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, grain elevators, and irrigation waterworks along stream and river courses[1].

[1] Mary Joyce, “Previews and Profiles: George Weber,” GalleriesWest, Summer 2005, 24.

George single-handedly introduced fine art serigraphy (Latin term for silkprint - silk screening) to Western Canada. As early as 1948 he lectured at the University of Alberta in 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, Department of Extension. 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 purchased a number of 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),  Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff), C.P.E. Permanent Print Collection (Toronto), Lazard Canada Corporation, Imperial Oil, Dominion Foundries and Steel Ltd., Delta Hotels, Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton), and Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers.

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 immigrated to Canada. George first worked as a wallpaper designer in Toronto; where, in the early 1930’s, he studied composition, color, and commercial silkscreen techniques at the Ontario College of Art. 

In the mid-1930s he moved to Edmonton, where he established his own company Art Signs. 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 Watercolour, the Canadian Graphic Society, the Edmonton Art Club (1935), 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.

Reference:
Ainslie, Patricia and Mary-Beth Laviolette, Alberta Art and Artists.  Calgary: Fifth House, 2007.
Cochran, Bente Roed, Printmaking in Alberta 1945-1985.  Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1989.
Greer, Joan, The Changing Picture, 65 Years of the Edmonton Art Club.  Edmonton: Edmonton Art Club, 1987