Ryan McCourt

Ryan McCourt

Ryan McCourt and Alberta premier Ralph Klein at the unveiling of "A Modern Outlook" in Edmonton.
Born 1975
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Nationality Canadian
Education University of Alberta, Edmonton,
Known for Sculpture
Notable work "A Modern Outlook", "Will and Representation"
Movement Old school modernism, late modernism, surrealism, abstraction
Patron(s) Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden

Ryan McCourt (born February 23, 1975) is a Canadian late modernist artist best known for his "elegant" sculptures.[1][2][3][4] His artwork has been seen in exhibitions alongside a variety of notable visual artists, from Aganetha Dyck and Barbara Astman to Jules Olitski[5] and Walter Darby Bannard.[6] With sculptors Andrew French, Mark Bellows, Bianca Khan, Rob Willms, Linda Maines, and Cynthia Sentara, Ryan McCourt is identified as part of the "Next Generation" of Edmonton Sculpture.[2][7][8]

Early life and education

Ryan David McCourt[9][10] was born and raised in Edmonton, Alberta, the youngest of Ken and Sheelagh McCourt's five children.[4] He attended school at Patricia Heights Elementary School, Hillcrest Junior High School, and Jasper Place High School.[4] McCourt completed his Bachelor of Fine Arts in 1997, and his Master of Fine Arts in Sculpture in 1999, both at the University of Alberta[4][11][12][13] There, McCourt was a student of Peter Hide and Edmonton's modernist tradition of welded sculpture.[14][15][16]

Career

In 1995, while an undergraduate student, McCourt was a photographer with the Edmonton Eskimos Football Club. After completing his MFA, McCourt worked as the Artistic Coordinator for The Works Art Expo 2001, and curated "Resolutions", a solo exhibition of paintings by Canadian artist Tony Baker, at the Edmonton Art Gallery. In 2002, McCourt founded the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop,[4][11][13] "a cooperative shared-studio project focused on facilitating the creation and promotion of contemporary sculpture.[17]" In 2003, McCourt was an instructor of Visual Fundamentals at the University of Alberta.[11][13] In 2004, alongside then-Alberta Premier Ralph Klein, McCourt unveiled his 5.5-meter tall[18] commissioned sculpture entitled "A Modern Outlook", at 18550-118A Avenue in Edmonton.[19] McCourt organized the Alberta Centennial Sculpture Exhibition at the Royal Alberta Museum[20] in 2005.[21]

Controversy

"Destroyer of Obstacles," by Ryan McCourt, was ordered removed from public display by Edmonton Mayor Stephen Mandel in 2007

In 2006, McCourt was the first artist selected to display sculpture for one year outside Edmonton's Shaw Conference Centre.[22] McCourt's exhibition, "Will and Representation," was an installation of four large sculptures based on Ganesha,[20] a deity from Hindu mythology. Ten months into the exhibition, then-Mayor of Edmonton Stephen Mandel ordered the works removed after reportedly receiving a 700-name petition complaining of the sculptures' "disrespectful" nudity.[23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30] When asked for comment, McCourt stated that "Nudity seems like a rather quaint thing to get one's knickers in a bunch over,[31] in the 21st century. Besides, there's lots of art that I don't like, I don't go around gathering signatures of people who agree with me, and try to force the art to come down. That would be truly offensive, especially in a democracy like Canada."[32]

Public reaction to Mandel's censorship decree was generally disapproving.[33][34][35][36][37] In an interview with the Edmonton Journal's Paula Simons, David Goa, religious scholar, cultural anthropologist, and director of the University of Alberta's Ronning Centre for Study of Religion and Public Life, states "In India, Lord Ganesha is on everything – playing cards, advertising signs, lotto tickets, even diapers, I suspect." Simons concludes, "In his haste to appease a few protesters, the mayor, usually a champion of the arts, made a serious error in judgment. Instead of giving McCourt's divinely inspired statues the bum's rush, we should be celebrating this Canadian cross-pollination of cultures and aesthetic forms".[29] The Globe and Mail's columnist Margaret Wente agreed with Simons: "The mayor, of course, was quite wrong. Mr. McCourt's sculptures did not insult the Hindu community. They insulted a small but vocal conservative religious group that is about as representative of Hindus as Hassidic Jews are of Jews.... There's a big difference between respecting different cultures and caving in to illiberalism and superstition."[38]

