Derek Michael Besant (born 1950) is a Canadian artist living in
Calgary, Alberta
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Canadian Prairies, Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,30 ...
who, since the 1980s, has created prints, watercolours and large-scale art, shown in exhibitions and as public art projects in Canada and abroad. Since the mid-1990s, he has developed working with the new technology available in photographic imaging to create experimental prints and print installations.
Career
![Derek Michael Besant Waterfall](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1a/Derek_Michael_Besant_Waterfall.jpg)
Besant studied at
University of Calgary
The University of Calgary (U of C or UCalgary) is a public research university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The University of Calgary started in 1944 as the Calgary branch of the University of Alberta, founded in 1908, prior to being ins ...
, where he received a BFA Honours in 1973
and continued with Graduate Studies in 1974. He was the Exhibitions Designer for the
Glenbow Museum
The Glenbow Museum is an art and history regional museum in the city of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The museum focuses on Western Canadian history and culture, including Indigenous perspectives. The Glenbow was established as a private non-profi ...
between 1973–1977.
He designed exhibitions throughout the art gallery and museum spaces, along with catalogues and travelling exhibitions.
The
Alberta University of Art and Design invited him to teach in the Drawing and Fine Arts Department in 1977. He taught there for forty years and retired from teaching in 2017. He was the Head of the Drawing Department between 1979–1993.
Since 1980, he has also been a lecturer at
Texas State University
Texas State University is a public research university in San Marcos, Texas. Since its establishment in 1899, the university has grown to the second largest university in the Greater Austin metropolitan area and the fifth largest university ...
in San Marcos.
Some of his public commissions include: ''The Flatiron Mural'' in 1980 behind
Toronto
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 ...
’s landmark
Gooderham flatiron building on Front Street, ''Waterfall'' at 15 storeys high inside the atrium of
Scotia Plaza
Scotia Plaza is a commercial skyscraper in the city of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is in the financial district of the downtown core bordered by Yonge Street on the east, King Street West on the south, Bay Street on the west, and Adelaide Stree ...
at King & Bay in 1989, two murals for Worldwide Centre at 58th and 8th Manhattan Cineplex
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
in 1989, and ''Train of Thought'', a series of portraits at the
uOttawa station
uOttawa is a light rail transit (LRT) station on the O-Train Confederation Line, located on the University of Ottawa campus.
Location
Located just east of the Rideau Canal at the western terminus of Somerset Street (Ottawa), Somerset Street E ...
of the
Ottawa
Ottawa (, ; Canadian French: ) is the capital city of Canada. It is located at the confluence of the Ottawa River and the Rideau River in the southern portion of the province of Ontario. Ottawa borders Gatineau, Quebec, and forms the core ...
O-Train
The O-Train is a light metro transit system in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, operated by OC Transpo. The O-Train system has two lines, the electrically-operated Confederation Line (Line 1) and the diesel-operated Trillium Line (Line 2). Since May 20 ...
in 2018.
![Derek Michael Bessant Flatiron Mural](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9c/Derek_Michael_Bessant_Flatiron_Mural.jpg)
Besant's exhibitions have included: representing Canada in the
Sharjah Biennial
The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The first Sharjah Biennial took place in 1993, and was organized by the Sharjah Department of Cul ...
in 2003, United Arab Emirates, University of London
Goldsmiths College
Goldsmiths, University of London, officially the Goldsmiths' College, is a constituent research university of the University of London in England. It was originally founded in 1891 as The Goldsmiths' Technical and Recreative Institute by the Wor ...
, Tokyo Media-Art Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan, the 2004
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH (Special Interest Group on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques) is an annual conference on computer graphics (CG) organized by the ACM SIGGRAPH, starting in 1974. The main conference is held in North America; SIGGRAPH Asia ...
International Conference on Computer Imaging + Interactive Technologies, Los Angeles in 2004, and in many other international exhibitions since then, including one-person shows such as ''15 Restless Nights'' (2008), ''Body Of Water'' (2008), and ''The End Of Language'' (2011) which have been shown in various galleries in Canada, and in Edinburgh, Madrid, Tokyo and Cambridge, UK, among other places.
