Sign up for the paNOW newsletter

95 year old local artist recognized in Mann Art Gallery exhibition

Jul 25, 2015 | 12:01 PM

The Mann Art Gallery in Prince Albert will be hosting a special art exhibition for one local artist.

Andree Felley-Martinson “A Retrospective” will run until Sept 5.

Jesse Campbell, the gallery’s director and curator, said it’s a major retrospective exhibition.

“The point of a retrospective is to show the artists life. So you go as early as you can and you gather the earliest artifacts that are available and show how that artist has progressed to their current practice,” Campbell explained.

She said there are different stages, styles and subjects artists go through throughout their lifetime.

“We’re very fortunate to have in our community this 95 year-old artist who is so passionate about her life, about art work and about the beauty she sees in the world. She’s produced so many paintings, drawings and work since she was basically 12 years old.”

Andree was born in Switzerland in 1920 and spent her time during the Second World War working with the Red Cross.

Campbell said it was during this time she met her husband whom she married following the end of the war.

The couple spent a few years in Switzerland while Andree’s husband studied medicine and then he had a few placements in England and Ireland.

“They lived in a number of places basically from 1945 until 1963. Then in 1963 her husband was recruited under the Medicare system in Saskatchewan, [he] was one of the first doctors actually recruited abroad for that,” Campbell explained.

So the couple made the big journey across the ocean and most of Canada to get to Prince Albert.

“This was a totally different life for Andree. She had no idea what this land was all about. That’s a deep challenge and struggle I think for anyone but especially for her who had lived in multiple places,” Campbell explained.

“She was very much ingrained in European art and culture, and life, this was just totally new. It was a different planet for her basically, that’s how she’s described it in the past.”

It took Andree a decade to really cement herself here, to form her social circle, her home and the kind of life she wanted on the prairies.

“A lot of those struggles and challenges are actually evident in her artwork. You can see in one section of this retrospective exhibition how she has tried to depict this land that was so foreign to her and so big and open,” Campbell said.

Eventually she migrated to doing still life paintings and working on portraits both of herself and of her friends because the land was just so challenging to deal with.

Campbell said there are many details and stories that come up from every piece of Andree’s art.  

Andree didn’t really paint for the first ten year’s she was in Saskatchewan until about 1974-1975 when she met more artists in Prince Albert, like George Glenn and Margaret Van Walseem.

“They were instrumental in really creating a strong artistic circle in the city and eventually expanding that to the region around Prince Albert.”

Campbell said there are a few reasons they found it important to host an exhibition like this.

“It’s a part of our responsible to make sure that we show the visual culture and art history of Prince Albert and area. Of course at the gallery we do bring in other artists who are making work throughout the province but it’s very important that we recognize people who have shaped the heritage and culture of our city and region and Andree has contributed immensely to that culture.”

She said with Andree being 95 she has a lot of interesting stories and we can learn so much from Andree’s life.

A part of the aim of the exhibition is to show work by professional local artists.

“Andree has not been widely recognized but its long past the time she was.”

Campbell said Andree is at the gallery almost every day because “her life is basically on display.”

More information on the exhibition can be found on the Mann Art Gallery’s website. http://www.mannartgallery.ca/index.htm

swallace@panow.com

On Twitter: @panow.com