Angus Trudeau
Angus Trudeau (1908-1984) Biography
A member of the Wiikwemkoong First Nation and life-long resident of Manitoulin Island, Odawa artist Angus Trudeau (1908-1984) drew inspiration from his early years working as a lumberjack and as a cook on the commercial ships that frequently crossed Lake Huron.
Trudeau's inspiration was drawn from his home on Manitoulin Island. Although his vision is imbued with deeply personal insight, his subjects (the lake freighters and ferry boats, the bygone churches, grocery stores and summer gatherings), are filtered through memory and reference materials he collected over the years. The artist's approach beautifully conveys the warmth and delight with which Trudeau viewed this community and its ghosts of the past. His paintings incorporate a variety of media, including some elements of collage. Often bending the "laws" of perspective, they are startlingly vivid and richly evocative.
Angus Trudeau’s work was represented throughout the 1970s by The Isaacs Gallery, where he held several solo shows, culminating in a career-spanning retrospective, Angus Trudeau’s Manitoulin, by the McMichael Canadian Collection in 1986. Gallery Gevik mounted two solo exhibitions Trudeau’s art in 1999 and 2002 and has since been very involved in promoting and educating art enthusiasts and collectors about his life’s work. In 2018, the gallery was honoured to mount an exhibition of Trudeau works drawn entirely from the collection of Reynolds J. Mastin whose family owned a general store in the village of Manitowaning on Manitoulin Island that would become a hub for many local artists including Daphne Odjig and Blake Debassige.
His paintings and models are in the public gallery collections of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, McMichael Canadian Art Collection and Art Gallery of Windsor.
Major Exhibitions:
1976, 1978, 1980, 1982: The Isaacs Gallery, Toronto (Solo)
1981: "Art Amerindian”, National Arts Centre, Ottawa, ON
1983: “New Growth From Ancestral Roots”, Koffler Gallery, Toronto, ON
1984: “Contemporary Indian Art and Inuit Art”, traveling: UN, New York, Washington, Atlanta, Dallas, Phoenix and Los Angeles.
1986: “Angus Trudeau’s Manitoulin," a major retrospective for the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, which circulated to Sarnia Art Gallery, London Regional Art Gallery, Mendel Gallery (Saskatoon), and Thunder Bay Art Gallery.
Artist Specialization: Highly personalized and idiosyncratic mixed media paintings on board, often incorporating a variety of materials (felt pen, oil paint, acrylic, glitter, newspaper photographs) and methods (collage, tracing) with a bold, vibrant sense of colour and patterning.