In 2018, for the exhibition ''The Dark Woods (Revisited)'', curated by Lubos Culen fo
the Vernon Public Art Gallery Vernon, British Columbia, he created large scale (though deliberately slightly out-of-focus) images using UV thermal transfer printing which contained embedded fragments of text from a book by Alberto Pérez-Gómez, accompanied by a video projection of dark woods environments. In 2020, his exhibition ''Drawing Conclusions'' in which he used lenticular and latex UV ink technologies to record architectural construction sites was shown at the International Duoro Printmaking Biennial held at the Côa Museum in northern Portugal. He has continued, despite Covid, to participate in international projects such as, in 2021, developing five large-scale shaped engraved images that echoed his earlier work from ''unmade hotel beds as landscape'' which were installed at
La Boverie
La Boverie is a museum in the city of Liège in Belgium. It opened in May 2016. It is housed in the former Palais des beaux-arts de Liège
The Palais des Beaux-Arts de Liège is a building at the centre of the Parc de la Boverie in the Belgian c ...
Musée, Liège, Belgium in its ''Engraving Triennial'' exhibition. In 2022, The 3rd International Müvészeti Digital Triennial premiered his new video production ''Faultline'' in Budapest, Hungary and he was among 16 international artists commissioned
to produce new in-situ art installations on the theme of Das Paradies liegt vors Uns (Paradise in front of us) for the "125th Anniversary of The Bruerei Clemens Härle" at Bodensee on Lac Constance in Southern Bavaria, Germany.
Critical response
Besnat's ''Flatiron Mural'' (1980) on Toronto's Gooderham Building has been called "a symbol of the liveliness of Toronto's contemporary art scene" (''
Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'') and along with the building itself, "a landmark in its own right" (''
Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
)''. Writing about its unveiling in 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 ...
'',
John Bentley Mays
John Bentley Mays (June 22, 1941 – September 16, 2016) was a Canadian journalist and writer. Best known as an art and architecture columnist for ''The Globe and Mail'', he also published a novel and several non-fiction books.
Mays was born in ...
called it an "engineering masterpiece and an artistic triumph."
A 1985 review in the ''
Edmonton Journal
The ''Edmonton Journal'' is a daily newspaper in Edmonton, Alberta. It is part of the Postmedia Network.
History
The ''Journal'' was founded in 1903 by three local businessmen — John Macpherson, Arthur Moore and J.W. Cunningham — as ...
'' described Besant's images of "structures in the midst of diagrammatic environments" as "unusual and highly individual", and "dramatic enough to transcend the ordinary and encourage a thorough visual investigation."
Controversy
In 2017, an investigation was ordered by the
City of Calgary
Calgary ( ) is the largest city in the western Canadian province of Alberta and the largest metro area of the three Prairie Provinces. As of 2021, the city proper had a population of 1,306,784 and a metropolitan population of 1,481,806, making ...
into allegations that Besant had plagiarized the content of a temporary public art installation. Besant apologized and the mural was removed.
Awards and honours
* Member of the
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
History 1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...
(1978)
* Alberta Governor General's Award in Art (1980)
* World Culture Prize in Research Arts & Letters from Milan, Italy (1983);
* Signature Sculpture Competition ($100,000),
Mount Royal College
Mount Royal University (MRU) is a public university in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.
History
Mount Royal University was founded by Alberta provincial charter by the Arthur Sifton government on December 16, 1910 and officially opened on September 8 ...
(1989)
*
Lieutenant Governor of Alberta
The lieutenant governor of Alberta () is the viceregal representative in Alberta of the . The lieutenant governor is appointed in the same manner as the other provincial viceroys in Canada and is similarly tasked with carrying out most of the m ...
's Art Achievement Award (1999)
* Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Calgary (1999)
* Special Award for remarkable contribution in graphic art of the world, Bitola, Macedonia (2018)
* Member of the Society of Austrian Artists, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
* Member of the Editorial Board of PRINTMAKING TODAY, London UK.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Besant, Derek Michael
Artists from Calgary
Canadian muralists
Living people
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
1950 births
University of Calgary alumni
Canadian printmakers
printmakers