Audrey Capel Doray (born 1931) is a Canadian artist working in a variety of mediums—painting,

printmaking Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand processed techniq ...

, electronic art, murals, and films. In addition to her solo and group exhibitions, her work was exhibited at the ''6th Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting'' at the

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the l ...

in 1965. A

serigraph Screen printing is a printing technique where a mesh is used to transfer ink (or dye) onto a substrate, except in areas made impermeable to the ink by a blocking stencil. A blade or squeegee is moved across the screen to fill the open mesh ...

''Diamond'' is held in the

Tate Gallery Tate is an institution that houses, in a network of four art galleries, the United Kingdom's national collection of British art, and international modern and contemporary art. It is not a government institution, but its main sponsor is the U ...

London and the National Gallery of Canada. Her work is described in ''North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century'' as combining "robust social criticism with her own interpretation of humanist theory" and dealing with pop art and the feminist archetype, themes of "perpetual motion and endless transition", and the interplay of sound and light.

Life and career

Born Audrey Capel in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, she studied art from the age of 15 in classes at the

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

with

Arthur Lismer Arthur Lismer, LL. D. (27 June 1885 – 23 March 1969) was an English-Canadian painter, member of the Group of Seven and educator. He is known primarily as a landscape painter and for his paintings of ships in dazzle camouflage. Early life ...

. She then continued in fine arts at

McGill University McGill University (french: link=no, Université McGill) is an English-language public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1821 by royal charter granted by King George IV,Frost, Stanley Brice. ''McGill Universit ...

with Lismer as well as

John Goodwin Lyman John Goodwin Lyman (September 29, 1886 – May 26, 1967) was an American-born Canadian modernist painter active largely in Montreal, Quebec. In the 1930s he did much to promote modern art in Canada, founding the Contemporary Art Society in 1939. ...

and Gordon Webber. After graduating from McGill in 1952, she taught art in Montreal schools and completed further work with

Jacques de Tonnancour Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour, LL. D. (3 January 1917 – 13 January 2005) was a Canadian artist and art educator from Montreal, Quebec. Life and work Jacques Godefroy de Tonnancour was born on 3 January 1917 in Montreal, Quebec. He studied a ...

. In 1956 she spent a year in Europe, studying etching at

Atelier 17 Atelier 17 was an art school and studio that was influential in the teaching and promotion of printmaking in the 20th century. Originally located in Paris, the studio relocated to New York during the years surrounding World War II. It moved back ...

in Paris with Stanley Hayter. His book ''New Ways Of Gravure'' introduced Doray to the art of printmaking. She also studied lithography at the

Central School of Arts & Crafts The Central School of Art and Design was a public school of fine and applied arts in London, England. It offered foundation and degree level courses. It was established in 1896 by the London County Council as the Central School of Arts and Cra ...

in London.Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (eds.) (2013). "Doray, Audrey Capel"
''North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary''
p. 160. RoutledgeNational Gallery of Canada (2008)
"Doray, Audrey"
''Artists in Canada''. Retrieved 2 April 2015.Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties
"Audrey Capel Doray"
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 April 2015. In 1956, she married the artist and

medical illustrator A medical illustration is a form of biological illustration that helps to record and disseminate medical, anatomical, and related knowledge. History Medical illustrations have been made possibly since the History of medicine, beginning of medicin ...

Victor Doray. On their return from Europe they settled in

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

where Audrey taught for two years at the

Vancouver School of Art Emily Carr University of Art + Design (abbreviated as ECU) is a public art university located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The university's campus is located within the Great Northern Way Campus in Strathcona. The university is a co-e ...

.Ruins in Process: Vancouver Art in the Sixties
"Victor Doray"
Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Retrieved 2 April 2015. She held her first solo show at the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Franc ...

in 1961. She also exhibited in 1964 at the New Design Gallery, the first gallery to show contemporary art in Vancouver, which adjoined an arts space that presented live theatre, films, concerts, lectures and poetry readings.

The earliest local artist to attempt to make Mcluanesqhue paintings was Audrey Capel Doray whose last series on canvas 1965, before she turned to sound, motion and light, was about the transformation of Typographic Man into Electronic Man. Capel Doray went on to produce some of the most emblematic work of the period involving light, sound and motion before returning to painting in the seventies.

Audrey and Victor Doray were instrumental in founding the Intermedia Society in 1967. Inspired in part by the ideas of

Marshall McLuhan Herbert Marshall McLuhan (July 21, 1911 – December 31, 1980) was a Canadian philosopher whose work is among the cornerstones of the study of media theory. He studied at the University of Manitoba and the University of Cambridge. He began his ...

, it was a place for artists from multiple disciplines to meet and collaborate and was financed partly by grants from the

Canada Council The Canada Council for the Arts (french: Conseil des arts du Canada), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It acts as the federal government's principal i ...

. Intermedia remained an influential force in the artistic life of Vancouver for the next decade. Among the initiatives it spawned were the Video Inn (a repository and exchange of video art) and the

Western Front Society Western Front (Western Front Society) is an artist-run centre located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. It was founded in 1973 by eight artists (Martin Bartlett, Mo van Nostrand, Kate Craig, Henry Greenhow, Glenn Lewis, Eric Metcalfe, Mi ...

