Kim Ondaatje

Kim Ondaatje (also known as Betty Jane Kimbark, October 2, 1928) is a Canadian painter, photographer, and documentary filmmaker.

Biography

Born in Toronto, Ontario, Ondaatje studied at the Ontario College of Art and McGill University. She completed a M.A. in Canadian Literature at Queen's University, while on a teaching fellowship. Until 1964, Ondaatje served as a part-time lecturer at Wilfrid Laurier University and Sherbrooke University. In the early 1960s she returned to the visual arts again and by 1965 was painting full-time. In 1967, with fellow Canadian artists Jack Chambers and Tony Urquhart, she founded Canadian Artists Representation (CAR), which today is the Canadian Artists Representation/Frontes des Artistes Canadiens (CARFAC). CAR was the first artist organization in the world to establish a fee structure for museum and gallery exhibitions of contemporary artists.

Primarily a visual artist, Ondaatje later directed short documentary films and published books of photography. In her paintings she pursued a variety of interests. Along with abstract and impressionistic landscapes she composed three paintings series: a landscape group entitled the Hill Series; an interior-based group of paintings titled The House on Piccadilly Street; and a final group of large industrial landscapes entitled the Factory Series, completed in the mid-1970s. Ondaatje's research on traditional Ontario quilt-making and design led to a large national touring exhibition of patchwork quilts (1974–76), and a documentary film. During the course of her career, she worked for the London Public Gallery, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre, the Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Emily Carr College's Outreach as a travelling artist with her work from 1969 to 1981.

Her paintings and films are part of various collections in galleries across Canada including: the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Doris McCarthy Gallery at the University of Toronto, The McIntosh Gallery, University of Western Ontario, London, The Windsor Public Gallery, Simon Fraser University, B.C., and the Confederation Centre Art Gallery, in Prince Edward Island.

She was married to the Canadian poet D.G. Jones and was later married to the poet and novelist Michael Ondaatje. She has six children.

In 2008 the University of Toronto Art Centre held a major retrospective entitled "Kim Ondaatje: Paintings 1950-1975", the first comprehensive exhibition of Ondaatje's works since 1973. The retrospective was curated by University of Toronto art historian Lora Senechal Carney.

In March 2009, Ondaatje and Urquhart were announced as joint winners of a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Outstanding Contribution for their role in founding CARFAC, the Canadian Artists’ Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens.

Short films

Books

External links

Award announcement * Governor General's citation *

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