From Realism to Abstraction: The Art of J. B. Taylor (Art in Profile: Canadian Art and Architecture, 11)

J. B. (Jack) Taylor (1917-1970) was an important figure in the history of Banff and western Canada's artistic community. Inspired by the locale, Taylor spent his career striving to depict the idea of the mountain, moving over time from traditional representations of nature to an intuitive perception of the essential elements of landscape - rock, water, and sky. Always, he sought to capture his ideas through the development of a new visual language. He applied this new vernacular to a range of studies encompassing portraiture through to other landscapes. Filled with images of his work and photographs of his life as an artist and teacher in western Canada, this book is the first to focus completely on J.B. Taylor, his importance to the western Canadian and Banff artistic communities, and his role in the transition from traditional, eastern, North American and European landscape ideals and technique to a more abstract representation and the formation of a new aesthetic of the wilderness based on the mountains of the West. Highly respected as an Alberta artist and teacher, J.B. (Jack) Taylor (1917-1970) is best known for his representational, semi-abstract, and abstract paintings of the Canadian Rocky Mountains. Taylor's initial influences were the American landscape painters of the latter half of the nineteenth century. Ultimately, he moved from a more traditional representation of nature to an intuitive perception of the essential elements of landscape rock, water, and sky as impacted by light. Rather than presenting mountains in all their majesty, using acrylics and other media, he captured the aura of the mountains in a unique and abstract style Cover Series Page Full Title Page Copyright Page Dedication Table of Contents Acknowledgments 1 | Introduction 2 | A Biographical Sketch 3 | Mountain Pictures:The Sublime Period (1947 to 1961) 4 | Mountain Pictures:The Abstract Period (1962 to 1970) 5 | Non-Mountain Pictures 6 | Significance and Contribution 7 | Conclusion J. B. Taylor Select Bibliography J. B. Taylor Chronology J. B. Taylor, 1917–1970:Selected Exhibitions Posthumous Exhibitions Notes Index Back Cover J.B. (Jack) Taylor was an important figure in the history of Banff and western Canada's artistic community. Filled with images of his work and photographs of his life as an artist and teacher in western Canada, this book is the first to focus completely on J.B. Taylor and his importance to the western Canadian and Banff artistic communities. The life and art of J.B. (Jack) Taylor, who was an important figure in the history of Banff and western Canada's artistic community