Joe Norris. Dieser Artikel ist nicht verfügbar.Joe Norris

Joe Norris was one of North America's greatest folk artists. He was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and lived in Lower Prospect, Halifax County, Canada. For much of his life, he worked as a fisherman and construction worker. At the age of 49, a severe heart attack forced him into retirement and, at the encouragement of a visiting nurse who provided him with materials and prodded him to do a little painting each day, he began to make pictures for himself and for friends.

Joe Norris is probably best known for his brilliantly coloured scenes of the rocky coves of Nova Scotia, his paintings of seagulls, his hot pink horizons, animals and ships, his paintings of winter night scenes, invariably (and appropriately) titled "Starry Night." His work appears on traditional canvas or panel, but also on picture frames, tables, rocking chairs, stools, chests of drawers, and even fireplace mantels.

The cove scenes and seagull paintings of Joe Norris have become icons of Nova Scotia over the past quarter century and many people consider the artist to be a national treasure. During his lifetime, his work was represented by Houston North Galleries and the Mira Godard Gallery and is now included in many private and public collections, including the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the McMichael Collection. Joe Norris embodied the free and lively spirit of folk artists who work outside the mainstream, free of any preconceived notions of what art ought to be. His simple paintings arouse feelings of joy in all but the most jaded viewers and provide a window open to his tranquil, but captivating, kingdom by the sea. This tribute to Joe Norris chronicles his life and work in the little fishing village of Lower Prospect, Nova Scotia, twenty-five kilometres and a lifetime away from Halifax.

Bernard Riordon is Director and CEO of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. He was born in the small town of Bathurst, New Brunswick. His formal education was at St. Thomas University in Fredericton and at St. Mary's University in Halifax. Mr. Riordon began his career working at the St. Mary's University Art Gallery and in 1973 became curator of the Centennial Art Gallery at the Nova Scotia Museum of Fine Arts. In 1975 he became the founding Director of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. During his tenure at the AGNS he has developed it into an art gallery of national stature. In a long and prestigious career, he has worked in many fields of Canadian Art. However it for his work the area of folk art for which he is best known. In 1976, he initiated one of the most popular art exhibits in Canadian history, Folk Art of Nova Scotia. The exhibit toured the country and introduced the work of Joe Norris, Ralph Boutlier, Sidney Howard, Collins Eisenhauer and others to Canadians. In 1997, he was the curator of the exhibition The Illuminated Life of Maud Lewis which toured across Canada and was viewed by more than a half million people. The 1976 exhibition was the first exhibition from Nova Scotia ever displayed at the National Gallery of Canada. In 1989 he organized the Nova Scotia Folk Art: Canada's Cultural Heritage exhibition, which toured the United Kingdom. Riordon is the author of Nova Scotia Folk Art: Canada's Cultural Heritage and has written many magazine and journal articles. He lectured on art and on cultural administration across Canada and in Europe. Currently he is leading the expansion of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia to include the establishment of the Western Branch of the AGNS in Yarmouth. The branch gallery will be the first of its kind in Canada and will feature a folk art gallery along with six other gallery spaces.

The book also contains contributions by John Houston, owner of Houston North Gallery, Dr. Philip Brooks, one of Joe's friends and collector of Joe's paintings, and Chris Huntington, an artist, collector, exhibition curator, magazine writer and a pivotal figure in the resurgence of folk art in Nova Scotia.