Artwork by David Thauberger,  Travel and Transport

David Thauberger
Travel and Transport

acrylic and glitter on canvas
signed, titled and dated “March, 1986” on the reverse
45.75 x 69.75 ins ( 116.2 x 177.2 cms )

Auction Estimate: $7,000.00$5,000.00 - $7,000.00

Price Realized $4,400.00
Sale date: November 20th 2018

Provenance:
Private Collection, Calgary
Known for his paintings of the vernacular architecture and cultural attractions of Saskatchewan, David Thauberger mines the depths of Canadiana, re-imagining existing popular imagery to create hyper-real cityscapes that transcend regionalism yet evoke the unique experiences of life in Western Canada. Discussing the level of realism in Thauberger's “dead-pan paintings of local architecture”, Joan Murray notes that the artist appropriates his images “from sources like a postcard, colour television, or Field & Stream magazine. Thauberger's attachment to place, and his adversarial relationship with high-art modernist culture as dictated by New York, recalls the art of [Greg] Curnoe, but his formal invention – basing his art on techniques characteristic of popular culture such as stencilling – and the approach of his images to folk art is more satirical.” Like his landscapes, paintings like “Travel and Transport” may be based on existing images from Canadian visual culture; however, in their arresting configurations and unorthodox execution, his subjects contain implied references to magic, fantasy, and play.

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David Thauberger
(1948) R.C.A., Order of Canada

David Thauberger was born in Holdfast, Saskatchewan. He studied ceramics at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, where ceramic sculptor David Gilhooly served as an early mentor, inspiring Thauberger and others to create art that was rooted in their own life experience and their own geographical region. He earned his BFA in 1971 and his MA in 1972 from California State University (Sacramento). He then studied with Rudy Autio at the University of Montana in Missoula, earning his MFA in 1973.

Thauberger was invested as a Member of the Order of Canada in 2008, and is a recipient of the Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Artist Award in 2009 and the Queen's Diamond Medal in 2012. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, Thauberger's achievements were further recognized when he was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, and again in 2017 when he received a Canada 150 Award.