Anthony Thorn

(1927-2014)

Located in the student study area, Dr. Archer Library 5th floor

(l-r)

Untitled (City with Trees), 1960
Oil on board
19 1/2″ x 23 1/2″
University of Regina President’s Art Collection, Shumiatcher donation. Gift of Dr. Morris C. Shumiatcher, O.C., S.O.M., Q.C. and Dr. Jacqui Clay Shumiatcher, S.O.M., C.M., 2016; sc.2016.71

Maria Luísa y Fallas, 1956
Oil on canvas
31″ x 24 1/2″
University of Regina President’s Art Collection, Shumiatcher donation. Gift of Dr. Morris C. Shumiatcher, O.C., S.O.M., Q.C. and Dr. Jacqui Clay Shumiatcher, S.O.M., C.M., 2016; sc.2016.98

C. Richardson, Paris, 1953
Oil on canvas
40 1/2″ x 21″
University of Regina President’s Art Collection, Shumiatcher donation. Gift of Dr. Morris C. Shumiatcher, O.C., S.O.M., Q.C. and Dr. Jacqui Clay Shumiatcher, S.O.M., C.M., 2016; sc.2016.70

Anthony Thorn’s practice was marked with a longstanding curiosity and desire to master the fine and decorative arts. In addition to a BA from the University of Saskatchewan and graduate studies at the University of Chicago, he trained with many international artists throughout his life. He originally studied under the Regina Five member, Kenneth Lochhead, and was instructed in oil painting in Canada, stained glass and drawing in Paris, metal-smithing in Greece, mural work in Mexico, and watercolour and sumi-e (ink wash) painting in Japan. “They’re all languages that you teach your hands”, Thorn observed.

Evidence of his travels and their inspiration on his subject matter and technique can be seen in these paintings. C. Richardson, Paris (1953) was painted during his term at the Centre d’ Art Sacre in Paris, where he was studying stained glass design. Writing to his mother the previous year, Thorn stated “My work has a new vigor and a vivacity of brushwork and knife strokes and colour is gradually breaking up all my old… placid aspects”. Maria Luísa y Fallas (1956) was produced during an apprenticeship in Mexico under the master muralist José David Alfaro Siquéiros, and may have appeared in a one-man exhibition in Mexico City of the same year. Gold leaf, featured here on the frame and named in the inscription, is often present in Thorn’s work, appearing in the religious and spiritual pieces he returned to later in life. Preferring cityscapes over oft-painted prairie landscapes, Thorn stated that “pure abstraction is a dead-end”, in contrast to the belief of many of his contemporaries. Untitled (City with Trees) (1960) reflects the dynamism of the city, and a subtle influence of stained glass design is suggested in the black outlines.

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