Object Record
Images
Metadata
Artist |
Alfsen, John |
Title |
Double-Sided Self Portrait |
Accession # |
998.16.81 |
Object Type |
drawing |
Date |
196- |
Medium |
charcoal |
Support |
paper |
Dimensions |
H-33 W-24 cm |
Description |
John Martin Alfsen was a Toronto-based painter from the early 1920s who was devoted to the ideals of technical mastery. Having begun his career in a tumultuous era where art shifted from the various focuses of modernism, Alfsen felt that artists are forced to change and adapt themselves to certain aesthetics, denying themselves gradual development and falling prey to superficiality. By pursuing realism, Alfsen believed that he could express a level of faith and objectivity in his work, which would correspondingly allow his individuality as an artist to shine through. This works offers a glimpse into the artist's mind with a page torn from the artist's sketchbook. Biographical Information: John Martin Alfsen was born in Alpene, Michigan on December 23rd, 1902. In 1914, he came to Canada with his family and enroled at the Ontario College of Art in1922. Afterwards, Alfsen taught for more than forty years at OCA, taking sessional sabbaticals to pursue various projects. During a two year absence from OCA, he taught and painted winter circus people at the Ringling Bros School of Art in Sarasota, Florida. He considered his circus paintings done at this time to be major accomplishments. Alfsen was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists, the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and the Canadian Society of Graphic Art. He exhibited in the public galleries of Toronto, Hamilton and Montreal, the Tate Gallery of London, and the Gallerie Internationale. His paintings are in the collections of the National Art Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Beaverbrook Foundation and in numerous private collections. He left a rich legacy of portraits, figures, landscapes and nudes when he passed away in Markham, Ontario on November 30th 1971. |