Provenance:

Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON

Note:

JENNIFER JOAN DICKSON (1936 - ), R.A.

“I want to reinforce a belief in beauty; in this way, every work I make is a statement.”

- Jennifer Dickson -

Jennifer Dickson is one of Canada’s most distinguished photographic artists. Her work focuses on two themes: the human form, challenging assumptions about gender and sexual roles in Western society; and, more recently, documenting and exploring the construction and destruction of man-made and natural landscape. Dickson is the only Canadian to be elected to the Royal Academy of the Arts, London.

Jennifer Dickson was born in Piet Retief, the Republic of South Africa, in 1936. With her mother’s moral and financial support (her father believed in traditional homemakers’ roles for his four daughters), she went to England where she studied painting and printmaking at Goldsmith’s College School of Art (University of London, England) from 1954 to 1959. From1960 to 1965, on a French Government scholarship, she was an associate of the prestigious graphic workshop, Atelier 17 in Paris, working with Stanley William Hayter. Hayter imparted upon Dickson an analytical rather than emotional approach to her work, as well as the importance of risk taking to discover new forms of expressions and techniques.

Dickson went on to found and direct the graduate printmaking program at Brighton College of Art (now Brighton University), where she was instrumental in integrating photography into the program. By this point in her career, Dickson had already established an international reputation: Her etchings were published in a number of major thematic suites. In 1963, she was awarded the Prix des Jeunes Artistes pour Gravure at the Biennial de Paris, and her work, Genesis, was exhibited in the Prizewinners Salon of the Biennale de Paris in 1965. Dickson immigrated to Canada in 1969, where she directed the Graphics program at the Saidye Bronfman Center in Montreal (1970-71, 1981), and taught drawing at Concordia University.

Since 1962, Dickson has had more than 60 solo exhibitions in six countries and has participated in more than 400 group exhibitions. Some of her more renowned exhibits include The Secret Garden (1975), Three Mirrors to Narcissus (1979), Sanctuary: A Landscape of the Mind (2005), which ran at the Royal Academy of Arts in London, England, and The Gods (2006), now part of the permanent collection at the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography.

Dickson was elected to the Royal Academy of Arts, London, England in 1970, the only Canadian in the 200-year history of this prestigious institution to have been so honored. Dickson was named to the Order of Canada (CM) in 1995, and was awarded an honorary doctorate (LLD) in 1988 by the University of Alberta, Edmonton. In 2002, she was given the Victor Tolgesy Award for cultural leadership by the Council for the Arts in Ottawa. Also in that year, the National Archives of Canada established the Jennifer Dickson Fonds; the collection will eventually hold all of Dickson’s original photographic material. Dickson lives and works in Ottawa, Ontario.

Selected List of Corporate, Private and Public Collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON
Art Gallery of Sudbury, Ontario
The Art Bank, Canada Council, Ottawa, Canada
The Art Gallery of Brant, Brantford, Ontario
Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario
Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography
Carleton University, Ottawa, Canada
Claridge Collection, Montreal, QC
The London Museum, London, Ontario
Musée d’art contemporain, Montreal, Canada
Musée du Quebec, Canada
Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal, Canada
National Film Board of Canada
National Gallery, Melbourne, Australia
National Gallery, Ottawa, Canada
The Still Photography Division, National Film Board of Canada, Ottawa
University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada
University of British Columbia, BC
University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB
Birmingham City Art Gallery, UK
British Museum, London, UK
City Art Gallery, London, UK
Ferens Art Gallery, Hull, UK
Portsmouth City Art Gallery, UK
Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK
South London Art Gallery, London, UK
Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UK
University of Kent at Canterbury, UK
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, UK
Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France
Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy
University of West Indies, Jamaica
National Gallery of Art, Wellington, New Zealand
Museum of Contemporary Art, Fredrikstad, Norway
National Gallery, Cape Town, South Africa
Ball State University, Indiana, USA
Chicago Art Institute, USA
The Cincinnati Museum of Art, Ohio, USA
Dallas Museum of Art, USA
Evelhjhem Art Centre, University of Wisconsin, USA
Metropolitan Museum, New York, USA
Philadelphia Museum of Art, USA
Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC, USA
Hermitage Museum, Lenningrad, Soviet Union
Museum of Contemporary Art, Skopje

Selected List of Solo and Group Exhibitions

2014 Winter II, Wallace Galleries, Calgary, AB
Water Games: A Retrospective
(1969-2014) of Images of Water in Garden Design, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
2013 Summer Exhibition, the Royal Academy of the Arts, London, England
2012 Contemplative Moments: New Works by Jennifer Dickson, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
Contemplative Moments: New Works by Jennifer Dickson, Summer Exhibition, the Royal Academy of the Arts, London, England
2011 Romantic Idylls and Classical Dreams, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
2009 From the Holy Mountain: A Journey through South-Eastern Anatolia, The Royal Academy of Arts, London, England
2006 The Thief of Time, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, ON
2001 Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
2000 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
 Golin-Harris International, New York, USA
1999 The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers, Bankside Gallery, London, UK
1998 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa
 Tatar-Alexander Photography, Toronto, Ontario
 AT Kearney, London
1997 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
 The City Gallery, London, UK
 Art Gallery of Sudbury, Ontario and tour to The Frederick Horsman Varley Art Gallery of Markham, Ontario
 Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery
1996 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
 The Gallery, Victoria Woolen Mill, Almonte, Ontario
 The City Gallery, London, UK
1995 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
 Royal Academy of Arts (Print Room)
 The Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, British Columbia and tour to Estevan National Exhibition Centre, Estevan, Saskatchewan; Moose Jaw Art Museum and National Exhibition Centre, Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan; Swift Current National Exhibition Centre, Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
1994 Joseph D Carrier Gallery of the Columbus Centre of North York, Ontario
1993 The Last Silence, Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario
 The Ottawa Art Gallery, Arts Court, Canada
 Centro Internzionale D’Arte E Cultura, Palazzo Te, Mantua, Italy and tour to Il Centro Culturale Canadese, Piazza Cardelli, Rome, Italy; The Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Ontario
 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario (Retrospective 1963-1993)
1992 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario and tour to Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto, Ontario and Alex Fraser Galleries, Vancouver, British Columbia
1991 Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario and tour to Galerie Dresdnere, Toronto, Ontario and Paul Kuhn Fine Arts, Galgary, Alberta
 The Nickle Arts Museum, University of Calgary, Alberta
1990 WKP Kennedy Gallery, North Bay Arts Centre, Ontario and tour to Temiskaming Art Gallery, Haileybury, Ontario
 Burlington Cultural Centre, Burlington, Ontario and tour to Wallack Galleries, Ottawa, Ontario

Selected List of Awards and Prizes

1980 A Biennale Prize at the 5th Norwegian International Print Biennale
1978 The Walter Moos Award at the First Canadian Biennale of Prints and Drawings
1973 The George A Reid Award, Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers
 A Special Edition Purchase Award, World Print Competition, San Francisco Museum of Art
1963 Prix des Jeunes Artistes pour Gravure, Paris Biennale

Selected Links

Royal Academy of Arts
Jennifer Dickson Lecture Series 2003: The Sophisticated Traveller
Jennifer Dickson’s The Thief of Time, 2006
The Canadian Encyclopedia: Jennifer Dickson