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THE WEST COAST SURREALIST GROUP
A Chronology 1965-2010

Introduction

Join the West Coast Surrealists Online

1965-70	1970	1971-75	1976-79
1980-85	1985-90	1991-93	1993-2010

The Artists
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Ladislav Guderna	Ted Kingan	Gregg Simpson	Pnina Granirer
Leo Labelle	Lori Anne Latremouille	Martin Guderna	Davide Pan
Michael Bullock	Robert Davidson	Gordon Payne	Ed Varney

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The west coast, where there is a natural surreality in the landscape, has long been the home of many  artists whose work draws from surrealistic sources. Some have worked together in various combinations and eventually made connections with the Paris- based groups who continued after the death of André Breton in 1966.

The first recorded presence of surrealist art in Vancouver was that of Grace W. Pailthorpe and her husband, Dr. Rueben Mendelev, both psychologists who lived here during the 1940s. Pailthorpe was a member of the British Surrealist Group and both she and her husband practiced automatism in painting and drawing. Together they showed the automatist technique to landscape painter, Jock MacDonald, who experimented with it secretly.

One of the principle writers to concentrate on the work of Canadian surrealists was the late José Pierre, who wrote  L'Univers Surrealiste (editions Somogy, 1983) and a research paper, Surrealism in Canada (University Rabelais de Tours) which included members of the west coast group.
Pierre worked with André Breton, Marcel Duchamp and the late Edouard Jaguer organizing surrealist exhibitions in Europe and the U.S. after WW II. 

The PHASES Movement, created in 1945 by poet and artist, Edouard Jaguer, during the Second World War to try and keep the surrealist
spirit alive has exhibited and published the work of many Vancouver artists in the 1980's and early 90's. Jaguer's work and the other artists of his
PHASES Movement were shown in Vancouver in 1983.

Recognition of west coast surrealism began with the University of British Columbia in the 1973 exhibition, Canadian West Coast Hermetics 
and the 1971 Vancouver School of Collage. The year 1978 saw  members of the West Coast Surrealist Group invited to exhibit in
Surrealism Unlimited, organized by Conroy Maddox at London's Camden Art Centre. In 1979 Natalie Luckyj of Queens University organized
a touring exhibition entitled Other Realities: The Legacy of Surrealism in Canadian Art which toured to the Canadian Cultural Centres in Paris
and London. In the 1980's the movement was acknowledged by Dr. David Burnett in his comprehensive book, Contemporary Canadian Painting.

In 1997, Professor Yves M. Larocque received a doctorate from the Sorbonne for his thesis, Surrealism in English Canada, which had
many references to the West Coast Surrealist Group. Adjudicating the thesis were some of the leading scholars of 20th century art in Europe.
They included: Josée Vovelle,of the Sorbonne, whose other specialities include Dutch and Swedish Surrealism. The second adjudicator
from the Sorbonne was Gerard Monnier, a proponent of diffusionist theory, Michel Remy, an expert on Surrealism in the U.K.
Canadian scholar and an expert on French Canadian automaticism, Patrick Imbert, was also present  from the University of Ottawa.

Experiments in collage begin with Gary Lee Nova, Al Neil, Gregg Simpson and bill bissett. They also collaborated in experimental multi-media work together at the Sound Gallery, Motion Studios, Intermedia and exhibited collages and paintings at The Mandan Ghetto Gallery

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Immense Stone at Baalbeck
collage by Gary Lee Nova, 1968

The 'Classic' period of collage in Vancouver: Lee Nova and Simpson made collages from etchings, influenced by Max Ernst and also made dada/pop style photomontages;  Al Neil made complex, totemic, junk assemblages which evoked Kurt Schwitters; bill bissett continued doing a combination of the mystical and satiric in his photomontages and mixed media work.

Arabian Daze
 collage by Gregg Simpson, 1968

<>Film makers at this time in Vancouver  used techniques like juxtaposition and quick cut editing to achieve a dissociation of the senses. Poets david uu and Gerry Gilbert and Gregg Simpson all made dada-inspired home movies in 8mm while fiImmakers Al Razutis, Dave Rimmer, Al Sens, Gary Lee Nova and others made more elaborate statements combining abstraction with cosmic imagery.

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