Sketch Club celebrates the human form

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 17/06/2010 (5877 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Richard Berube was proud of his drawing — a women from the waist up, bare breasts exposed.

So pleased, in fact, the Winnipeg Sketch Club member was hoping to have the portrait displayed for public consumption at one of the club’s shows last year.

But it wasn’t to be, he said, after the third-party hosting the event decided the content was not appropriate.

“They took it down because of concern,” said Berube, a retired Norwood resident. “In certain circles there still is a taboo” when it comes to nudity, he said.

George Tanner, treasurer of the Winnipeg Sketch Club, said  another member was also forced to withdraw two nude portraits from the same show.

“We have had a problem,” he acknowledged.

Later this month, the club will get around the issue by holding a three-day Nude in Art exhibit showcasing work done by the club’s members.

The show will open June 18, and run for three days.

It’s not the first time the club has held a show along this theme, Tanner added. The last exhibit focusing on nudes was held about five years ago.

He added that members have requested another opportunity to showcase their work exploring the human body, which was the main consideration for staging the exhibit.

The show, which will be held downstairs at the Forum Art Centre on 120 Eugenie St. is already creating buzz, Tanner added.

“It’s funny, you put the word nude (in the show’s name) and you get a lot of attention,” he said.

Annemarie Layman, the club’s president, said she understands that attitudes toward nudity vary across cultures and backgrounds.

And while she said she hoped the show  would be well received, she stressed it is mostly an opportunity for Winnipeg Sketch Club members to showcase their art.

“This is for us, and it’s for fun,” she said.

Layman added that capturing the intricacies of the human body one of the greatest challenges for artists.

“It does take years. I think it takes a lifetime,” she said.

The sketch club — which was started in 1914 by one of the founders of the Winnipeg Art Gallery — facilitates the exploration of the human body as an art subject by bringing in a live nude model once a month. Members can work in whatever medium they prefer.

Tanner said that giving artists a chance to draw or paint the naked human body is something he’s proud the club can offer.

“The general agreement is that the human body is the hardest thing to draw or paint. It’s the ultimate test,” he said.

Berube — who is not submitting a piece to the Nude in Art show due to other commitments — added that drawing hands and feet prove to be his biggest challenge.

“A millimeter off in thickness or width makes a difference when you’re drawing those delicate features,” he said, adding one of his teachers would paint his models wearing mittens or gloves to get around the tricky subject.

While the Nude in Art exhibit was scheduled to coincide with the Forum Art Centre’s own Art Fest, the show will also overlap with the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s exhibit The Nude in Modern Canadian Art, 1920-1950.

That show, organized and toured by the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, will include works by Lilias Torrance Newton, Paul-Émile Borduas, Alex Colville, as well as Manitobans L.L. FitzGerald and Bertram Brooker.

Both shows open on June 18, but Tanner said he didn’t believe the shows will be competing with each other.

Instead, he said he hoped those going to one show would be inspired to visit the other.

The club’s Nude in Art show runs June 18 from 5 to 9 p.m., June 19 from 10 a.m. to 6 pm and June 20 from noon to 4 pm. at the Forum Art Centre.

The Nude in Modern Canadian Art exhibit runs at the Winnipeg Art Gallery from June 18 to August 22.

arielle.godbout@canstarnews.com