Jack Chambers (artist)

John Richard Chambers RCA (March 25, 1931 – April 13, 1978) was an artist and filmmaker.

Jack Chambers
Born
John Richard Chambers

(1931-03-25)March 25, 1931
London, Ontario, Canada
DiedApril 13, 1978(1978-04-13) (aged 47)
London, Ontario, Canada
Known forPainter, filmmaker
Notable workThe Hart of London, 1970
SpouseOlga Sanchez Bustos (married 1963)

Biography

Born John Richard Chambers in London, Ontario, Chambers signed his name as John until 1970 and thereafter was known as Jack professionally and posthumously.[1] Chambers spent eight years (1953–1961) studying and working in Europe after studying at H.B. Beal Secondary School and the University of Western Ontario. [citations needed] While in Europe he met Pablo Picasso, who suggested he continue his studies in Barcelona.[2] He called his own work "perceptual realism"[3]. When he returned to London, Chambers worked with fellow London native Greg Curnoe.[4] In 1969 he was diagnosed with leukemia. For the rest of his life he painted more realistically, often depicting sites in London and the surrounding area. [citations needed]

In 1968, he co-founded[5] Canadian Artists' Representation (CARFAC), now a national organization of artists, after an argument with the National Gallery of Canada over reproduction rights and fees. In 1973 he received the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award.[6]

His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada,[7] the Art Gallery of Ontario,[8] and Museum London.[9] A London elementary school became Jack Chambers Public School.[citation needed]

There was a 2012 retrospective of his work at the Art Gallery of Ontario.[10]

Perceptual Realism

Art historian Mark Cheetham calls Perceptual Realism "a fully articulated position that detailed art’s profound and spiritual relationship with primary sensory experience" and applies to his most notable films and paintings.[11] Chambers called it "a faculty of inner vision where the object appears in the splendour of its essential namelessness.[12]

Paintings

By the mid-1960s Chambers’ style changed again as he worked a sense of temporal movement into his paintings.[13] Forms were fragmented in these paintings: "A painting gets put together just like an experience – in particles."[14] In the mid-1960s Chambers also produced his silver paintings using aluminum pigment like other artists, including Andy Warhol, also did.[15]

Films

Between 1964 and 1970, Chambers completed six films varying in length between nine minutes and 79 minutes. [citations needed] Working in both black and white and colour film, his works were montages dealing on the surface with his domestic life and images of London, Ontario. They were also examinations of the contrast between nature and society.[16] Although for the most part peripheral to the history of avant-garde film, owing to his early death and reluctance to travel with his films for festivals,[17] Chambers' filmography and in particular his feature-length film The Hart of London have become important within Canadian film history but have also grown in stature internationally.[18]

Filmography
  • Mosaic (1964–65, black and white, sound, 9 min.)
  • Hybrid (1966, colour, silent, 15 min.)
  • Little Red Riding Hood (with Greg Curnoe and James Reaney) (1967, colour, sound, 25 min.)
  • R-34 (1967, colour, sound, 30 min.)
  • Circle (1968–69, colour/black and white, sound, 28 min.)
  • The Hart of London (1968–70, colour/black and white, sound, 79 min.)
  • C.C.C.I. (unfinished) (c.1970)
  • Life Still (unfinished) (c.1970)

Films About Jack Chambers

  • Chambers (Fraser Boa, 1969, col., so., 41 min.)
  • Jack Chambers (Cynthia Scott, CBC 'Man Alive' program, 1971, col., so., 52 min(?)
  • Life Force (Peter Mellen, 1974, col., so., 26 min.)
  • Chambers: Tracks and Gestures (Christopher Lowry and John Walker, 1982, col., so., 57 min.) (DVD Ecotone Productions)

References

Notes
  1. "Jack Chambers". Art Canada Institute - Institut de l’art canadien. Retrieved 2018-06-29.
  2. "Jack Chambers". www.dennis-young.ca. H. Dennis Young. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  3. Chambers, "Perceptual Realism", p. 34
  4. Elder, p. 7
  5. "CARFAC History › CARFAC". www.carfac.ca. Retrieved 2023-02-16.
  6. "Prizes". Canada Council. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
  7. "Jack Chambers". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 2021-03-28.
  8. AGO Contemporary Collection Archived July 3, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
  9. "Contemporary Art Collections, Museum London". Archived from the original on 2011-07-06. Retrieved 2011-07-06.
  10. "Light, Spirit, Time, Place, and Life | the Mark". Archived from the original on April 22, 2012. Retrieved May 23, 2012.
  11. Cheetham, p. 7
  12. Chambers quoted in Cheetham, p. 12
  13. Cheetham, pp. 35-36
  14. Chambers quoted in Cheetham, p. 12
  15. Cheetham, p. 37
  16. Woodman, p. 46
  17. Elder, p. 2
  18. Brakhage, p. 123

Bibliography
  • Brakhage, Stan. "The Hart of London: A Document of the City." The Films of Jack Chambers. Kathryn Elder, ed. Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario Monographs. 117-124. ISBN 978-0-9682969-4-3
  • Burnett, David G. Jack Chambers Retrospective. London, Ontario: Regional Art Gallery, 1988. ISBN 0-920872-53-0
  • Chambers, Jack. "Perceptual Realism." The Films of Jack Chambers. Kathryn Elder, ed. Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario Monographs. 33-43. ISBN 978-0-9682969-4-3
  • Chambers, Jack. Jack Chambers: Selection of Paintings and Drawings. Ottawa: Canadian High Commission, 1978.
  • Cheetham, Mark. Jack Chambers: Life & Work. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2013. E-Book.
  • Elder, Kathryn. The Films of Jack Chambers. Toronto: Cinematheque Ontario Monograph, 2002. ISBN 0-9682969-4-7
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