Avrom Isaacs, D.F.A. (March 19, 1926 – January 15, 2016) was a Canadian art dealer.

Career

Avrom Isaacovitch, known as Av Isaacs, was born in

Winnipeg Winnipeg () is the capital and largest city of the province of Manitoba in Canada. It is centred on the confluence of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, near the longitudinal centre of North America. , Winnipeg had a city population of 749, ...

Manitoba , image_map = Manitoba in Canada 2.svg , map_alt = Map showing Manitoba's location in the centre of Southern Canada , Label_map = yes , coordinates = , capital = Winn ...

, and moved to Toronto with his family in 1941. Isaacs graduated with a bachelor's degree in Political Science and Economics from the

University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 ...

in 1950. He began his career in the arts in 1950 when he opened the Greenwich Art Shop, a small framing store on Hayter Street in Toronto. In 1955, when he shared a room with artist

Graham Coughtry Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian modernist figurative painter. Biography Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, then attended ...

, Coughtry, along with

Michael Snow Michael Snow (born December 10, 1928) is a Canadian artist working in a range of media including film, installation, sculpture, photography, and music. His best-known films are '' Wavelength'' (1967) and '' La Région Centrale'' (1971), with the ...

, persuaded him to open the Greenwich Gallery. The inaugural show, understandably, had paintings by Coughtry and Snow. The gallery was renamed the Isaacs Gallery in 1959 and moved to a new location at 832 Yonge Street in 1961. In it he represented numerous Canadian artists, including Coughtry, Snow, William Kurelek, Gordon Rayner, Jack Chambers, Joyce Wieland, Mark Prent, John Meredith, Dennis Burton, Robert Markle, Gathie Falk and Christiane Pflug, many of whom stayed with the gallery for all or most of their careers. The Isaacs Gallery was noted for the broad range of work it showed, running from contemporary art to the art of New Guinea and west-coast Indian artists and even to Asian costumes but his efforts went beyond helping his artists and their markets, wrote the

Globe and Mail ''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...

in 2005. Isaacs also was famous for his "young talent" shows. The Art Gallery of Ontario described him in 2016 as both curator and agitator, challenging both his artists and the community to be progressive. He was more than just an art dealer, he was a champion for modern Canadian art and Toronto. He opened the Innuit Gallery in Toronto in 1970, where he gave solo exhibitions to such distinguished artists as Karoo Ashevak and

Jessie Oonark Jessie Oonark, ( ᔨᐊᓯ ᐅᓈᖅ; 2 March 1906 – 7 March 1985) was a prolific and influential Inuit artist of the Utkuhiksalik, Utkuhihalingmiut ''Utkuhiksalingmiut'' whose wall hangings, prints and drawings are in major collections includ ...

. In August 1991 Isaacs consolidated his two galleries to form the Isaacs/Innuit Gallery. The gallery closed in 2001. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by

York University York University (french: Université York), also known as YorkU or simply YU, is a public university, public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is Canada's fourth-largest university, and it has approximately 55,700 students, 7,0 ...

in 1992, and was made a Member of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the ...

. Av Isaacs died on January 15, 2016. He was 89 years old.

Legacy

The key role of the Isaacs Gallery and the artists associated with Av Isaacs was revisited in a joint exhibition titled ''Isaacs Seen'' at the

Art Centre, Hart House, the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

(AGO), and the

Textile Museum of Canada The Textile Museum of Canada, located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a museum dedicated to the collection, exhibition, and documentation of textiles. History The Textile Museum of Canada was founded as the Canadian Museum of Carpets and Textiles ...

(2003-2005). In 2016, the AGO did a second show about Isaacs, ''Av Isaacs: Shaping the Scene'' which exhibited 19 works from the AGO's collection, donated by Av Isaacs or acquired from the Isaacs and Innuit Galleries through purchase and from local collectors.

References

Bibliography

External links

The Isaacs Gallery & The Isaacs/Innuit GalleryAvrom Isaacs archives
at the

Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections Clara Thomas (née McCandless; May 22, 1919 – September 26, 2013) was a Canadian academic. A longtime professor of English at York University, she was one of the first academics to devote her work specifically to the study of Canadian literatur ...

York University Libraries York University Libraries (YUL) is the library system of York University in Toronto, Ontario. The four main libraries and one archives contain more than 2,500,000 volumes. History The first York library opened in 1961 at Glendon College and ...

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaacs, Avrom 1926 births 2016 deaths Businesspeople from Winnipeg Canadian art dealers Members of the Order of Canada University of Toronto alumni