Irene Hoffar Reid


Lillian Irene Hoffar Reid was a Canadian painter. She was in the first graduating class, June 1929, at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art. She taught at the Vancouver School of Art from 1933 to 1937.

Biography

Reid was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1908. She left King George High School early to attend the newly opened Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts. There she was trained by Frederick Varley, Charles H. Scott and Jock Macdonald, and learned about the Group of Seven. Reid is quoted saying: "In 1928, at the Pacific National Exhibition, I viewed paintings by the Group of Seven. I saw a large painting of a mountain by Lawren Harris and I felt that I had never seen a mountain before. I was influenced by the Group and began to paint larger and more boldly designed canvases".
In 1929, she and 11 of her classmates were the VSDAA's first graduating class. Following her graduation, she helped form PASOVAS, Pioneer Art Students of the Vancouver Art School, which put on annual exhibits.
In 1933, she married Nevile Reid and later had two children, Linda and Catherine.
Artist B.C. Binning was also a teacher at VSDAA, and designed a studio at Reid's house in West Vancouver, which was built between 1935 and 1936 in West Vancouver.
Reid worked in oils until the lead in the paint started to cause health problems, and later focused on pastels and watercolours. The subject matter of her paintings shifted as she had children and domestic life took up more of her time. Her works became smaller, and she would sketch what was around her instead of taking sketching trips to places like North Vancouver Indian Reservation, Burrard Street Bridge squatters' huts or the shoreline around Vancouver. She was the president of the B.C. Society of Artists in the 1960s.
Reid and her graduating class were all awarded honorary diplomas in 1989 from the Emily Carr College of Art and Design.
Like many Canadian women in her generation, Reid's work is often overlooked, although she was a significant member of the Vancouver art community.

Teaching

Reid returned to the Vancouver School of Art to teach painting between 1933 and 1938.

Awards

1929: Vancouver Art Gallery with the B.C. Society of Artists
1930: Pasovas Art Club Exhibition, British Columbia Art League—mural Sun Bathers
1931: Annual Exhibition of Canadian Art, National Gallery, Ottawa—Mural Decoration
1932: Pasovas Art Club Exhibition, Vancouver Art Gallery
1933: Vancouver Art Gallery B.C. Artists Annual
1934: Twentieth Annual Exhibition of Northwest Artists, Seattle Art Museum, Volunteer Park
1957: The Winnipeg Exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery
1958: 100 Years of B.C. Art at the Vancouver Art Gallery
1961: Canadian Group of Painters at the Vancouver Art Gallery
1962: Canadian Group of Painters at London Public Library & Art Museum
1964: Canadian Group of Painters at the Art Gallery of Hamilton and the Confederation Art Gallery and Museum, Charlottetown, P.E.I
1969: Marpole Art Gallery, Vancouver—exhibited with Grace Melvin
1974: Studio Gallery, West Vancouver
1978: Studio Gallery, West Vancouver
1979: Studio Gallery, West Vancouver
1980: Vancouver School of Art Early Years, 1925-1939, Charles Scott Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art, Vancouver
1982: B.C. Provincial Exhibition at Robson Square, Vancouver
1983: Vancouver: Art and Artists 1931-1983, Vancouver Art Gallery
1984: Richmond Interpretations : Richmond Art Gallery, Richmond, B.C.
1987: First Class: Four Graduates from the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, 1929: The Floating Curatorial Gallery, Women in Focus, Vancouver, B.C.
1988: B.C. Artist, Vancouver Art Gallery
1989: Heffel Gallery Limited, Vancouver, B.C.
1995: Four Women, Vancouver Art Gallery
2015: Melancholy Bay: Images of English Bay, Burrard Inlet and Howe Sound from the Collection, Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery
2019-2020: Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life: Emily Carr and her Contemporaries, Vancouver Art Gallery

Collections