The Coupland Installation
Douglas Coupland is an internationally renowned, Vancouver-based Canadian artist. Educated in both art and design, he first rose to prominence in the 1990's after publishing the generation-defining fiction book Generation X. Ten novels later, Coupland resumed his fine art practice with similar focus as his written work; visual and popular culture, and in particular, Canadian identity.
The RMG approached Coupland in the spring of 2010 with the idea of comissioning a major outdoor sculpture. His personal relationship with Arthur Erickson, the architect of the 1987 gallery expansion, and his ongoing interest in mid-century modernism, made the proposal particularily appealing to Coupland. The approximately 27' x 11' relief sculpture entitled Group Portrait 1957 was permanently installed on the north/west facade of the RMG in September 2011.
|
Douglas Couplands Proposal: For the RMG I propose a work that reflects the Gallery's curatorial mandate to transmit forward to future generations the work and ideas of its collection, specifically the work of Painters Eleven. To do this I've taken the seminal portrait of he group, Peter Croydon's 1957 group portrait, and have used it as a framework on which to place abstract forms that represent each member. These forms and their colours are derived from a key piece of each of the eleven members' works in the Gallery's collection. The forms are circular containing concentric rings which are then placed above a painted white metal framework so that in symphony, all eleven forms become "transmitters." |
The RMG Blog