"J.W.G. MacDonald: Painter Teacher Friend," Alumnus. Ontario: Ontario College of Art, 1981.

[transcription of excerpt]

ONE OF THE UNFORGETTABLES
J.W.G. MACDONALD

PAINTER
TEACHER
FRIEND


When Jock Macdonald qualified for his Art Specialist Teachers' certificate in 1922, his assessor deemed him "a born teacher" The several generations of students who encountered Macdonald in one of the many teaching posts he held would certainly agree. During a lifetime devoted to teaching (he spent seven years at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, two years at the British Columbia College of Art, a year at the Provincial Institute of Technology in Calgary and fourteen years at the Ontario College of Art, six summers at Banff and three at Doon), Macdonald came into contact with many of the artists working in Canada today. His philosophy as a teacher was to influence not only students but his own artistic career and he quite freely exchanged ideas between his classroom and his studio. The richness in both enterprises provided stimulation in his teaching and in his art.

Macdonald's teaching philosophy might at first appear contradictory in nature for it relied at the same time on strict discipline and the greatest freedom possible. As a teacher of design and later of painting, Macdonald created a series of rigorous classroom exercises to strengthen his students' comprehension of fundamental principles. But skill and mastery of technique were only the beginning, for Macdonald, art had to be a living thing which reflected the philosophic, scientific and mathematical concerns of the artist's time. Without an understanding of the spiritual qualities of art, and the relationship of art and nature, the most accomplished art would be stillborn. So Macdonald encouraged his students to move beyond the exercises and to explore new and sometimes esoteric directions. There were no rights and wrongs — only the constant possibility of growth and change. He wrote later:

"In training young students I believe it absolutely necessary that the student be provided a programme of study which forces him to observe nature very closely in many diverse directions. After some two years of such study I encourage the student to expand his inner self and begin to expand his personality. I am quite aware that the young student is often intuitively aware of his consciousness of the twentieth century and could create in modern ways but I believe that
every student should, first of all, increase his vocabulary of form and colours by observing nature forms and be initiated into the laws of balance and dynamic equilibrium."

Macdonald did not reserve the rigours of discipline for his students alone; Dorothy Hoover recalls that each summer he would drill his colour sense by painting flowers from nature, selecting a painting by Georges Braque and working in its colour scheme and at one period in his career, subjecting himself to a disciplined work-over such as that offered by Hans Hofmann at his Provincetown school.

Yet Macdonald seems almost never to have been remembered as a disciplinarian; it was the

complementary aspect of his teaching which students remember in such glowing terms. Macdonald encouraged his students to look at art, particularly abstract art, and often accompanied them to the galleries. For the most promising, he suggested reading that would encourage and stimulate them — among others, the works of Hans Hofmann, Wassily Kandinsky and P.D. Ouspensky. He was a sympathetic mentor, prepared to offer students understanding in their struggle and to encourage them at whatever point they found themselves. He offered reassurance, guidance, enthusiasm and where necessary, a few dollars and a good meal.

When Macdonald arrived at OCA in the fall of 1947, he assumed the last in a series of distinguished teaching posts. His teaching career had begun in 1925 in England when he served as head of the design department at the Lincoln School of Art. In 1926 he came to Canada as the head of design at the newly formed VSDAA. These first few years in Canada were crucial ones for the artist for they were to lead him in heretofore unimagined directions in his art and in his career as an educator.

In 1926, Macdonald had never painted in oils. Under the tutelage of his new VSDAA colleague, Fred Varley, he was soon painting landscapes which would represent Canada in exhibitions throughout the world. At the same time, Macdonald was confronted with new ideas about the nature of art and art education and in 1933, with Varley, he left the VSDAA to embark upon one of the most significant experiments in art education to occur in Canada's history — the British Columbia College of Art. The school was dedicated to an interdisciplinary approach to the arts and to the integration of eastern and western philosophy. Music flowed through the studios and metaphysics dominated the discussions.

In his own painting, influenced to some degree by the atmosphere which dominated the College, Macdonald turned from representation of the landscape to an exploration of the spiritual aspects of nature. The mystery of the noumenal world replaced the phenomenal in his art and he embarked upon his lifelong exploration of abstract art.