Despite such negative responses in the media to art censorship in Canada, in 2014 the Edmonton Arts Council subsequently refused a donation of one of McCourt's sculptures, "Destroyer of Obstacles," evidently because the sculpture had genitalia beneath its clothes.[39] After meeting with seven Hindu community group representatives to seek out their opinion of the donation, the Edmonton Arts Council received a response that McCourt's sculpture was "an offense to their religion" and that the ban enacted by Mayor Mandel should remain in place.[40] As a result of this consultation, "the Public Art Committee unanimously voted to decline acceptance of the gift, as the artwork did not meet "community or civic suitability" criteria." In McCourt's view, "It is not the purpose of a city's public art collection to placate special interests," he says. "I want Edmonton to build the best civic art collection that we can get, never mind the politics, the religion, etc. of the artists making the work."[41]

McCourt's reputation as a controversial artist goes beyond the issue of censorship.[8][20][42] Protesting the exclusivity of a local "National Portrait Gallery" exhibition,[43] McCourt "sent in an anonymous mock-up of Ingres' Napoleon as Jupiter Enthroned redone with Stephen Harper's face along with a fabricated letter from the Prime Minister of Canada. His anonymous submission was immediately accepted into the show and became the poster child of the exhibit.".[20][44] McCourt has publicly advocated for civic investment in the arts,[45] and for the University of Alberta to move its Department of Art and Design to a downtown campus.[46] McCourt has been a vocal critic of public art in Edmonton,[47] dismissing "Talus Dome," a much-maligned sculpture purchased by the city,[48] as "an embarrassment to our citizens, a symbol of the Edmonton Arts Council's continued bungling of their portfolio, and an unforgivable waste of public funds."[49]

Common Sense

Common Sense, an artist run gallery in Edmonton, Alberta, owned by Canadian artist Ryan McCourt, photographed in 2014.

In 2007, McCourt opened Common Sense,[20][50] a gallery space at 10546 – 115 street in downtown Edmonton,[51][52] run by the North Edmonton Sculpture Workshop.[17] With a mandate to give 100% of proceeds from art sales to exhibiting artists,[20] Common Sense does not fit the mold of either a commercial gallery or a traditional artist run centre. According to art writer Amy Fung, "Common Sense is not actually an artist-run centre in any official sense, but a space run by artists in the old-fashioned sense.... essentially an artist's wet dream in our space-deprived city.".[53]

Awards and collections

McCourt has received the Lee Fund for the Arts Award; is a two-time recipient of the Edmonton Artists Trust Fund Award; and the recipient of a number of Project Grants from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.[11][13] His 2000 photograph "After David," and 2003 sculpture "Atlas," are included in the Alberta Foundation for the Arts' collection.[54] "Fanfare," a steel sculpture by McCourt from 1999, is in the art collection of the University of Alberta.[9] "Honky Tonk," also from 1999,[12] is in the collection of the Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden.[15] "The Abduction of Liberty, from 2006, was donated to the City of Edmonton and installed in the Belgravia Art Park in 2009.[55][56] McCourt was awarded First Prize in the headdress category of the 2009 Wearable Art Awards in Port Moody, British Columbia for "The Helmet of Laocoön."[11][57] In 2011, McCourt was named one of Edmonton's "Top 40 Under 40" by Avenue Edmonton for his support of local artists and his encouragement of "critical discourse".[58]

