Norman Yates (September 23, 1923 February 09, 2014) was a painter in washes of colour of panoramic abstract and semi-abstract paintings that he called "landspaces". His themes were space and energy. In 2023, Patricia Bovey said that his landscapes are "flowing, evocative, ephemeral and always changing, reflecting the intangibility of the light, skies, and atmospheric effects". She added that his paintings are significant works in the annals of Western Canadian Art.

Career

Yates was born in Calgary and grew up in Regina. After four years of service as a radar technician in the

Royal Canadian Air Force The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; french: Aviation royale canadienne, ARC) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environm ...

during the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

, he attended the

Ontario College of Art Ontario College of Art & Design University, commonly known as OCAD University or OCAD, is a public art university located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus is spread throughout several buildings and facilities within do ...

, graduating in 1951. After 3 years in Toronto, in 1954, he was hired to teach in the

University of Alberta The University of Alberta, also known as U of A or UAlberta, is a public research university located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. It was founded in 1908 by Alexander Cameron Rutherford,"A Gentleman of Strathcona – Alexander Cameron Rutherfor ...

's department of arts and design in Edmonton where he remained until he retired in 1989. In 1972, Yates and his family moved to a large treed tract of land near Tomahawk, 96 kilometres west of Edmonton where he experienced an overwhelming sense of space. At much the same time, he discovered the work of

J. M. W. Turner Joseph Mallord William Turner (23 April 177519 December 1851), known in his time as William Turner, was an English Romantic painter, printmaker and watercolourist. He is known for his expressive colouring, imaginative landscapes and turbulen ...

and he studied it in depth. Both the new place for his painting and Turner influenced his subsequent paintings. During the 1970s, Yates served as an arts advocate and social activist, establishing the Alberta branch of the Canadian Society for Education Through Art, chairing the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, serving on the Western Canada Art Council and trying to prevent the demolition of older homes in his neighborhood. But having decided his activism was useless, in 1989, Yates and his wife moved to Victoria, BC.

Selected exhibitions

* Allied Arts Centre, solo exhibition of 15 paintings, oils and acrylics, 1965; *

Edmonton Art Gallery The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies a building at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittorf, and B. James Wensley, alth ...

, ''Norman Yates'', 1973; * Alberta Foundation for the Arts, ''Alberta Art: Exhibition of Art Works from the Collection of the Alberta Art Foundation = Exposition d'oeuvres provenant de la collection de la Fondation des arts de l'Alberta'', 1975; * Ring House Gallery, Edmonton, Alta, ''Norman Yates: Toward Landscape'', 1983. * Prairie Gallery, Grande Prairie Alta, ''Polarities: North/South and in Between: An Exhibition of Contemporary Artworks by 21 Alberta Artists'', 1989. * Two Rivers Gallery, Prince George, BC, ''Norman Yates: landscape in the 21th century: selection from the 1st decade'', 2010.

Honours and awards

* Canada Council Senior Arts Award, 1967, 1975; * Executive of the University Art Association of Canada, 1971-1973; * City of Edmonton Performing and Creative Arts Award, 1972; * Chairman Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, 1976-1977; * Albera Achievement Award for in Excellence in Art; * Rutherford Award for Excellence in Teaching, 1986; *

CARFAC Canadian Artists' Representation/ (CARFAC) is a non-profit corporation that serves as the national voice of Canada's professional visual artists. The mandate of CARFAC is to promote the visual arts in Canada, to promote a socio-economic climate ...

anadian Artists Representation/le Front des Artistes Canadienslife achievement award, 2003;

Selected public collections

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 ...

; * Alberta Foundation for the Arts; *

Art Gallery of Alberta The Art Gallery of Alberta (AGA) is an art museum in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. The museum occupies a building at Churchill Square in downtown Edmonton. The museum building was originally designed by Donald G. Bittorf, and B. James Wensley, alth ...

; *

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 ...

; *

Art Museums Art Collection;

Commissions

* Murals, ''West and North'', 202 four-by-eight-foot plywood planks, exterior of the Education Building,

; * Interior work for the Stanley Milner Library in Edmonton; * Mural on the Amoco Building, Calgary;

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yates, Norman 1923 births 2014 deaths 20th-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian male artists Canadian abstract painters Artists from Alberta OCAD University alumni Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Canadian muralists Artists from Victoria, British Columbia