source: Farm and Food Report
The project is the Allen Sapp Gallery’s most ambitious to date: celebrating the life of an internationally-renowned artist; a humble, talented man who provides us through his work a precious record of the life of Saskatchewan’s early settlers.
Dean Bauche is Director of North Battleford’s Allen Sapp Gallery and Curator of Through The Eyes of the Cree. “Allen was raised by his grandparents, who were very successful farmers. Albert Soonias, Allen’s grandfather, farmed and maintained over 100 head of cattle in the 1930s and ‘40s. “Allen grew up as a frail child who spent much time at home on the Red Pheasant Reserve, developing his artistic skills. He also had an incredible gift: a photographic memory with an infallible capacity for attention to details from scenes of life experiences he remembers and lays on canvas.”
Bauche and his colleagues undertook to create a Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibit from video interviews conducted among Sapp’s friends and relatives, farmers and ranchers, as a companion work to bring greater understanding to the world view expressed in Sapp’s paintings.
“We have researched the previously unknown meanings that emanate from the paintings, and we have combined both for this Centennial commemorative exhibit that will soon travel around Saskatchewan, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and the Northwest Territories,” said Bauche.
“Sapp’s is a compelling story strewn with chapters all rural Saskatchewan can relate to. Breaking the land, gardening, milking your own cows, log houses — the reserve was imposed upon the Cree, but it didn’t change their values and beliefs about who they were: family, community, prayer and respect for the land.”
Bauche is quick to add that, in so many ways, what is explored here reaches much beyond the world of First Nations, and touches the journeys of all early settlers who came from Europe to Saskatchewan and turned to agriculture for their livelihood, often in difficult conditions.
There is a rich, arguably ethnographic quality to this exhibit because of the unique record of the life of settlers that has been compiled, researched and interpreted. What is most touching, perhaps, is the generosity of the artist at the heart of this project, who accepted willingly to have his memories dissected and laid bare for the public.
“We feel privileged to have Allen play such a central role in our professional life and that of the gallery. In some way, he is part of our family, and we are certainly part of his. I guess now, all Canadians are invited to discover for themselves how significant Allen Sapp’s contribution to understanding life on the Plains really is.”
The 4,000-square-foot exhibition presents hundreds of digital photographs, 70 paintings, 40 artifacts and 30 black and white archival photographs, all explained through a digital interpretive component including commentary on Sapp's work from First Nations elders and youth.
Through the Eyes of the Cree begins its 22-month tour in January 2005. When the province officially observes its 100th anniversary of becoming a province under Confederation in September 2005, Sapp's exhibit will run as part of a larger exhibit entitled Promised Land in Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Civilization.
The project is the Allen Sapp Gallery’s most ambitious to date: celebrating the life of an internationally-renowned artist; a humble, talented man who provides us through his work a precious record of the life of Saskatchewan’s early settlers.
Dean Bauche is Director of North Battleford’s Allen Sapp Gallery and Curator of Through The Eyes of the Cree. “Allen was raised by his grandparents, who were very successful farmers. Albert Soonias, Allen’s grandfather, farmed and maintained over 100 head of cattle in the 1930s and ‘40s. “Allen grew up as a frail child who spent much time at home on the Red Pheasant Reserve, developing his artistic skills. He also had an incredible gift: a photographic memory with an infallible capacity for attention to details from scenes of life experiences he remembers and lays on canvas.”
Bauche and his colleagues undertook to create a Virtual Museum of Canada Exhibit from video interviews conducted among Sapp’s friends and relatives, farmers and ranchers, as a companion work to bring greater understanding to the world view expressed in Sapp’s paintings.
“We have researched the previously unknown meanings that emanate from the paintings, and we have combined both for this Centennial commemorative exhibit that will soon travel around Saskatchewan, Ontario, Manitoba, Alberta and the Northwest Territories,” said Bauche.
“Sapp’s is a compelling story strewn with chapters all rural Saskatchewan can relate to. Breaking the land, gardening, milking your own cows, log houses — the reserve was imposed upon the Cree, but it didn’t change their values and beliefs about who they were: family, community, prayer and respect for the land.”
Bauche is quick to add that, in so many ways, what is explored here reaches much beyond the world of First Nations, and touches the journeys of all early settlers who came from Europe to Saskatchewan and turned to agriculture for their livelihood, often in difficult conditions.
There is a rich, arguably ethnographic quality to this exhibit because of the unique record of the life of settlers that has been compiled, researched and interpreted. What is most touching, perhaps, is the generosity of the artist at the heart of this project, who accepted willingly to have his memories dissected and laid bare for the public.
“We feel privileged to have Allen play such a central role in our professional life and that of the gallery. In some way, he is part of our family, and we are certainly part of his. I guess now, all Canadians are invited to discover for themselves how significant Allen Sapp’s contribution to understanding life on the Plains really is.”
The 4,000-square-foot exhibition presents hundreds of digital photographs, 70 paintings, 40 artifacts and 30 black and white archival photographs, all explained through a digital interpretive component including commentary on Sapp's work from First Nations elders and youth.
Through the Eyes of the Cree begins its 22-month tour in January 2005. When the province officially observes its 100th anniversary of becoming a province under Confederation in September 2005, Sapp's exhibit will run as part of a larger exhibit entitled Promised Land in Ottawa's Canadian Museum of Civilization.
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