Remembering Tony Urquhart (1934 - 2022) CM RCA LL.D

The Embassy Cultural House is saddened to share the news of the passing of Tony Urquhart. We celebrate his life and work through a thoughtful contribution by ECH Advisory Member, Judith Rodger. 

Memories of Tony Urquhart
By Judith Rodger

(Left) Urquhart in his studio, 2007. Unknown photographer, with permission from the Elora Centre for the Arts

One of the most memorable experiences of my career was a day in 1994 that I spent with Tony Urquhart.  We met in his large studio overlooking a pond at his home in Wellesley, Ontario. Our goal was to choose works on paper that would be donated to Museum London. We went through his collection of thousands of drawings from every stage of his career. Urquhart’s practice included daily drawing. Some of these drawings were worked on over days or even years. They often incorporated other media such as watercolour, oil, and collage, but always began with pen and ink.  When we chose the work from 1948, Stage Coach,  Tony showed me a small book, Canada’s Past in Pictures, written and illustrated with ink drawings by C. W. Jefferys. This book, given to him as a child, was the source of his interest in drawing, he explained. Later works showed the influence of his extensive travels through foreign landscapes, but many of the drawings depicted imaginary places. Still others were working drawings for his inimitable box sculptures.
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At the end of the day, we had selected over fifty works from 1948 to 1993.  The conversation was lively, and fascinating. Tony’s passionate approach to drawing was evident as he described each work. However, unassuming as he was, he never mentioned that two of his drawings had been added to the collection of the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1961. Eventually, in 2006, he would see one of these drawings displayed in an exhibition along the same wall as works by Paul Cézanne, Barnet Newman, Gerhard Richter, and André Derain to name a few. I can imagine how happy he must have been to stand in front of these works.  An installation photo is available here. 

Some years later I remember his eyes twinkling as he recalled that when he was artist-in-residence at the McIntosh Gallery at Western University in the 1960s, he had initiated the purchase of drawings for the McIntosh collection. Though the budget was small, over the next few years, there was enough to develop a small, but choice collection of drawings by Alex Colville, L. L. Fitzgerald, A. Y. Jackson, Greg Curnoe, F. H. Varley, Bernice Vincent. Paddy Gunn O’Brien, Horatio Walker, and Christiane Pflug among others. 
I first met Tony in November 1970, when he gave a tour of his retrospective exhibition, Reunion, at the London Art Gallery on Queens Avenue. I remember being captivated by his box sculptures and drawings, as I listened to his tales of the ideas behind the works. Over the years we met many times, encounters with Tony were always delightful and stimulating. I was privileged to have known him.

- Judith Rodger

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For more information on his life and work, please visit these links to the websites of Museum London and The McIntosh Gallery.