From RCA Bulletin ARC 2006

Roland Brener RCA
1942 - 2006

Roland left a legacy of influences as multifaceted as his life story: he was a husband to Dama, father to Amy, teacher to thousands of students, friend to all of them and always a brilliant artist. He was my most complex artist for twenty years, but we miraculously survived each other and I am only now beginning to accept his absence and allow the memories to sustain me.

Prominent curators and art critics have written about Roland's work during his career of forty some years, so I would like to share some of my most vivid memories of the Roland Brener I knew and loved. He was incredibly alive, extremely neurotic and often petty about small issues, but just to be certain that no one would become complacent around him, he would switch to the most courageous, brave, generous person one could imagine. The switches of attitude were punctuated with the wackiest, most contagious laughter.

Roland never stopped playing - the whole world was his playground, trips were his office on the sailboat, storms on the open seas were a mere temporary challenge, army surplus stores were an obsession, works of art were his conversations, to be changed or destroyed or cannibalized for another piece at a moment's whim. If I picked works for a show in his studio, it was almost guaranteed that they would no longer exist by the time his exhibition took place. A phone call full of laughter would warn me of the surprise about to arrive. A second phone call and many thereafter would assure me that I would love the new work. I always did.

How can one describe a man who writes threatening letters when an e-mail hasn't been answered within an hour, yet who will telephone minutes before major surgery to reassure one that he will be fine, not to worry? Roland survived a serious motorcycle accident and two rounds of cancer, all three emergencies required serious medical interventions. Yet there was our normally complaining, demanding Roland, chuckling and teasing and comforting everyone around him, assuring us of his certain recovery, creating works around the experience. Eventually, all of us who loved him believed him to be invincible. His last sculpture titled "Wormhole" consists of a dark wooden passage filled with ticking alarm clocks, as though Roland knew that his time had come. I listen to the ticking and feel grateful for those twenty years, but I miss him terribly.

(Olga Korper)


Tom Sherlock Hodgson RCA
1924 - 2006

Tom Hodgson was a third-generation Torontonian who often pointed out to me the location of his grandfather's stable and wagon repair shop at Sherbourne and Richmond streets. Born in 1924, Tom spent his early years living on Toronto Island where paddling became his lifelong sport and at which he so excelled that he was part of the Canadian paddling team sent to the 1952 Summer Olympics in Helsinki, Finland and in Melbourne, Australia in 1956.

Although I had once admired Tom's abstract paintings, particularly for his marvellous sense of colour, and had seen him at the Unitarian Church on St. Claire Ave where he brought his two sons on the back of his motor bike, I did not meet him until 1965 when I began to attend his Thursday night drawing sessions. For 20 years a gang of us would meet for life drawing in Tom's studio at King and Church. We'd pay for a model, a case of beer, turn on some jazz and draw. Kenny Wells, a Toronto disk jockey and friend of Tom's would announce "It's drawing night in Canada" every Thursday on his nightly radio show.

Tom's studio became notorious in Toronto for the wild parties he held there because he loved seeing beautiful women in the nude. At one of these more memorable parties he talked one of the models into lying nude on the table as the centre piece. Strategically placing a bouquet of flowers on her most intimate parts, he then arranged plates of cold cuts and fruit on her body for all of us to eat and enjoy. Tom also made sure that every house he lived in had a sauna and a swimming pool so that he could encourage his guests to strip and enjoy themselves. These occasions were, however, quite innocent and served merely to give Tom a chance to indulge his love on the nude body.

Tom was a truly creative artist. In the 1950s he began moving toward abstraction in his painting and in 1954, along with other Canadian artists, formed a loose group of abstract artists called the Painters Eleven. They hoped that the group's formation would give their work greater visibility. Many of them had exhibited in many of the OSA shows but their work was either rejected or exhibited reluctantly. A believer that creativity always involved change, Tom's paintings were always a journey into the unknown. I remember his doing countless drawings with this left hand just to see where this method would lead him. Unpredictability was also part of his personal life. At an artist's party I attended, Tom and his wife Kathy showed up on a motorcycle wearing only their helmets.

The final years of Tom's life were very sad. He contracted Alzheimers at the age of 65 and the devotion of his wife Kathy kept him alive until his death at 82. I remember him fondly as a friend, a talented painter and a man who loved to shake up staid Torontonians.

(Robert Kaiser RCA and Colleen Dimson)


Kenneth Campbell Lochhead RCA
1926 - 2006

One of the Regina Five, Kenneth Lochhead played a significant role in the history of the visual arts in Canada as an artist, educator, innovator and mentor. He passed away peacefully at home on Saturday, July 15, 2006, with Joanne and his family by his side.

Born in Ottawa in 1926, Ken studied commercial art in Ottawa and fine arts at Queen's University (1944). He attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and spent two years with the Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania (1946-1948). An Officer in the Order of Canada (investiture 1971), in 2006 Ken was awarded the Governor General's Award recognizing his distinguished lifetime achievements in the visual arts.

Lochhead became Director of the University of Saskatchewan School of Art at Regina College in 1950. During this time he was also the administrator for the Norman Mackenzie Art Collection (1950-58). One of Lochhead's many accomplishments was the founding of the Emma Lake Professional Artists' Workshops in 1955, which brought about a renaissance in Saskatchewan art and helped propel it onto the international scene. As one of the Regina Five, (the other members being Ron Bloore, Ted Godwin RCA, Art McKay, and Doug Morton RCA,), Ken's work was exhibited at the National Gallery in 1961. This was considered a forefront of Canada's modern art movement at that time.

