Biography of GEORGE SWINTON

SWINTON, George CAR, CPE, OC (1917-2002). Born in Vienna, Austria, Swinton studied wood carving with Alois Fischhuber, Vienna (1934-1936); came to Canada in 1939, and studied at McGill University, Montreal, Quebec (B.A. 1946); with Jacques de Tonnancour and Goodridge Roberts at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (1946-1947); and with Wil Barnet, Morris Kantor and Harry Sternberg at the Art Students’ League, New York City, New York (1949-1950). Working in oil, acrylic, ink, watercolour, gouache, and etching his subjects include still life, allegorical figures, and the landscape in a surrealistic style. He taught at Smith College, Northampton, Massachusetts (1950-1953); at Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario (1953-1954); at the University of Manitoba, Winnipeg (1954-1974); and at Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario (1974-1984). He also worked as Curator of the Saskatoon Art Centre, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (1947-1949); an art critic, television broadcaster, writer and collector of Inuit art. He made his first trip to the Canadian Arctic in 1957. He wrote Eskimo Sculpture (Toronto 1965), Sculpture of the Eskimo (Toronto 1972), and Sculpture of the Inuit (Toronto 1999). He received Canada Council awards in 1959, 1965, 1972 and 1984, and an honorary doctorate from the University of Manitoba in 1987. He died in Winnipeg. He held solo exhibitions at the WAG in 1960, 1968 and 1997, and exhibited at the MMFA in 1952-1968. His work is in the collections of the AEAC, AGH, BAGF, CCAG, GM, MAG, NGC, SI, VAG and WAG.

Biography courtesy of The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction: Volume IV: S-Z

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