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Artist Database
NICOLL, Marion
- Born
- Calgary, Alberta, 1909
- Died
- Calgary, Alberta, 1985
- Biography synopsis
- Marion Florence Nicoll (nee Mackay) was born in Calgary, Alberta. In high school, she took extra curricular painting classes at St. Joseph’s Convent, Red Deer, Alberta (1925-1926). Although she began studies at the Ontario College of Art, she was unable to finish her program due to illness. She then studied under A.C. Leighton at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art, Calgary (1929-1932) and she also attended the summer school (now known as the Banff School of Fine Arts) under the same professor. From 1937 to 1938 she studied figure painting at the Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, England, under Duncan Grant. In 1957, she studied under Will Barnet at the Emma Lake Seminar. From 1958 to 1959 she attended the Art Students League in New York. For thirty years, she taught at Calgary’s Provincial Institute of Technology and Art. She also gave classes at the summer school of the University of Alberta (1937-1938); extension classes (1946-1948); Banff School of Fine Arts (1946); the Cultural Development Board, Government of Alberta (1948-1949). Nicoll was the first woman artist from Alberta to be accepted to the Royal Canadian Academy. She received various awards, including a Canada Council grant in 1958, a senior fellowship in 1966 and six honour certificates from the Royal Drawing Society, London, England, for teaching. She held several solo exhibitions, including at the Alberta College of Art (1959); Bowness Town Hall, Alberta (1960-1965); Studio 61, Edmonton, Alberta (1961); Focus, Edmonton (1962, 1963, 1964) Upstairs Gallery, Toronto (1963); Yellow Door Gallery, Winnipeg (1964), among others. She is represented in the following collections: Winnipeg Art Gallery, Memorial University, Newfoundland.; University of Alberta; Edmonton Museum, Poole Collection, Edmonton.
- Media used
- Painting
- Education
- Ontario College of Art & Design (formerly Ontario School of Art), 1926 - 1928
- Provincial Institute of Art and Technology, Calgary, Alberta, ? - 1933 (under A.C. Leighton)
- Emma Lake - University of Saskatchewan Art School, 1957 - ? (under Summer School - Will Barnett)
- Art Students' League, New York, 1958 - 1959 (under Barnett Newman)
- Central School of Arts and Crafts, London, 1937 - 1938
- Memberships
- Alberta Society of Artists
- Calgary Group
- Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
- File & Archive locations
- Vancouver Public Library, BC - Fine Arts and History Department
- Alberta Culture and Community Spirit - Arts Branch
- Art Gallery of Ontario - Edward P. Taylor Research Library and Archives
- Calgary Public Library, AB - Arts Department
- Edmonton Art Gallery, AB - Library
- London Public Library, ON
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts / Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, QC
- Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, QC - Media Centre
- National Gallery of Canada, ON - Library and Archives
- University of Calgary Library, AB
- Vancouver Art Gallery, BC - Library
- Winnipeg Art Gallery, MA - Clara Lander Library
- Canadian Women Artists History Initiative Documentation Centre, QC
- Glenbow Archives, AB - Main Catalogue
- Museum of Modern Art, NY
- Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, AB - Archives & Library
- BIBLIOGRAPHY
Writings about- “Calgary Woman Masters Ancient Wax-Painting Art.” Gazette (Montreal) 30 Dec. 1957
- “Canada Council Fellowships – 2 Calgary Artists Win Awards.” Calgary Herald 26 Apr. 1966
- Alberta Art Foundation. Spaces and Places: Eight Decades of Landscape Painting in Alberta Edmonton, Alberta: Alberta Art Foundation, 1986
http://archive.org/details/spacesplaces1986/page/n1/mode/2up - Armstrong, Christopher and H.V. Nelles. The Painted Valley: Artists Along Alberta's Bow River, 1845-2000 Calgary, Alberta: University of Calgary Press, 2007
- Barnhouse, Dorothy. “Exhibit by Nichol Last For Gallery.” Edmonton Journal 19 Oct. 1963
