James Henderson Boyd--The Kilted Warrior
Artist, Sculptor, Carver, 1976 Who's Who
in American Art
Ottawa, Canada
James died January 16, 2002 see obituary
below
He is a well known Canadian printmaker and sculptor and his works are exhibited throughout Canada and the world. (See Who's Who in American Art, 1976). He has taught as Resident artist at University of Western Ontario, Ontario College of art, Munic Art Center, Ottawa, University of Ottawa. He has received many awards in British Columbia, Venezuela, Chile, etc. His work is shown in theNational Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Victoria and Albert Museum, London Ontario, Lugano Art Museum, Sorsbie Art Gallery, Nairobi, South Africa. He placed entrance sculpture at Osaka World's Fair, Japan, 1970, etc., etc. Born in Ottawa he studied at Art Student League, with Wil Barnet and at National Academy of Design; Contemporaries Graphic Workshop, with M. Ponce de Leon. |
THE OTTAWA CITIZEN January 16, 2002 James Henderson Boyd "A Beacon in a city of blandness" by Siri Agrell Throughout his career, Jim Boyd, produced prints by compressing paint, metal and paper, but the impression he left in person was a combustive result of vibrancy, vision and spontaneity. Boyd, 73, a printmaker, teacher amd "etching press-jockey," died Tuesday, January 16, 2002 of colon cancer. His death, say those who respected and admired his work, has left a gaping hole in Ottawa's artistic community. A printmaking instructor at
the Ottawa Art School and the University of
"He worked an etching plate the way a jazz musician works a solo," said Blair Sharpe, a former student who remembered Boyd as a man who refused to paint by numbers. "It was improvisation all the way" A painter and sculptor trained at New York's Art Student League and the National Academy of Design, Boyd was best known for developing unique printmaking techniques during the 1960s. After applying paint to metal plates, traditional prints are repeatedly pressed onto paper, canvas, or other materials to create a series of identical images. Most printmakers exploit the economic benefit of mass production, but Boyd rejected repetition and made only one edition of each print. "He'd take an etching plate and re-work it 900 different ways," remembers Sharpe. "He was beyond being a virtuoso." He remembers one piece that dissatisfied Boyd, who then quickly set it on fire and let it burn until the edges browned and curled. When his students asked why, he responded, "because that's what it needed." At his first solo exhibit in Toronto in 1961, for which he achieved critical and popular acclaim, Boyd met fellow artist Richard Gorman, who would become a life-long friend. "I walked into the show and saw these very experimental high-relief prints," said Gorman. He was embossing right on the metal and no one had ever done that before." He said his friend refused to wear gloves while working, smearing paint with his fingers because "that's the way Rembrandt did it." While Boyd respected the artistic process of his predecessors, he forged an individual style that re-drew printmaking rules. "He was always trying something
new, and something way out on the edge,"
And that distaste had implications beyond the canvas. At the annual Robbie Burns birthday celebrations that Boyd threw for his friends, the artist would run around the party in a kilt with a traditional lack of underwear. He was an enormously fun person
to be around," said Gorman. "You never
He created a visual language all his own," said Gorman. His whole life was a work of Art." Boyd is survived by daughter Heather and sons James and Stephen. A memorial service is still being organized. |