Galerie d'Avignon

(Montreal & Georgeville,QC) is represented in international public, corporate, and private collections and has an extensive bibliography. Her ongoing series is based on the Icarus myth. Many things fall from the sky: snow, hail, debris from outer space. Now we face the “fallout” from the U. S. missile defense system. There is, of course, also a Biblical “fall”. Interpretations keep a myth alive, deepening it and making the Icarus story intense, personal, and contemporary.

“…Bates réussit à lui conserver son intégrité régionale, tout en lui inculquant des qualités universelles…elle en cerne la réalité éphémère et changeante et nous livre le résultat de cet examen dans une oeuvre à la fois mouvante, exacte et entière.”
- Monique Nadeau-Saumier


“…the surface of a field is made to express in microcosm ….the universal energy found in nature that permeates all things.”
- John K. Grande


“…Bates has reaffirmed her reputation as one of Canada’s top experimental landscape painters.”
- Wayne Larsen





Icarus Series Summary

The ongoing series of paintings is based on the Icarus myth. Icarus made wings held on by wax, which melted when he flew too close to the sun. The wonderful flight precedes the better-remembered “fall” of Icarus. Many things fall from the sky: snow, hail, debris from outer space. Now we face the “fallout” from the U.S. missile defence system. There is also a Biblical “fall”. Interpretations keep a myth alive, deepening it and making the Icarus story intense and contemporary.


Though Icarus has been a long-anticipated theme, it has evolved from an interest in wind machines with their mechanical wings, to paintings of “falling birds”, and to paintings from high vantage points. Involvement with the anti-nuclear movement in the 1980’s precedes the present concern about the proposed missile defence system over Canada.
Though the paintings are not “messages”, the variety of possible interpretations makes this series personal and relevant, alive and contemporary.


The paintings show the flights of Icarus over various parts of Canada. Icarus I is in the “Perspectives” exhibit at the Centre culturel Yvonne L. Bombardier, Valcourt, QC until mid-October 2003. Two are included in the “Vues du paysage” exhibit at the Visual Arts Centre, Montreal, Sept. 5-27, 2003. Four will be shown from Oct. 22 – Nov. 15, 2003 at Galerie d’Avignon, Montreal as part of a solo exhibit entitled “VISTAS X: Soaring. “Icarus and Related Drawings” will form a solo exhibit at the Dawson College Art Gallery in Montreal in February-March 2004.


Studio work in the first half of 2004 will be based on a September 2003 research sketching trip to Georgian Bay. The Icarus over Georgian Bay Series will be shown at Michael Gibson Gallery in London, ON in later 2004. An Arctic trip is planned for July 2004, the Baffin Island locations of Iqaluit and Pangnirtung, to make sketches for the Icarus over the Arctic Series. The work will continue in 2005 in other areas of Canada.


- Catherine Young Bates

September 2003



Education
1995 Hugh O’Donnell Workshop, Connecticut
1995 Vermont Studio School, Johnson, Vermont
1986 McGill University, Master of Education (Art)
1958 - 1963 Baltimore Museum of Art, MD (painting, Keith Martin)
Maryland Institute of Art (graphics)
1957 Ontario College of Education, University of Toronto, ON
1956 University of Toronto, Honours B.A., Art & Archaeology

Awards
2001
1992




1978


1974
Elected member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (R.C.A. / a.r.c.)
Grant & Award for research ‘ Explorations of the self : Drawing & Writing ’
The Canadian Give The Gift of Literacy Foundation and the Lydia Burton Award, with Linda Shohet, The Centre for Literacy, Montréal, QC
Release time grant from Dawson College, Resource-Teacher Project, The Centre for Literacy, Montréal, QC

Canada Council Travel Grant, participant, 23rd Congress of INSEA (International Society for Education through Art). Adelaide, Australia.

Grant, Ministère des Affaires culturelles, Aide aux expositions, Montréal, QC
Purchase Award, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montréal, QC


Positions
1972 – 2001, Professor, Fine Arts Department, Dawson College, Montréal, QC
2001 Artist in residence The American School in Switzerland, Lugano, Switzerland
1997 Artist in residence The Leighton Foundation, Alberta
1992 – 1997 Member, Board of Directors, Galerie Arts Sutton, Sutton QC
1984 Conterpane - Poems and Drawings by Catherine Bates, published by Ken Hertz

Prior to 1984 Art Critic : The Montreal Star, Canadian Art Magazine & Art News Magazine.