The Way It Is: The Life of Greg Curnoe

by James King

0 ratings • 0 reviews • 0 shelved
Book cover for The Way It Is

Bookhype may earn a small commission from qualifying purchases. Full disclosure.

The long-awaited biography of one of Canada's most intriguing and beguiling artists.



Do artists really thrive in big cities, or do they just learn to imitate New York? Is it a contradiction for an artist to be fiercely local and profoundly identified with international art movements? If the brilliant colourist and regionalist pioneer Greg Curnoe stood for any one thing, it was making trouble. An intriguing rebel throughout his life, he challenged ideas about what art should be, and pushed it in radical new directions - including away from Toronto, a city he rejected while succeeding masterfully in its galleries.



His untimely death in 1992 cut short a career of constant reinvention. This first biography of Curnoe recaptures in vivid detail the public and personal life of an iconoclast who was called a "walking autobiography," as his work seemed to document his endless struggle against many of the core tenets of the art of his time. An anti-establishment firebrand and a fierce opponent of American dominance in Canadian culture, Curnoe, in his conceptual practice, constructed a stunning body of work that remains a hallmark in late-twentieth-century Canadian art.
  • ISBN10 1459736907
  • ISBN13 9781459736900
  • Publish Date 2 September 2017
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country CA
  • Imprint Dundurn Press
  • Format eBook
  • Pages 392
  • Language English