Jack Chambers
(1931 - 1978)

J. Chambers Biography
(1931 - 1978)

Born in London, Ontario, he studied at the H. B. Technical School, London, Ontario, and won the “Younger Artists” award in 1949 at the Western Ontario Annual Exhibition at London, Ontario. In 1954 he went to Spain where he studied at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts, Madrid. During this period he was awarded an E. T. Greenshields Foundation Scholarship in 1956 and in 1958 received the State Prize for painting from the Royal Academy, Madrid. He stayed in Spain after graduation at the village of Chinchon just south of Madrid where he painted and taught until 1961.

He held a solo show at the Lorca Gallery in Madrid in 1961 before returning to Canada. Also that year he took part in a group exhibition at the Forum Gallery in New York. When the Winnipeg Show took place in 1962 Chambers’ work won him Honourable Mention and during this same year he exhibited in a Four Man Show at the Isaacs Gallery and at the Forum Gallery in New York. Wider recognition of his work in Canada was perhaps in some measure due to the exhibit of his paintings in the Fifth Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art at the National Gallery of Canada in 1963 when J. Russell Harper took a three months tour across Canada to select all the works of oil and related media for final selection by the jury. Chamber’s canvas “Sunday Morning” was picked for the exhibit.

Reviewing his solo show at the Isaacs Gallery in 1963 Joyce Zemans noted the following, “. . . By using a great deal of white in his palette he obtains a dream-like clarity with an atmosphere if visual airiness, or a thin veil of haze. His brush-work is superb and in small details, like a group of flowers in a landscape, passages of oil read like excerpts from a Monet canvas. Chambers’ small pencil drawings are equally notable for their portrayal of landscape. In his pen and ink studies, Chambers adopts a pointillist technique . . . Aligning the elements of the picture in clearly distinguishable planes, the artist omits all superfluous detail; achieving in pen and ink the high degree of spaciousness which is evident in his oils . . .” Joyce Zemans did however suggest that his subject matter was on the whole for the understanding of a few. In conclusion Joyce Zemans stated, “. . . Chambers’ personal “Magic-realism” brings a breath if freshness to the Canadian scene.” Rae Davis on viewing Chambers work in 1966 notes his metaphysical approach to birth and death and states, “. . . He is interested in mental life, the contents of the subconscious. This intellectual effort to discover and control archetypal life, combined with a dazzling technique and subtle colour sense, produces paintings of great spirituality. The rich contemplative world of his paintings, in which the present is pregnant with the past, approaches silence as well as stillness. The silence is one of emotional discovery and peace, attained by a kind of dying into life . . .”

Chambers illustrated James Reaney’s “The Dance of Death in London, Ontario” using pen and ink in pointillist style. He is represented in many collections including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Vancouver Art Gallery; London Public Library and Art Museum and the National Gallery of Canada. He lived in London, Ontario.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume I: A-F", compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1977