Edward W. (Ted) Godwin, D.F.A. (August 13, 1933 – January 3, 2013) was the youngest member of the
Regina Five, a group of five artists (
Ken Lochhead
Kenneth Campbell Lochhead, (May 22, 1926 – July 15, 2006) was a Canadian professor and painter. He was the brother of poet Douglas Lochhead.
Career
Born in Ottawa, Ontario, Lochhead attended the Summer Art School at Queen's University in 1944 ...
,
Art McKay
Arthur Fortescue McKay, best known as Art McKay (September 11, 1926 – August 3, 2000) was a Canadian painter and a member of The Regina Five. Many of his works are modernist abstractions.
Early life and education
McKay was born in Nipawin, S ...
,
Ron Bloore
Ronald Langley Bloore, D.Litt LL.D FRSC (May 29, 1925 – September 4, 2009) was a Canadian abstract artist and teacher. He was a member of the Regina Five.
Education
Born in Brampton, Ontario, Bloore received a B.A. in art and archaeolo ...
and Douglas Morton) all based in
Regina, Saskatchewan
Regina () is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province, after Saskatoon, and is a commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. As of the 2021 census, Regina had a city population ...
in 1961 when the group got its name from a show held by 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 ...
. Godwin is also known for his so-called
Tartan
Tartan ( gd, breacan ) is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Sc ...
paintings of the late 1960s and 1970s.
Career
Born in
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, maki ...
,
Alberta
Alberta ( ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada. It is part of Western Canada and is one of the three prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to the west, Saskatchewan to the east, the Northwest Ter ...
, he attended the
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art from 1951 to 1955. He also attended several
Emma Lake Artists' Workshops, including those led by
Barnett Newman
Barnett Newman (January 29, 1905 – July 4, 1970) was an American artist. He has been critically regarded as one of the major figures of abstract expressionism, and one of the foremost color field painters. His paintings explore the sense of ...
(1959),
John Ferren
John Millard Ferren (October 17, 1905 – July 1, 1970) was an American artist and educator. He was active from 1920 until 1970 in San Francisco, Paris and New York City.
Early life
John Ferren was born in Pendleton, Oregon on October 17, ...
(1960),
Jules Olitski
Jevel Demikovski (March 27, 1922 – February 4, 2007), known professionally as Jules Olitski, was an American painter, printmaker, and sculptor.
Early life
Olitski was born Jevel Demikovsky in Snovsk, in Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( ...
(1964), and
Lawrence Alloway
Lawrence Reginald Alloway (17 September 1926 – 2 January 1990) was an English art critic and curator who worked in the United States from 1961. In the 1950s, he was a leading member of the Independent Group in the UK and in the 1960s was an in ...
(1965). From 1955 to 1964 he worked in commercial art. In 1962-1963, he spent the year sketching and painting in Greece on a
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 in ...
grant. From 1964 to 1985, he taught at the Faculty of Fine Art,
University of Saskatchewan
A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase ''universitas magistrorum et scholarium'', which ...
(Regina campus) which later became the
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatche ...
.
His work went through several phases, from the abstract paintings of his
Regina Five years (1958-1968) to his Tartan paintings of the late 1960s and 1970s, to his later representational landscapes. Godwin has had over sixty solo exhibitions beginning in 1958
and his group exhibition history began in 1955 and spanned fifty years.
In 1999, The Nickle Arts Museum of Calgary mounted and toured a major examination of Godwin's Tartans.
In 2008, a show titled ''Ted Godwin, The Regina Five Years, 1958–1968'' was held at the Nickle.
His work is represented by major institutions across Canada, including 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 ...
, 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 Be ...
, 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 in ...
Art Bank, the
Art Gallery of Hamilton, the
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatche ...
, the
MacKenzie Art Gallery
The MacKenzie Art Gallery (MAG; french: Musee d’art MacKenzie) is an art museum located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The museum occupies the multipurpose T. C. Douglas Building, situated at the edge of the Wascana Centre. The building hol ...
,
and the
Confederation Centre Art Gallery.
He is represented by: Wallace Galleries, Calgary; Mayberry Fine Art, Winnipeg; Assiniboia Gallery, Regina; and Bau-Xi Gallery, Vancouver.
In 2001, a documentary was made about the Regina Five, titled ''A World Away: Stories from the Regina Five'' in which Godwin appears.
Publications
*
Honours
* Queen Elizabeth Silver Jubilee Medal (1978)
* Saskatchewan Book Award for ''Messages from the Real World A Professional Handbook for the Emerging Artist'' as the best new publication (Educational) (1999)
* Honorary Doctorate from the
University of Regina
The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatche ...
(2001)
* Officer of the Order of Canada (2004)
* Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)
* Board of Governors Award of Excellence,
Alberta College of Art and Design
The Alberta University of the Arts (AUArts) is a public art university located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. The university is a co-educational institution that operates four academic schools.
The institution originated from the art departmen ...
*
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 Genera ...
Notes
Further reading
*
External links
University of Regina exhibition* University of Regina Archives and Special Collections. Ted Godwin Fonds. https://www.uregina.ca/library/services/archives/collections/art-architecture/godwin.html
{{DEFAULTSORT:Godwin, Ted
1933 births
2013 deaths
Officers of the Order of Canada
20th-century Canadian painters
Canadian male painters
21st-century Canadian painters
Artists from Calgary
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Southern Alberta Institute of Technology alumni
University of Saskatchewan faculty
Canadian art educators
Canadian abstract artists
20th-century Canadian male artists
21st-century Canadian male artists