1st Conference of Canadian Artists at Queen's University |
Alma was an Ottawa based artist who was born in Paris, Ontario in 1917, and later moved to Montreal in 1936 where she worked and studied under artists Ernst Neumann and Goodridge Roberts.
A self-portrait of the artist Alma Duncan Credit: Library and Archives Canada / C-146139 Copyright: Alma Duncan, c/o Audrey McLaren |
Alma
Ottawa Art Gallery
October 3, 2014 – January 11, 2015
I decided to visit the Art Gallery of Ottawa to see the exhibit called "Alma"
before it closes on January 11, 2015.
"Alma" is the title of the career retrospective of Duncan's work, now at the Ottawa Art Gallery to Jan. 11, 2015. This is the first ever retrospective of Alma Duncan.The exhibit includes Duncan's works from as early as the 1930s covering 55 years of her life.
Alma's Woman series (1965) on display at the Art Gallery of Ottawa |
According to the Ottawa Citizen article, Alma "painted ... compulsively, and in ever-changing choices of media and style. And she did more than just paint: she may be better known as a film-maker of international acclaim."
Alma's Abstracts on display at the Art Gallery of Ottawa |
OAG co-curator Jaclyn Meloche says about Duncan, "She wasn't just a painter. She wasn't just a filmmaker. She wasn't just a landscape pen and ink drawer. She was a woman who was uninhibited, brave and strong and curious and never let anything stop her,"
"(Duncan) made art every day of her life. It was an extension of her,"
(via kate.tenehouse)
Young Black Girl (1940) on display at the Art Gallery of Ottawa (This painting inspired a poem by George Elliott Clarke) |
Ottawa Citizen May 27, 1947 |
Ottawa Citizen May 27, 1947 |
Alma and her friend Audrey (Babs) McLaren (1916-2014) lived in homes in Arnprior, Cumberland and Ottawa, Ontario where they loved to entertain, always in the company of beloved family dogs.
Together they formed Dunclaren Productions and their stop animation films, peopled with handmade puppets, garnered international recognition.
- Library and Archives Canada’s Alma Duncan fonds
- Alma Duncan collection
- Ottawa Art Gallery: Alma: The Life and Art of Alma Duncan
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative: Alma Duncan
- Carelton University Theses: Braiding the boundaries: a dialogical study of Alma Duncan's art from the 1940s and 1950s
- Ottawa Magazine: Ottawa Art Gallery resurrects pioneering artist Alma Duncan
- Canadian Women Film Directors Database: Alma Duncan
- Image search at The Library and Archives of Canada: Alma Duncan
- Obituary: Eleanor Audrey (Babs) McLaren: 31 October 1916-16 July 2014
Alma Duncan creating her NFB film Folksong Fantasy (1951) in Ottawa Photo: Audrey McLaren |
Alma Duncan, (left), animation artist, and Nina Finn, of the music department, National Film Board of Canada. October 1949. |
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