(1907 - 2002)
Weber’s
body of serigraphs documents Alberta’s transformation from
depression-era wild west to oil-rich urban prosperity.
His work records human impact on the prairie: a Sundance among the
Peigan, pumpjacks and grain elevators, and irrigation waterworks along
stream and river courses.
George Weber was
born in Munich, Germany in 1907. He was SFCA trained as a draughtsman,
wallpaper design and display. In
the late 20's, sensing the dangerous political climate developing in
Germany, he decided to immigrate to Canada. George first worked as a
wallpaper designer in Toronto; where, in the early 1930’s, he also
studied composition, color, and commercial silkscreen techniques at the
Ontario College of Art. He
then came west, settling in Edmonton. George attended night classes at the
University of Alberta and the Banff School of Fine Arts (1951) for life
classes and watercolor techniques under Jack Taylor and Janet Middleton.
George was a founding member and president of the Edmonton branch of the
Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers (CPE); he was a member
of the Society of Canadian Painters in Water Color, the Canadian Graphic
Society, the Edmonton Art Club, the Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA),
and the Northwest Printmakers (Seattle).
Among his numerous exhibitions were the Western Print Exhibit
(1957, Hart House, Toronto) and one-man exhibitions at the Edmonton Art
Gallery. The first serigraph
selected as an honorary membership print for the CPE was Weber’s Inkaneep
Reserve in 1954. In 1976
George received the Edmonton Historical Board’s Recognition Award for
his series of sketches and watercolors of Edmonton historic buildings and
sites.
George single-handedly furthered fine art
serigraphy (Latin term for silkprint - silk screening), particularly in
western Canada. As early
as 1948 he lectured at the University of Alberta, Edmonton on the adoption
of the silkscreen process and in 1950 and 1951 led workshops on the
process at the Edmonton Art Gallery.
Many well-known Alberta artists took classes from him in the 1950's
through the University of Alberta. George imported handmade Japanese and
European fine art papers (for printmaking) for the benefit of local
printmakers. One of the highlights of his career was in 1985 when his
serigraph Moraine Lake was chosen by Canada Post to commemorate the
centennial of Banff National Park. Besides
Weber's talent as a printmaker, many collectors treasure his watercolors
and preliminary sketches of diverse ranchland, parkland, forest, and
prairie of Alberta as well as the interior and coastal areas of British
Columbia. His palette displays the rich earthy colors and wide range of
tonal values of those landscapes.
The
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa recently purchased a number of George
Weber’s serigraphs. The
City of Edmonton presented his original serigraphs to the Edmonton Oiler
Hockey team in celebration of their 1988 Stanley Cup victory.
George’s works are in the permanent collection of the Alberta
Foundation for the Arts, Arts & Letters Club (Toronto), Glenbow
Foundation (Calgary), the C.P.E. Permanent Print Collection (Toronto),
Imperial Oil, Dominion Foundries and Steel Ltd., and the Society of
Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers.
