From the Inside Out: Integrating Art and Architecture on the West Coast, June 27-Aug. 29 at the West Vancouver Museum. Opening reception: June 27, 2-4 p.m. The 10th Annual West Coast Modern Home Tour, 11 a.m.-4 p.m., July 11. Tickets: $130/$120/$100. westvancouvermuseum.ca.
A new exhibition at the West Vancouver Museum is celebrating the efforts of staff over the last decade to showcase local examples of and contributions to West Coast modernist art and architecture.
"This exhibition brings together a lot of research that we've done over the years for our exhibitions, publications and programs," says exhibition curator Kiriko Watanabe. "The people who were involved in the development of West Coast modernist art and architecture in this region were absolutely amazing for their energy, enthusiasm and design innovation. The exhibition will show the rich art and architectural history in our community that we can be proud of."
From the Inside Out: Integrating Art and Architecture on the West Coast, is slated to open Saturday, June 27 and remain on display until Aug. 29. The show will feature a number of projects along with artworks and photographs by artists representative of the period, marked from the late-1940s to the early-1980s.
"This exhibition is not just about the past when these featured houses were built. It's also about now and the future of our architectural heritage. The preservation of our architecturally significant homes is constantly at risk from redevelopment.
Hopefully, this exhibition helps raise awareness of our city's modernist heritage and enhances the recognition of the North Shore as a centre of West Coast modernist architecture," says Watanabe.
From the Inside Out comes on the heels of a recent donation of photography archives from two acclaimed Canadian architectural photographers: Selwyn Pullan, who currently resides in North Vancouver; and John Fulker, a former West Vancouver resident now based on Salt Spring Island. From the mid-'40s to the mid-'70s, Pullan shot projects for a host of leading B.C. architects - Ron Thom, Fred Hollingsworth and Arthur Erickson included. Fulker photographed projects locally and beyond and his photographs first appeared in publications showcasing modern design in the '60s.
While the announcement of their donations, comprising 30,000 negatives and transparencies and more than 200 photographic prints, was made June 3, Watanabe says the museum has long maintained working relationships with both men.
She recalls meeting Pullan for the first time while working on a 2006 exhibition, entitled Living on the Edge: West Vancouver Modernist Homes 1940-1970, which explored the emergence of West Coast modernism.
"That's when I first contacted Selwyn and we went to see him at his studio. That's when I saw some of his photographs for the first time, actual prints," she says. "Fascinated" by his work, Watanabe has continued to work with Pullan over the years, including curating two of his solo exhibitions, the latter of which was timed with the publication of a book, Selwyn Pullan: Photographing Mid-Century West Coast Modernism, produced by the museum and published by Douglas McIntyre in 2012.
"That took me about five years. ... going through all of his (negatives), scanning, editing each one of them with him, because they were highly deteriorated, colors were distorted and a lot of reconstructing certain parts of images needed to be done. He wanted to work on these every step of the way with us instead of hiring technicians," she says. Watanabe first met Fulker related to a solo exhibition of his works, entitled John Fulker: Images of Architecture, which opened in 2011. The show marked the first exhibition of his photographs in more than 30 years.
From the Inside Out: Integrating Art and Architecture on the West Coast features a number of works by both artists, in addition to other local, as well as American photographers.
The decision to present a West Coast modernist themed exhibition this summer was timed with the 10th anniversary of the museum's annual West Coast Modern Home Tour, set for July 11.
Several of the North Shore residences being featured in the exhibition have been either part of past year's tours, or will be included this time around.
"(2006): That's when we first took our program participants to some of these houses. And 10 years later I'm doing the opposite: I'm bringing contents of the houses to the museum, along with photos and plans to describe (these houses). This is a different experience and I'm hoping people will walk away, taking a different set of information," says Watanabe.
One featured home and related interior artwork being showcased in the exhibition is that of The Pratt Residence, by Ned Pratt in 1951, and renovated by his son and fellow architect Peter Pratt in 2010-2012. The museum will be displaying a fibreglass panel, lit from behind, on loan from the home's living room. The concept for the piece was the result of a project worked on by Pratt, Ron Thom and B.C. Binning, the B.C. Electric Head Office, built at Burrard and Nelson in Vancouver in 1957. At the time, the use of fibreglass panels as a viable architectural material was emerging.
"Ned Pratt and Ron Thom got together and experimented creating fibreglass panels, using a colour scheme set by B.C. Binning for the B.C. Hydro building. It's got translucent colour and it's got geometric patterns and it creates beautiful diffusing light coming through from outside to the inside of the house. Ned Pratt installed that in his living room," says Watanabe.
In addition to the fibreglass panel, a photograph of the Pratt family in the living room, the panel visible in the background, taken by Pullan, will also be displayed in the museum, along with a Jack Shadbolt painting that hung elsewhere in the home.
"A lot of people who attend our tour are repeaters. So there are many people who have seen this house and the panel. When they visit the house, there is so much to see and these items are an integral part of the house. But I'm bringing this over from the house to the museum, which I think will change people's way of looking at these pieces," says Watanabe.