Ken left Regina in 1964 to become Professor of painting at the Winnipeg School of Art (1964-73), York University (1973-74), and the University of Ottawa (1975-89). From 1989 until 2006 Ken did what he was best at - going to the Studio every day.

For me Ken's passing is like a part of me has died, and yet his spirit, laughter, and joy of life are still daily companions in my studio as are the memories of Art McKay, and Doug Morton.

One of the great ironies of life is the strange but true fact that we have Ken Lochhead the Painter because he didn't make the cut as a figure skater! Once I wrapped my head around that reality I knew where his fine sense of a brush hand came from. In conversation with Bill Riddell, then Dean of Regina College, I learned that Ken Lochhead was Bill's first appointment. In his words, "Ken stood out from all the other applicants because he convinced me he was a giver not a taker." It is of some interest that Ken was appointed a full Professor at the tender age of 23. If you are ever in Regina be sure to go to the Legion Hall, and look at one of the great Canadian masterpieces; Ken Lochhead's egg tempera mural. It is a knockout.

The songs we sing are left as memories of our passing, and there can be no better tribute than the legacy he left in the art that he made.

(Ted Godwin RCA, Regina Five)

Aiko Suzuki RCA
1937 - 2005

"True Forces of Nature" was the title for Aiko Suzuki's memorial gathering held at Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre, January 14, 2006. Art reviewer, Gary Michael Dault1 wrote, "...for Suzuki, art was primarily energy in space..." In her own words Aiko described such energy in space as a "fibre suspension," massive fibre sculptures suspended in the air. Most notable public examples are "Lyra" (1981) in the Metro Toronto Reference Library and "Lyra: Refrain" (1984). Aiko's fibre arts further evolved into magical fantasy with 18 modern dance sets created in collaboration with the Toronto Dance Theatre, National Ballet of Canada and Dance Makers Dance Company over a 32 year-span. She also exhibited multimedia works in 23 solo and 29 group exhibitions over her years of artistic endeavour.

Aiko had said, "...the trouble with painting is that [it] limit[s] you in the ways you can move through space…" Yet it appears that Aiko was able to solve this conundrum. Energy caught in her large charcoal drawings draws in all surrounding forces then radiates it back and forth into space. In the same theme of movement and interactivity was Aiko's passion for jazz music. This interest precipitated encounters with Stan Getz and other jazz greats to result in much artistic collaboration. Her daughter Chiyoko, a composer and musician presently based in Berlin, was a constant source of pride and inspiration.

The Woman of Distinction Award 1994, YWCA-Metropolitan Toronto, symbolizes Aiko's commitment to society. She also worked for Inner City Angels, AIDS patients, Lubicon Cree Advocacy, Ojibwe Cultural Foundation and the creation of the public art gallery, Gendai Gallery in the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre for the contemporary artists of Asian heritage. She was a keen supporter of her brother through the David Suzuki Foundation.

Aiko's love for plants and gardens where life moves and sways constantly gave her enlightenment. Her watercolours and acrylic paintings of 2004-05 capture these elements so spiritually as if to signify that her earthly life was drawing to a final stage. Before her passing she said to me she was not afraid of death... it was spoken so very casually with her beautiful eyes sparkling.

(Yoshiko Sunahara RCA)

Footnotes:
1 Aiko Suzuki, Selected Works from 1973 to the present.
Gendai Gallery Curatorial Committee, 2003, Toronto

Antonio Tascona RCA
1926 - 2006

Homage to Tony Tascona read at the memorial ceremony June 2, 2006 by Etienne Gaboury RCA

I fondly remember the first time I met Tony at his home-studio in St-Boniface in 1960. His powerful, penetrating eyes, his verve, his passion and exuberance for life and his art were all there. He showed me some of his paintings and talked enchantingly about his work, his technique, his preoccupation with quality, with permanence. Then, he pulled out a nice red wine and we talked about art, but also about the frustrations of emerging artists, of all the philistines out there not perspicacious enough to recognize our talents.

Tony was working for Canadian Airlines and could only paint after work and on weekends, which he did relentlessly. In a true reflection of himself, his works were full of passion, of exuberance, of vivid expression; they evoked the romanticism of Verdi, or Puccini.

The temptation was too great, so I purchased my first Tascona. If I knew then what I know today, I would have borrowed whatever was necessary and bought his whole collection. A few visits later with a few more paintings in our collection, he gave me a beautifully carved 2" diameter aluminum ring filled with red resin, and he talked enthusiastically about using aerospace technology in his future work: paintings and engravings on aluminum panels. What followed was an incredible innovative surge, a gradual metamorphosis and refinement of his art towards a new order: greater structure, more containment but with the same Tascona vibrancy.

It was the Vivaldi/Scarlati phase.

He continued to refine, to enrich his work with overlays, with complexities, with the contrapuntal richness of Bach. I was fascinated to see his latest drawings: a return to the lyricism and freedom of his early works; it just so clearly illustrates his incredible range and depth of expression.

Shades of Schubert: visual music.

I loved the man and I so envied his boundless talent; I guess that is the ultimate tribute one can give. Tony, you have enriched our lives with your ebullient presence and bequeathed us visual treasures of symphonic beauty which will be a joy forever. Like all great art, yours has transcended matter. We are most grateful for your sojourn with us.

(Etienne Gaboury RCA)