References

  1. ↑ Maureen Fenniak, "Abstract Criticism," Vue Weekly, September 20–26, 2001
  2. 1 2 Terry Fenton, "Edmonton Sculpture: The Next Generation," Harcourt Expressed, Volume 12, Summer/Fall 2002
  3. ↑ Olenka Melnyk, “Big Sculpture, Bigger Worries Burden Artists”, Edmonton Journal, July 12, 2004
  4. 1 2 3 4 5 The Artwork of Ryan McCourt
  5. ↑ "Greenberg Informs First Impressions and Flat Abstractions at AGA’s Temporary New Home," Vue Weekly, April 18, 2007
  6. ↑ ECAS 19th Annual Exhibition, 2011
  7. ↑ Mike Winters, "Fitting into the Modernist Mould," SEE Magazine, Issue #455, August 12–21, 2002
  8. 1 2 Piri Halasz, "Report From The West: The Excitement of Sculpture," From the Mayor's Doorstep, October 2009
  9. 1 2 University of Alberta Art Collection, University of Alberta Museums
  10. ↑ New Zealand Government: Flag Design Gallery
  11. 1 2 3 4 5 Sculpturesite Gallery
  12. 1 2 "Folio," University of Alberta
  13. 1 2 3 4 Axis Contemporary Art
  14. ↑ Travel Information: Artists Studio
  15. 1 2 Creative Arts Guild, Robert T. Webb Sculpture Garden
  16. ↑ Form is Emptiness, Emptiness is Form
  17. 1 2 Prairie Seen, Profiles: Edmonton Art Institutions (Public Galleries)
  18. ↑ Reuters Pictures
  19. ↑ University of Alberta, Faculty of Arts in Review, Work of Arts, Spring 2005
  20. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Avenue Edmonton: Top 40 Under 40
  21. ↑ Royal Alberta Museum, Past Exhibits
  22. ↑ Edmonton Journal, "Artists Give Walls of Shaw Extension Lively Look," November 18, 2006
  23. ↑ Edmonton Journal, "Scrap Sculptures, Mayor Says," September 19, 2007
  24. ↑ 630 CHED, "Controversial Art To Be Removed, Says Mayor," September 19, 2007
  25. ↑ CTV News, September 19, 2007
  26. ↑ Global News, September 19, 2007
  27. ↑ "Art Scrap," CBC News, September 19, 2007
  28. ↑ The Globe and Mail, "Edmonton to Remove Statues After Hindu Protest," September 20, 2007
  29. 1 2 Edmonton Journal, "Sculptor's Use of Revered Hindu Deity Shows No Sign of Sacrilege," September 22, 2007
  30. ↑ Glenn Weiss, "The Role of Censorship In Public Art," Aesthetic Grounds, October 2, 2007
  31. ↑ "Sculptures offend Hindus," Edmonton Journal, September 21, 2007
  32. ↑ Edmonton Journal, "Sculptor Finds Criticism "Rather Quaint," September 19, 2007
  33. ↑ Bruce Dunbar, "Mandel Oversteps Bounds," Edmonton Journal, September 23, 2007
  34. ↑ Donna McKinnon, "No Place For Censorship," Edmonton Journal, September 23, 2007
  35. ↑ "Venting," compiled by Terry McConnell, Edmonton Journal, September 25, 2007
  36. ↑ Joe Renaud, "Art's Message Isn't Always Pretty," Edmonton Journal, September 30, 2007
  37. ↑ Krishna Bagdiya, "Sculptures No Threat," Edmonton Journal, September 30, 2007
  38. ↑ Margaret Wente, "Why Are We So Afraid To Offend?," The Globe and Mail, September 29, 2007
  39. ↑ PZ Myers, "Reaching For a Reasonable Justification for Censorship," Pharyngula, April 24, 2015
  40. ↑ Edmonton Arts Council – Briefing Note, June 12, 2014
  41. ↑ Donna McKinnon, "The Pleasures and Perils of Public Art," Curious Arts, November 27, 2015
  42. ↑ Latitude 53 Contemporary Visual Culture, "City Can’t Guarantee High Level Bridge Waterfall Will Ever Flow Again", December 12, 2011
  43. ↑ Latitude 53, "National Portrait Gallery"
  44. ↑ Latitude 53, "Today's Cover Story In SEE Magazine Is All About The National Portrait Gallery," June 10, 2010
  45. ↑ Ryan McCourt, "The Five Things Edmonton Needs To Be A True Cultural Capital," Connect2Edmonton: Guest Column, March 5, 2007
  46. ↑ Ryan McCourt, "Bay Store Would Make A Fine Campus", Edmonton Journal, June 21, 2004
  47. ↑ CBC News, "Mute Flute Sculpture Gone From Jasper and 109th," November 13, 2012
  48. ↑ David Staples, "The Sh-t We Say About The Talus Dome, Edmonton's Most Expensive, Exposed and Controversial Public Sculpture," Edmonton Journal, February 21, 2012
  49. ↑ David Staples, "Edmonton Artist Blasts Talus Dome (And Me)," Edmonton Journal, November 16, 2011
  50. ↑ University of Saskatchewan: News
  51. ↑ The North Edge: District by Design
  52. ↑ Canadian Art: Galleries
  53. ↑ Amy Fung: Prairie Artsters, "A Different Kind of ARC," Vue Weekly, July 10, 2008
  54. ↑ Alberta Foundation for the Arts: Art Collection
  55. ↑ Edmonton Arts Council: Public Art
  56. ↑ Report to the City of Edmonton by the Public Art Committee, Appendix Two • Master Chart of artworks in the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection • June 30, 2012
  57. ↑ Macie McGowan, "Ryan McCourt," Glitter and Gold, December 1, 2009
  58. ↑ Avenue Edmonton: Top 40 Under 40, 2011

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