ian wallace
maplewood mudflats diptych
(the houses of helen simpson and paul spong
& the sculptures of tom burrows)

2 Gelatin silve prints,1970 / 2008
Images: 50.8 cm x 61 cm
Edition 1/2
Image courtesy the artist and Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver

Estimate: $25,000

Ian Wallace’s (b. 1943) contribution to the international reputation of Vancouver as a leading centre of contemporary art is unmistakable, and his prolific body of work and critical writings hold a central place in the art history of the last 40 years. Widely recognized abroad, Wallace has chosen to locate his art practice and teaching career in Vancouver, from his education at the University of British Columbia, to the present. Often incorporating aspects of photography, Wallace’s works explore the expressive possibilities of montage and the narrative legacy of historical painting. He was one of the first artists to shift the strategies of conceptual art into a new kind of modern pictorial language. Ever conscious of the rhetoric of photography and its relationship to painting, he is widely recognized as an innovator in the medium. Maplewood Mudflats Ditpych is an early example of Wallace’s distinctive approach to photographing landscapes. This scene of an important cultural site reveals his interest in picturing a utopic westcoast pastoral that was developed in later works.

Wallace has exhibited widely since the late 1960s with many major museum exhibitions and publications. His works are in the most distinguished collections worldwide. This year alone he will exhibit at the Generali Foundation in Vienna and will have simultaneous survey exhibitions in Europe at the Kunsthalle Zurich, Witte de With and the Kunstverein fur die Rheinlande und Westfalen. He will have a solo exhibition at Hauser and Wirth in London in 2009 and a retrospective at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 2011. Wallace is represented by Catriona Jeffries Gallery, Vancouver, and Yvon Lambert Gallery, New York and Paris.