Albert Franck

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Albert Jacques Franck (2 Apr 1899 - 28 Feb 1973) was a Canadian artist. He is known for his realistic paintings[1] of Toronto winter scenes,[2] dilapidated neighbourhoods[3][4] and back lanes.[5][6][7] His detailed paintings provide a historical record of conditions in some of Toronto's less affluent neighbourhoods.[8][9]

Early life

Franck was born at Middelburg, the Netherlands.[10] As a young man he was a champion swimmer.[11] He moved to Canada in 1926, making his living as a swimming instructor and by working in factories[5] He later worked in an art gallery and sold picture frames.[12]

Career

Franck opened a studio in his small home on Gerrard Street, Toronto. He began by hanging some of his paintings in a local restaurant,[5] and in this way his work became locally known. In the 1950s he and his wife, artist Florence Vale,[13] developed the studio into a gathering place for the arts community. They hosted and supported the work of many young local artists,[5][14][15] particularly those participating in the emerging Toronto abstract art scene, including Joyce Wieland[16] and Kazuo Nakamura.[17] Franck and Vale later moved to a larger home, which also served as their studio and gallery, on Hazelton Street[18] as part of a general migration of the art community to the Yorkville area during the 1960s.[19]

Franck's first exhibition was presented at York University in 1963.[20] In 1973 he held an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Franck also participated in a number of group exhibitions.

Franck's paintings are in the collections of the Art Gallery of Ontario,[21] the London Public Library and Art Museum,[22] the National Exhibition Centre in St. Catarines,[23] the New Brunswick Museum,[24] and McMaster University.[25]

Fellow artist Harold Town, a close friend,[26] wrote two books celebrating Franck's art.[27][28]

Franck also taught art in a local high school[29] and played the cello.[30] He and his wife sent small pieces of their art as greeting cards to friends and relatives, and some of these have survived.[31]

Franck died in Toronto on February 28, 1973.[6] A street in the Lawrenceville area of Toronto is named for him.[32]

References

  1. ^ Commentator. Vol. 7–8. 1963. p. 24.
  2. ^ Tony Ruprecht (14 December 2010). Toronto's Many Faces. Dundurn. pp. 122–. ISBN 978-1-4597-1804-3.
  3. ^ Nancy Byrtus; Mark Fram; Michael McClelland (27 September 2013). East/West: A Guide to Where People Live in Downtown Toronto. Coach House Books. pp. 144–. ISBN 978-1-77056-043-7.
  4. ^ Robert C. Thomsen; Nanette Hale (2005). Canadian Environments: Essays in Culture, Politics, and History. Peter Lang. pp. 309–. ISBN 978-90-5201-295-7.
  5. ^ a b c d "Looking back at Mary Johns, an artists’ haven in mid-century Toronto ". Toronto Star, John Lorinc, Jul 19 2015
  6. ^ a b "Albert Jacques Franck". The Canadian Encyclopedia.
  7. ^ Bill Casselman (1 August 1996). Casselmania: more wacky Canadian words & sayings. Little, Brown Canada. p. 86. ISBN 978-0-316-13314-2.
  8. ^ Leonard Brooks (1974). Oil painting ... traditional and new. Galahad Books. p. 110. ISBN 978-0-88365-128-5.
  9. ^ Marjorie Harris (1 January 1984). Toronto, the City of Neighbourhoods. McClelland and Stewart. p. 12. ISBN 978-0-7710-3988-1.
  10. ^ Oliver Arpad Istvan Botar (2009). A Bauhausler in Canada: Andor Weininger in the '50s. Gallery One One One. p. 220. ISBN 978-0-921500-98-8.
  11. ^ John Virtue (25 October 2001). Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 30–. ISBN 978-0-7735-6983-6.
  12. ^ Virtue (2001), p. 71.
  13. ^ Natalie Luckyj; Florence Vale; Agnes Etherington Art Centre (1980). Metamorphosis: memories, dreams and reflections : the work of Florence Vale. Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University.
  14. ^ Roald Nasgaard (2008). Abstract Painting in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 92–. ISBN 978-1-55365-394-3.
  15. ^ Maria Meindl (18 August 2011). Outside the Box: The Life and Legacy of Writer Mona Gould, the Grandmother I Thought I Knew. MQUP. pp. 128–. ISBN 978-0-7735-8638-3.
  16. ^ Balkind, Alvin; Robert Bringhurst (1983). Visions: contemporary art in Canada. Douglas & McIntyre, Limited. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-88894-392-7.
  17. ^ Dennis R. Reid (1988). A concise history of Canadian painting. Oxford University Press. p. 253. ISBN 978-0-19-540664-1.
  18. ^ John Lorinc; Michael McClelland; Ellen Scheinberg; Tatum Taylor (23 June 2015). The Ward: The Life and Loss of Toronto's First Immigrant Neighbourhood. Coach House Books. pp. 251–. ISBN 978-1-55245-311-7.
  19. ^ Stuart Henderson (30 April 2011). Making the Scene: Yorkville and Hip Toronto in the Sixties. University of Toronto Press. pp. 56–. ISBN 978-1-4426-6199-8.
  20. ^ Michiel Horn (11 December 2008). York University: The Way Must Be Tried. McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. pp. 34–. ISBN 978-0-7735-7724-4.
  21. ^ "Toronto Imagined: The City in Words and Images". Art Gallery of Ontario.
  22. ^ Lela Wilson; Sandra Dyck (3 February 1998). York Wilson: His Life and Work, 1907-1984. MQUP. pp. 217–. ISBN 978-0-7735-9606-1.
  23. ^ Jon Caulfield (1994). City Form and Everyday Life: Toronto's Gentrification and Critical Social Practice. University of Toronto Press. pp. 121–. ISBN 978-0-8020-7448-5.
  24. ^ New Brunswick Museum (1969). Museum Memo. p. 34.
  25. ^ McMaster University. Art Gallery; Kim Gibson Ness (1987). The art collection of McMaster University: European, Canadian and American paintings, prints, drawings and sculpture. McMaster University Press. p. 229. ISBN 978-0-920603-06-2.
  26. ^ Arts/Canada. Society for Art Publications. 1975. p. 48.
  27. ^ Reid (1988), p. 377.
  28. ^ Loren R. Lerner; Mary F. Williamson (1 January 1991). Art and architecture in Canada: a bibliography and guide to the literature to 1981. University of Toronto Press. pp. 575–. ISBN 978-0-8020-5856-0.
  29. ^ Iris Nowell (2011). P11, Painters Eleven: The Wild Ones of Canadian Art. Douglas & McIntyre. pp. 300–. ISBN 978-1-55365-590-9.
  30. ^ Iris Nowell (2001). Joyce Wieland: A Life in Art. ECW Press. pp. 83–. ISBN 978-1-55022-476-4.
  31. ^ "Scene doesn't dwarf this plaque's appeal". Toronto Star, John Sewell, Jul 18 2009
  32. ^ Aaron, Bob (August 1, 2009). "A street by any other name is just as sweet". Toronto Star.
  • HAROLD TOWN, Albert Franck, His Life, Times & Work (McClelland and Stewart, Toronto, 1974) 96 pp.
  • Albert Franck: Keeper of the Lanes, by Harold Town, McClelland and Stewart, 1974

External links

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