Sculptor honours 16-century martyr with public art piece

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This article was published 10/11/2018 (2840 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Manitoba artist Peter Sawatzky has added another dramatic bronze sculpture to his growing list of public-art creations.

A life-sized sculpture of martyred Anabaptist leader Dirk Willems, pulling his captor to safety from a river, will be officially unveiled at the Mennonite Heritage Village Museum in Steinbach at a ceremony on Saturday at 2 p.m.

Willems was one of thousands of Anabaptists that were executed during the 16th century. Sawatzky’s monument is based on an engraving by Jan Luyken.

The sculpture joins such noted Sawatzky works as Seal River Crossing, a nine-metre-long sculpture of caribou plowing through the wild waters of the northern Manitoba river that stands at the Richardson Centre Plaza at Portage and Main, and the sculpture of James A. Richardson at the Winnipeg airport that bears his name.

“Seal River Crossing is my personal favourite of my own pieces,” Sawatzky says. “I was inspired after flying over the Seal River (in northern Manitoba) and seeing all those caribou crossing. It just hits you.”

It’s a dynamic work of art that is made to withstand the elements for hundreds of years, similar to the centuries-old sculptures found in outdoor public places around the world.

“Peter Sawatzky is a remarkably energetic and prolific artist whose passion for wildlife and the natural landscape has crafted his distinctive body of work,” says Hartley Richardson, president and CEO of James Richardson & Sons, Limited, in an email.

“The fact that he is highly regarded as a Canadian sculptor who was born, raised and inspired in Manitoba makes him, in my opinion, even more worthy of celebration.”

Sawatzky, 67, grew up on a farm near Altona, but these days lives near Glenboro, about 170 kilometres southwest of Winnipeg.

“I’ve been a professional artist for 46 years,” Sawatzky says during an interview in his studio, a light-filled, large-windowed open space situated on several acres of forested land a few kilometres outside of Glenboro. The first 15 years of his career were dedicated to mostly woodcarving and illustration, and some painting, he says.

“After that, I got into the bronze sculpture medium, and have been doing that exclusively for the past 31 years,” Sawatzky says.

Sawatzky, who received the Order of Manitoba in 2008, credits the late wildlife artist and environmentalist Clarence Tillenius, also a native of Manitoba, with being one of his major influences. Sawatzky studied art, life drawing and sculpting with Tillenius at the Okanagan Summer Farm for one summer.

“Clarence ended up being my teacher, my mentor, my colleague and one of my best friends. We were very, very close. That’s who I studied under mostly,” Sawatzky says.

Another commissioned Sawatzky piece, a two-metre-tall sculpture of Jose Rizal (1861-1896), a Filipino nationalist and polymath during the end of the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines, is slated to be unveiled in the Waterford Green Development in northwest Winnipeg next spring or early summer.

The City of Brandon has also approached him about plans for a Peter Sawatzky Sculpture Garden at the Brandon Riverbank Discovery Centre.

“Working from life is the best thing you can do because there are no secrets,” observes Sawatzky, who’s married and has two adult children and three grandchildren. “What you see is what is there. Working from life speaks the truth.

“Then, I did it again,” said Sawatzky, noting that he also studied commercial art at River Red Community College after high school, and then worked as a commercial artist for a few different private companies in Winnipeg for five years.

David Loch, owner of Loch Gallery, says Sawatzky’s pieces are collected widely and the artist has achieved a unique status in Canada’s sculpture tradition.

“Peter is one of the hardest working artists I’ve ever met, and sculpture is all about physical (effort) and very costly,” Loch says. “We do have a very dedicated group of clients who collect his monumental works. His work flows. He’s a gem. Peter has a level of acceptance in Canada now that is second to none.”