BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Vancouver Daily Province, April 8 1948

Vancouver Sculptor's Work on Display Soon

by Palette

     Leading sculptor of the west, Beatrice Lennie, will exhibit many examples of her work in a solo display at the arts and cultural centre, "The Gables," University Boulevard, lasting from next Sunday, April 11 to the end of May. The exhibition, open free every day to the public, will be opened on Sunday at 3 p.m. by Dr. Norman A.M. MacKenzie, president of UBC.
     Sculpture in this part of the world is a sadly neglected branch of the fine arts. Hence the importance of this rare occasion to see at the art centre on the campus a collective display of a number of stone carvings by a genuinely creative Vancouver sculptor. This will be the artist's first "one-man" show, although she is well known throughout Canada.
     Miss Lennie has shown for many year past individual examples of her stone carvings and other sculpture, and also paintings, in leading exhibitions.

MASKS ADMIRED

     Many of her highly imaginative masks aroused admiration in theatrical productions here and in Ottawa. Other of her important achievements include a large bas-relief mural in the Hotel Vancouver and statue groups at the entrance of the New Shaughnessy Military Hospital.
     In connection with the Beatrice Lennie exhibition it may be noted that CBR announces a discussion of the artist and her work by Ellen Harris in her usual Morning Visit talk, on Monday April 12 at 10 a.m.
     The last display at the art and cultural centre included a number of watercolor gouache paintings by Gordon Kit Thorne based on the theme of "Folk Tales of the Pacific Northwest Coast." The entire series has been acquired for the permanent collection of the Vancouver Museum.
     The art display held last week in Brock Building at the University in conjunction with the Native Indian affairs' conference revealed much of distinct artistic quality in which native B.C. tradition was well maintained and developed.
     Outstanding exhibitors were Ellen Neel of the family of Charlie James of Alert Bay and inheritress of much of her distinguished grandfather's skill in totem-pole carving and design, and George Clutesi, now well known as one of the best Indian painters in the west.
     Great credit is due the B.C. Indian Arts and Welfare Society of Victoria for sponsoring this conference with its art features filling the lounge of Brock Building and showing, besides efforts of artists just mentioned, work by children in Indian schools, especially by those at Alberni.
     Current exhibitions at the Gallery include a new arrangement and careful selection of the best in the permanent collection, the Miriam Peck remarkable show of woven textile designs attracting much attention among the fair sex, the annual show of Gallery Children's Saturday morning classes seen to even better advantage now in the north gallery, a display of symphony posters, and a one-man show.
     A solo show by Bessie Fry Symons consists of small watercolors, generally colorful but on the whole lacking in strength or pronounced personal viewpoint. When in more creative mood the artist reveals in two or three of her paintings a lyrical feeling and sense of design which one would like to see in her work more often.




Clipping provided courtesy Vancouver Art Gallery Library.

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