In 1935 the British Columbia College closed; the depression had made financing impossible and the dream ended. The Macdonald family moved to the west coast of Vancouver Island and for two years Macdonald continued his painting experiments in the isolation of that rugged environment. During the next few years Macdonald taught at several Vancouver institutions but it is clear from his correspondence that neither the high school nor the technical school provided him with the calibrer of student, or the collegial environment, he required.

It was not until 1946 that Macdonald once again found a teaching environment which seemed to offer such stimulation. In the spring of 1945 he had, in fact, two offers for employment: one from OCA, the other from Alberta. Macdonald, who considered himself a Western artist, chose Alberta. But in spite of the great promise the position initially held, and despite the artists whom he came to know and who would remain lifetime friends, and even despite his crucial role in the formation and fostering of the Calgary Group, Macdonald soon realized that he could not continue at the Provincial Institute. He had little time for his own work; he found himself isolated from the artistic mainstream and engulfed in the narrowness and provincialism of his environment. There was no place for an artist then experimenting with surrealist inspired "automatics".

The next spring Macdonald once again was offered two teaching positions: one at OCA and one in Winnipeg as a sabbatical replacement for Lemoine Fitzgerald. This time he chose OCA for Toronto held many promises — the opportunity to work closely with people he admired, two days a week to devote to his own work — time which never did materialize — and four summer months to devote to his own painting.

On the first day of class, Macdonald wrote prophetically, "my impression is that something more modern has to be introduced into the study — work I will be responsible for." Macdonald would later term the

atmosphere he found at the College "academic sleepwalking" and it became more and more clear to him that he would carry a heavy burden as a teacher dedicated to making students aware of the most recent developments in the art world and the possibilities which such developments proffered.

If OCA did not offer the artistic mainstream which he sought, the first few years in Toronto were nevertheless not without rewards. Macdonald produced a body of automatic paintings in watercolours that was without peer in Canada and he was twice recognized for his teaching ability when he was the only artist selected to participate as faculty at the UNESCO seminars in Breda, Holland (1949) and Pontigny, France (1950). In 1951, Macdonald became an executive member of the Ontario Society of Artists. In 1952 he was elected president of the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour. During these years, he served on numerous juries for the OSA, and for other exhibitions, often speaking publicly on topics related to abstract art, encouraging an appreciation of abstraction not only in his classroom but amongst the general public. Ultimately it was in his role as a senior member of Painters Eleven, the group which Macdonald felt represented the future of art in Canada, that he was finally able to establish an artistic climate favourable to abstract painting in Ontario.

It is not surprising then, that it was Macdonald who became the mentor to a young generation of abstract painters. He championed students like William Ronald, Richard Gorman and Dennis Burton and derived satisfaction from their accomplishments, writing, "Apart from my own efforts in the field of art my greatest happiness is in the opportunities I have to fight for the worthiness I sense in the work of our younger artists".

In 1954, Macdonald took a year's leave of absence from OCA and with the assistance of a fellowship awarded by the Royal Society of Canada, he was able to devote himself to his own work. He came back to Toronto, certain that he had found the answers to the problems he faced in his painting and he had. In the next four years, Macdonald produced his major body of work with one man shows in every year, culminating with a semi-retrospective at the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1960. Throughout this period he continued to teach full time at OCA, with part time teaching in the evenings, on Saturdays and in the summer. He felt it his job to stimulate his students, encourage their sense of adventure and to promote an awareness of abstract and non-objective painting.

Macdonald died the day after the beginning of OCA's Christmas vacation in December, 1960. He had taught until the day before his death. For him teaching was not only a vocation but a responsibility, always "true to himself no matter what the consequences", he was steadfast in his commitment to a modern approach to art education.

As an artist Macdonald was fortunate to receive recognition for his achievements within his lifetime. In 1957, Robert Fulford called him "the best young artist in Canada, even though he was born in 1897." As an educator, recognition has come from the ranks of devoted students who acknowledge Macdonald's leadership role and confirm his position in the forefront of Canada's teaching community.

Joyce Zemans