avant garde art to tour Europe from Canada's west coast.

It was first shown at U.B.C., January 9-27, 1973. The touring schedule included installations at the Centre Culutrel
Canadien in Paris, March 15 - April 14; Canada House (London, U.K.); Palais des Beaux-Arts, Charleroi, Belgium.
It returned to Canada in 1974 to be shown at McMaster University and the University of Western Ontario's McIntosh Gallery.

The resulting connections made with European Surrealist historian and artists began with this exhibition and resulted in a
great deal of international attention for the west coast surrealist groups that followed.

Installation, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, March-April, 1973

Gregg Simpson: The Adept oil on canvas, 1971
(Collection of the Museo Granell, Spain)

david uu: Ruinick mixed media 24" x 28", 1971

Gregg Simpson, Alborada del Gracisoso,
oil on canvas, 1971

Jack Wise, Opposition and the Hum of Progress oil on canvas, 1972

Gregg Simpson: The Pathos and Enigma of Goethe's Childhood oil on canvas, 2.5' x 3.5', 1971

Gary Lee Nova: Element County collage, 1968

Installation in the Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, 1973

West Coast Hermetics : Le Paysage métaphysique du 15 mars au 14 avril 1973 Le Groupe Hermétique de la côte ouest du Canada:
des jeunes marqueés par le surréalisme

                            Ils sont 6 de moins de 30 ans, venus d'horizons différents mais travaillant depuis quelques anneés
                                   dans une profonde unité à la recherche des mythes, des symboles, de tout cet univers de l'inconscient
                                   dont André Breton a ressuscité la'valeur magique. Pour eux, l'oeuvre picturale n'est qu'une des
                                   nombreuses formes d'interrogation de l'univers.

                                   Il y a l'aîné, Jack WISE, qui a vécu au Tibet; Gilles FOISY, qui s'occupe d' improvisation théâtrale
                                   et de philosophic symboliste Ed VARNEY. miniaturiste, imprimeur et poète; Gary LEE NOVA,
                                   célèbre comme cinéaste autant que comme peintre; david UU, l'un des représentants les plus connus
                                   de la poésie concrete canadienne et Gregg SIMPSON, batteur de jazz, essayiste et peintre.

                                   Leurs oeuvres s’inspirent non seulement des manifestes d'André Breton mais de toute la ligne de
                                 pensee ésotérique des grands initiés. Ils se réclament du soufisme, d'Artaud, de Jarry, du Club des
                                   Haschichins cher à Baudelaire et Théophile Gauthier, du Ravel influencé par la musique arabe, de
                                   l'ésotérique Mallarmé, du voyant Rimbaud, des peintres dada ou surréalistes du bassin méditerranéen:
                                Miro, Chirico, Dali; du Picasso des mythologies et surtout du magicien Max Ernst.

                                   Par l'exploration de l'inconscient, ils cherchent à redonner a l'artiste sa place sacrée. "Le monde
                                   entre: dans'une ère solaire", écrit Gregg SIMPSON. Bien sûr, il reste encore des traces de 1'ère
                                   ancienne: guerre, racisme, pollution, mais ce ne sont vraiment que des "restes" destines a disparaitre.
                                   Pêut-etre alors les rites retrouveront-ils leur rô1e propre d'exutoire des tendances agressives. Dans
                                   ce cas, c'est l'artiste qui sera le plus apte à déterminer la forme de ces rites".

                                   L'exposition comprendra 36 oeuvres, Elle a été organisée par le groupe en coordination avec M. Alvin
                                   BALKIND, directeur de la galerie d'art de 1'Université de la Colombie britannique, ou elle a été
                                   presentée pour la première fois, apres le Centre Culturel Canadien, l'exposition voyagera en Europe:
                                   Institute of Contemporary Arts de Londres; Galerie Richard Demarco à Edinbourgh; Palais des
                                   Beaux-Arts de Charleroi; Kunstmuseum de Goteborg en Suede et sera présentée également au
                                   Musée dynamique de Dakar.

P. Villeneuve
Chargée de presse et d'information

Edwin Varney: Untitled collage, 1972

Gilles Foisy: Rebirth of William collage, 1971

        In a book recently published in Vancouver there is, under the heading "Dedications," the
        statement: "Published without the help of Canada Council." So there. The same cannot be said for
        this catalogue on B.C. Hermetics. We do owe a debt to Canada Council, not only for making the
        catalogue possible, but also for helping Gregg Simpson to travel to Europe to help set up certain
        aspects of the exhibition. So there.

        We are deeply grateful to M. Guy Viau, the late and distinguished head of the Canadian Cultural
        Centre in Paris, whose initial interest and co-operation made the exhibition a concrete project of
        wider scope.

        The exhibition could not even have gotten started, much less have been realized, and later circulated,
        had it not been for Gregg Simpson, who conceived the idea, poured endless time and energy into
        organizing it and worked out the plans for taking it around to various European galleries.

        And finally, thanks to the participating museums, galleries and their directors for allowing us to show
        other parts of the world one of the aspects of West Coast Canadian art. Special thanks go to Mr.
        David Thompson, of the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, and to Messrs. Jacques Asselin
        and Yves Pepin, of the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris.

Alvin Balkind, Director, Fine Arts Gallery, The University of British Columbia

Gregg Simpson: Diagnosis oil on canvas, 4' x 5' 1972

Jack Wise: Boxed Rock mixed media, 1970

Excerpts from the catalogue essay by Gregg Simpson

                      In the official history of art presented by critics and historians, there seems to be little room in their surveys
                        for concern over the question of form and structure in that other tradition, that of the fantastic. The various
                        expressions of the magical imagination which, from time to time have surfaced and been recognized by
                        academics and other writers on art constitute only a fragmentary experience when seen next the "official
                        development" - which to my mind has led to the current impasse in contemporary art.

It is only in the prosaic modern work of today that we have seen the glorification...of the most mundane or
repellent aspects of life.

                        So, with Canadian West Coast Hermetics, I have attempted to focus on the fact a substantial and
                        contemporary art has emerged that takes its subject and motivation from the most exalted sources that
                        each individual is availed of, as well as their personal interpretation of the metaphysical landscape.

...Our purpose is not propganda, polemic or intimidation. We seek only to direct attention to another way
of seeing.

Gregg Simpson, 1973

Installation in the Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, 1973

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