After Manet

At 2260 Oak Bay Avenue

July 3 – 24, 2010

Opening:
Saturday, July 3, 2010
1:00 pm – 5:00 pm

Leslie Poole in attendance.
Elizabeth Ely, harp;  Karel Roessingh, piano

Internationally recognized, Vancouver-based, senior artist Leslie Poole received his BFA from the University of Alberta (1967) and his MFA from Yale University, USA (1970).  With over 110 solo exhibitions in Canada in the U.S. (including Toronto, Vancouver, Montreal, Los Angeles, Chicago, and San Francisco), he is firmly established as one of Canada's most extensively exhibited and collected artists.  He recently had his thirteenth solo exhibition in Edmonton ("Appetite & Desire") at the Scott Gallery.

“The Manet paintings, of which this series is a sort of paraphrase, were ideal for my purpose: to expand my vocabulary of painting using very reduced means.  Manet’s paintings are quite small, centered compositions with essentially nothing in the background but paint.  The arrangements are simple – flowers just dropped in the water as they came from the florist.  There is no drama apart from brushwork.

My intention became this:  to utilize these few simple vases of flowers as a learning experience.  I wanted to surprise myself into unexpected colour experiences and paint application, while keeping composition and subject matter essentially unvaried - to take an often used idea and make it contemporary.

The result is this group of works.  What is refreshing is that they cannot be solved like a puzzle by intellectualizing the human condition.  Rather, they are simply a vocabulary of human emotions which, when read, enliven the awakened senses.  They are as contemporary as the need to feel.”

Poole's paintings, drawings, and prints have been purchased by many major public, corporate, and private collections. His works question rather than tell; his intention is a dialogue with the viewer. With subjects as diverse as male and female figures, still life, landscape, and self-portraits, his methods range from realist to expressionist in style.

Leslie Poole, April 2010