Biography
Glyde’s
intent, along with fellow artists such as Maxwell Bates and Illingworth
Kerr, was to develop a distinct view of Western Canada. Although he retained visual referents, rather than straightforward
representations of realistic scenes, he wished to convey the greater
meanings that he found within this context through the exaggerated and
abstracted forms of a modernist agenda. According to Patricia Ainslie, Glyde was
"…committed
to the development of a truly Canadian art, based on direct observation
and interaction with the landscape and the people…He laid emphasis on
the figure as a means of exploring the Canadian spirit, and created a body
of work that with its mythological and symbolic character broke new ground
in the West (Ainslie:16)".
Glyde
was born 18 June 1906 in Luton, England. He attended the Royal College of
Art 1926-30. In the School of
Design he received a scholarship for Architectural Decoration. He
graduated as an Associate of the Royal College of Art (A.R.C.A.). From
1929-35 he taught in the evenings, at Croydon School of Arts and Crafts
and Borough Polytechnic, London, and full-time at High Wycombe School of
Arts and Crafts. Meanwhile, he and A.C. Leighton traveled around England
painting landscapes. Leighton convinced Glyde to teach in Calgary at the
Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, now the Alberta College of Art
and Design.
In
November of 1935, Glyde joined the Alberta Society of Artists (ASA) – he
was president from 1936-47. In 1936, Glyde became Head of the Art
Department at the Institute, and held that position for ten years. He was
head of the painting division of the Banff School of Fine Arts from
1936-66. For the Faculty of
Extension, University of Alberta, 1937 to c.1951, he taught art in
different communities around the province, such as Medicine Hat, Peace
River, and Vegreville. In 1943, Glyde and A.Y. Jackson were
commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada to document the building of
the Alaska Highway. They traveled throughout Northern Alberta, the Yukon,
and British Columbia, the experience and the landscape influenced Glyde
greatly.
From
1946-66, he established and organized the Division of Fine Art at the
University of Alberta. In 1946, he became an Associate Professor, and
taught in the B.A. and B.Ed. programs, and in 1951, he became a Professor
of Fine Arts. In 1950, he was appointed Curator of the University Art
Gallery and Museum. He held many other roles, such as Vice President and
Alberta representative to the Canadian Arts Council, the National
President of the Federation of Canadian Artists, and Chairman of the
Alberta Visual Arts Board. He
was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA) in 1950. Glyde received a
University of Alberta Honorary Doctor of Laws in 1982. Glyde's career was closely tied to the development of art and the growth
of art organizations and institutions in Alberta.
Glyde
retired in 1966 and moved, with his wife, to Pender Island, BC. Glyde continued to paint and find inspiration both in his new home
and in frequent visits to Alberta and England. H.G. Glyde died in 1998. The
works, which you see in our gallery, are from the Glyde Estate.
Selected
Collections: Glenbow Museum,
Provincial Museum of Alberta, Edmonton Art Gallery, National Gallery of
Canada, University of Alberta, Medicine Hat Library, St. Patrick’s Roman
Catholic Church in Medicine Hat, numerous private collections in Canada,
the United States, and Europe.
“With
its back lying hard against the eastern wall of the Rockies, we find a
land which marks the end of the great plains, and introduces the
rolling forms of the foothills, which buttress the huge precipitous
ramparts that rise to the skies to terminate in the huge ice fields
which lie beyond the clouds. Such
is Alberta...." (H.G. Glyde, 1947)
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