- C. G. P. “Clement Greenberg’s View of Art on the Prairies.” Canadian Art 20.2 (Mar-Apr. 1963)
- Cochran, Bente Roed. Printmaking in Alberta 1945-1985 Edmonton: University of Alberta Press, 1989
- Cochran, Bente Roed. "Paper the only thing these Works share." Edmonton Journal 17 Mar. 1979
- Davis, Ann and Elizabeth Herbert. Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2013
- Flaherty, Adeleine. “Life And Paintings Synonymous For Calgary Artist-Teacher.” Calgary Herald 27 Jan. 1965
- Flood, Sandra. Canadian Craft and Museum Practice, 1900-1950 Hull: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 2001
- Greenfield, Valerie. Founders of the Alberta College of Art: October 24-November 19, 1986 Calgary: Alberta College of Art Gallery, 1986
- Harper, J. Russell. Painting in Canada: A History Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1966, 2nd edition 1977
- Jackson, Christopher. Marion NIcoll: Art and Influences Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1986
- Joyner, J. Brooks. Marion Nicoll, R.C.A. Calgary: Masters Gallery, 1979
- Klingle, Frances H. Under the Chinook Arch the Influence of the Group of Seven on Alberta Landscape Painting between 1920 and 1960 Edmonton, Alberta: University of Alberta (Canada), M.A. thesis, 1985
- LaViolette, Mary-Beth. Alberta Mistresses of the Modern, 1935-1975 Edmonton: Art Gallery of Alberta, 2012
- MacDonald, Colin S. The Dictionary of Canadian Artists. (Volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker) Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2009
- Mastin, Catharine. Marion Nicoll: Life & Work Toronto, Ontario: Art Canada Institute: Institut de l'art canadien, 2022
http://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/marion-nicoll/ - Mastin, Catharine. "Marion Nicoll: An Alberta Modern." CWAHI Conference 2021 Toronto, Ontario: 2021.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ME7ObhntE_Y - Mastin, Catharine Margaret. Beyond "the Artist's Wife": Women, Artist-Couple Marriage and the Exhibition Experience in Postwar Canada Edmonton: University of Alberta, 2012
- Mastin, Catharine Margaret. Beyond "the Artist's Wife": Women, Artist-Couple Marriage and the Exhibition Experience in Postwar Canada Edmonton: University of Alberta, 2012
http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.item?id=NR89628&op=pdf&app=Library&oclc_number=1019484062 - McMullen, W.B. Alberta Art: Works from The Alberta Art Foundation Edmonton: Alberta Art Foundation, 1975
- Nasgaard, Roald. Abstract Painting in Canada Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 2008
- Neesham, Robin. “Art Show Features Boldness Of Nicoll’s Abstract Works.” Calgary Herald 10 Dec. 1963
- Nicoll, Jim. Paintings and Poetry Calgary: Glenbow-Alberta Institute, 1977
- O'Brian, John, et al. The Flat Side of the Landscape: The Emma Lake Artists' Workshops Saskatoon, Sask: Mendel Art Gallery, 1989., 1989
- Pashak, Natasha. Almost Outnumbered: the Role of Alberta in the Life and Work of Marion Nicoll. Montreal: Concordia University MA thesis, 2010
- Reference Division, McPherson Library, compilers. Creative Canada: A Biographical Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Creative and Performing Arts Toronto: University of Toronto Press, University of Victoria, 1971
- Reichwein, P. and K. Wall. Uplift: Visual Culture at the Banff School of Fine Arts Banff: Banff School of Fine Arts, 2020
- Reid, Dennis. A Concise History of Canadian Painting Toronto: Oxford University Press, 1973
- Salahub, Jennifer. ""A Lot of Heifer-dust": Alberta Maverick Marion Nicoll and Abstract Art." Bucking Conservatism: Alternative Stories of Alberta from the 1960s and the 1970s Athabasca, Alberta: Athabasca University Press, 2021.
- Simpson, Jim. "Variety in Form highlights Exhibition: Exhibition by Women Artists." Edmonton Journal 17 Jan. 1979
- Townshend, Nancy. A History of Art in Alberta, 1905-1970 Calgary, Alberta: Bayeux, 2005
- Zimon, Kathy E. Alberta Society of Artists: The First Seventy Years Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2000