. The 2008 exhibition ''Idyll'' at the

Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery is a contemporary art gallery in Vancouver, British Columbia, on the campus of the University of British Columbia. The gallery is housed in an award-winning building designed by architect Peter Cardew and o ...

, featured Doray's multimedia works from this period, with the catalog describing her as "a pioneer of interactive and multimedia art that incorporated computers." Following her solo shows at the Vancouver Art Gallery at the New Design Gallery, she showed at

Simon Fraser University Simon Fraser University (SFU) is a public research university in British Columbia, Canada, with three campuses, all in Greater Vancouver: Burnaby (main campus), Surrey, and Vancouver. The main Burnaby campus on Burnaby Mountain, located from ...

in 1966, the Bau-Xi Gallery in Vancouver, and at the Jerrold Morris Gallery in Toronto. Her work was also exhibited in the ''6th Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Painting'' at the

in 1965.Montbezon, Rea (19 June 1965)
"Canadian Painting 1965 – A Shift in Focus"
''

The Montreal Gazette The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...

'', p. 24. Retrieved 2 April 2015. By the late 1960s Doray became known for her transparent plastic kinetic-audio-light sculptures exhibited both in Canada and the United States.These multi-sensory haptic-like works she related to art educator Viktor Lowenfield's teaching of perception by touch in his book, ''Creative and Mental Growth''. Hexagon-Six-Panel Multi-Media Installation by Audrey Capel Doray

Hexagon-Six-Panel Multi-Media Installation by Audrey Capel Doray

Art in America ''Art in America'' is an illustrated monthly, international magazine concentrating on the contemporary art world in the United States, including profiles of artists and genres, updates about art movements, show reviews and event schedules. It i ...

'' featured Audrey's ''Hexagon''. This is a six-panelled polarized light kinetic audio installation that they considered inherent in the electronic medium. An interview with her in ''

Vanguard The vanguard (also called the advance guard) is the leading part of an advancing military formation. It has a number of functions, including seeking out the enemy and securing ground in advance of the main force. History The vanguard derives fr ...

'' in 1978, set against her solo exhibition that year at the Bau-Xi Gallery, discussed her work in murals, animated film, electronic art and the themes of motion and continual flux in her paintings.

(July 2008)
"Audrey Capel Doray and Joan Balzar in conversation with Lorna Brown"

University of British Columbia The University of British Columbia (UBC) is a public university, public research university with campuses near Vancouver and in Kelowna, British Columbia. Established in 1908, it is British Columbia's oldest university. The university ranks a ...

. Retrieved 2 April 2015. The Doray's established a summer retreat on

Savary Island Savary Island or Áyhus is an island in British Columbia, Canada. Located in the northern part of the Strait of Georgia, it is northwest of Vancouver. It is approximately 0.8-1.5 km wide and long. It has a permanent population of about 100, ...

, and Audrey became increasingly drawn to landscape painting and environmental issues. By the 1980s she and her husband were both active in campaigns to save the

old growth forest An old-growth forestalso termed primary forest, virgin forest, late seral forest, primeval forest, or first-growth forestis a forest that has attained great age without significant disturbance, and thereby exhibits unique ecological featur ...

s of Canada's

West Coast West Coast or west coast may refer to: Geography Australia * Western Australia *Regions of South Australia#Weather forecasting, West Coast of South Australia * West Coast, Tasmania **West Coast Range, mountain range in the region Canada * Britis ...

and participated in art projects for the

Stein Stein is a German, Yiddish and Norwegian word meaning "stone" and "pip" or "kernel". It stems from the same Germanic root as the English word stone. It may refer to: Places In Austria * Stein, a neighbourhood of Krems an der Donau, Lower Austr ...

, Carmanah and Tsitika valleys. In 2014, she was one of the artists shown at the West Vancouver Museum in the exhibition ''The And of the Land: Perspectives on Landscape by Artists from British Columbia''. Doray's work is in the permanent collections of the

in Ottawa, the

and the

in Vancouver, and the

Confederation Centre Art Gallery The Confederation Centre Art Gallery (CCAG; french: Musée d’art du Centre de la Confédération) is an art museum that forms a part of the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada. The art museum pavilion f ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island (PEI; ) is one of the thirteen Provinces and territories of Canada, provinces and territories of Canada. It is the smallest province in terms of land area and population, but the most densely populated. The island has seve ...

. Her

''Diamond'' is held in the

London and the National Gallery of Canada. Her work is also held in several private and corporate collections, including an electronic mural commissioned by Mazda Motors in 1973 and paintings commissioned by the Waterfront Centre Hotel in Vancouver in 1991. Continuing her lifelong interest in interactivity and movement her most recent work is a multi-media installation titled ''Here and Beyond'' exhibited at the Macaulay & Co. gallery in 2014 with a score by

David Hykes David Hykes (born March 2, 1953, Taos, New Mexico) is a composer, singer, musician, author, and meditation teacher. He was one of the earliest modern western pioneers of overtone singing, and since 1975 has developed a comprehensive approach to ...

References

External links

Artist's page
at Doray's representatives, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art
Video: Audrey Capel Doray in conversation
(''Idyll: Three Exhibitions'', May 16 to August 10, 2008) on the official YouTube channel of the

{{DEFAULTSORT:Doray, Audrey Capel 1931 births Living people 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists Artists from Montreal Canadian women painters McGill University alumni Atelier 17 alumni