Greg Curnoe was a Canadianpainter known for his concentration on subjects associated with regionalism and London, Ontario. Curnoe is part of the Canadian art movement labeled London Regionalism. He was the driving force behind a regionalist sensibility that, beginning in the 1960s, made London, Ontario, an important centre for artistic production in Canada. While his oeuvre chronicled his own daily experience in a variety of media, it was grounded in twentieth-century art movements, especially Dada, with its emphasis on nihilism and anarchism, Canadian politics, and popular culture. He is remembered for brightly coloured works that often incorporate text to support his strong Canadian patriotism, sometimes expressed as anti-Americanism, as well as his activism in support of Canadian artists.
Early life
Gregory Richard Curnoe was born on 19 November 1936, at Victoria Hospital in London, Ontario. He grew up with his parents, Nellie Olive and Gordon Charles Curnoe; his brother, Glen ; and his sister, Lynda, in a house built for the family by his grandfather. For most of his life, Curnoe lived within five kilometres of this home in Southwestern Ontario, a peninsula surrounded by water and the United States. Curnoe attended H. B. Beal Secondary School and the Doon School of Art before attending the Ontario College of Art, where he failed his final year.
Career
Returning to London, Ontario, Curnoe began to work in the studio. He found meaning in popular culture and his own cultural roots that addressed the disillusion he felt with established culture after leaving art school. He founded Region magazine in 1961 and Region Gallery in 1962. He co-founded the Canadian noise band the Nihilist Spasm Band in 1965. In 1968, Curnoe, Jack Chambers and John Boyle co-founded Canadian Artists' Representation to serve as a union for artists in Canada. Curnoe co-founded the Forest City Gallery, an artist-run centre, in 1973. He represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1976 and was the subject of a retrospective exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1981, which subsequently toured across Canada. Curnoe was an avid cyclist, and his handbuilt Mariposa bicycles were a frequent subject of his work. While on a club ride with the London Centennial Wheelers, Curnoe was killed by a distracted driver in a pickup truck that plowed into the group of 12 cyclists on Highway 2, just outside Delaware, Ontario. He was killed and six others were seriously injured and taken to hospital. The driver was charged with four-counts of dangerous driving causing bodily harm, and one-count of dangerous driving causing death. The driver was eventually acquitted of all charges on 13 January 1994.
