Ken Danby
| Ken Danby | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Kenneth Edison Danby |
| Born | March 6, 1940 Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario |
| Died | September 23, 2007 (aged 67) Algonquin Park, Ontario |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Field | Painting |
| Movement | Realism |
| Awards | Order of Canada Order of Ontario |
Ken Danby, CM, OOnt (March 6, 1940 – September 23, 2007) was a Canadian painter in the realist style.
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[edit] Life and work
Ken Danby enrolled at the Ontario College of Art in 1958. His first exhibition in 1964 sold out.
Danby is best known for creating highly realistic paintings that study everyday life. His At the Crease (1972) is an iconic and widely reproduced work in Canada, portraying a masked hockey goalie defending his net.
In 1975, Danby was elected a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts. He has also been a recipient of the Jessie Dow Prize, the 125th Anniversary Commemorative Medal of Canada, the City of Sault Ste. Marie's Award of Merit and both the Queen's Silver and Golden Jubilee Medals.
In the 1980s he prepared a series of watercolours about the Americas Cup and the Canadian athletes at the 1984 Winter Olympics in Sarajevo. Danby has served on the governing board of the Canada Council and as a member of the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada.
In 1997, Danby received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from Laurentian University in Sudbury, Ontario. In 2001, he was vested in both the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada.[1]
[edit] Death
On September 23, 2007, Danby collapsed while on a canoe trip in Algonquin Park near North Tea Lake with his wife Gillian Danby and friends. The party summoned help, but paramedics were unable to revive him.
Danby is the second famous Canadian artist to die in Algonquin Park. Tom Thomson died on Canoe Lake at the park in July 1917. Canadian writer Blair Frazer also drowned in the park on the Petawawa River's Rollaway Rapids in May 1968.
[edit] Family
Danby was married and had three sons. His son, Noah Danby, is an actor and has been in various commercials, movies and television shows, most notably the drama series Painkiller Jane where he played the character Connor King.
[edit] Awards
Walk of Fame - Sault Ste. Marie
[edit] Other information
Ken Danby has a school named after him on Grange Road in Guelph, Ontario, and a street named after him in his home of Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. He was inducted into the Sault's Walk of Fame in 2006: Ken Danby Way in the Sault includes the Public Library and fittingly, the Art Gallery of Algoma.
