Carol Hoorn Fraser
Encyclopedia
Carol Hoorn Fraser was an American-born figurative artist who worked for thirty years in Nova Scotia, Canada, with a commitment to life values, a distrust of what George Orwell
called smelly little orthodoxies, and a belief in craftsmanship as the best enabler of creative individuation.
Carol Hoorn Fraser was born on September 5, 1930, in Depression-era Superior, Wisconsin. Her father, Arvid Hoorn, was a Swedish-American Lutheran pastor who built the family home and three churches with his own hands. Her mother, Hazel, from an English tradition, did exquisite needlework, had an M.A. in Home Economics, and supported the family after Rev. Hoorn died of cancer in 1945.
Carol attended Gustavus Adolphus College
in Minnesota, graduating in 1951 with a major in chemistry and biology and a minor in art and literature. After a year as a research chemist at Archer Daniels Midland in St. Paul, she audited theology lectures at the University of Göttingen, Germany (1952–53), and then worked for a year as a nurse's aide in the cancer recovery ward at the University Hospital in Minneapolis. During this time she took extension classes and earned enough credits to be accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Minnesota
, from which she graduated in 1959 with a minor in Philosophy and a 125-page thesis on "The Human Image in Contemporary Painting". She was Lorenz Eitner’s course assistant and took classes from Malcolm Myers, John Hospers, and Allen Tate, among others. Van Gogh and Käthe Kollwitz were particular heroes of hers. She exhibited widely in the Twin Cities.
She married Ph.D. student John Fraser
in 1956 and, in 1961, when he accepted a job in the Dalhousie University
English Department, moved with him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she was to spend the rest of her life, with time in Provence and Mexico. In 1977 she developed asthma and hyper-allergic sensitivities because of urea formaldehyde foam insulation. Her career as an artist spanned more than thirty years. During this time she produced a large body of figurative work using a variety of media. In the later 1960s she moved away from a modified Expressionism to a hard-edged organicism with ongoing ecological themes. In the 1980s she did a series of over a hundred strong-hued symbolical watercolours. She was an avid gardener.
From 1964 to 1969 she taught drawing part-time at the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. During the Seventies she curated a show of Expressionist prints and was Acting Director of the Dalhousie University Art Gallery for a year, curating the Fourth Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition in 1979. She also did free-lance public lecturing and in the Eighties did some art-reviewing for ArtsAtlantic. She believed in clarity in art-discourse, and practiced it herself. She died at her home in Halifax on April 3, 1991, of cancer of the lungs. A Frida Kahlo
calendar was on the wall beside her bed.
; Beaverbrook Art Gallery
; Canada Council Art Bank; Concordia University; Confederation Centre Art Gallery; Dalhousie University Art Gallery; Department of External Affairs, Ottawa; Howe International, Toronto; Mount Allison University Art Gallery; Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery
, Smithsonian Institution; National Gallery of Canada
; Norcen Energy Corporation, Toronto; Province of Nova Scotia Art Bank; Teleglobe Canada, Inc., Montreal; Walker Art Center
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
called smelly little orthodoxies, and a belief in craftsmanship as the best enabler of creative individuation.
Biographical Details
Carol attended Gustavus Adolphus College
Gustavus Adolphus College
Gustavus Adolphus College is a private liberal arts college affiliated with the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America located in St. Peter, Minnesota, United States. A coeducational, four-year, residential institution, it was founded in 1862 by Swedish Americans. To this day the school is firmly...
in Minnesota, graduating in 1951 with a major in chemistry and biology and a minor in art and literature. After a year as a research chemist at Archer Daniels Midland in St. Paul, she audited theology lectures at the University of Göttingen, Germany (1952–53), and then worked for a year as a nurse's aide in the cancer recovery ward at the University Hospital in Minneapolis. During this time she took extension classes and earned enough credits to be accepted into the Master of Fine Arts program at the University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
The University of Minnesota, Twin Cities is a public research university located in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, United States. It is the oldest and largest part of the University of Minnesota system and has the fourth-largest main campus student body in the United States, with 52,557...
, from which she graduated in 1959 with a minor in Philosophy and a 125-page thesis on "The Human Image in Contemporary Painting". She was Lorenz Eitner’s course assistant and took classes from Malcolm Myers, John Hospers, and Allen Tate, among others. Van Gogh and Käthe Kollwitz were particular heroes of hers. She exhibited widely in the Twin Cities.
She married Ph.D. student John Fraser
John Fraser (critic)
John Fraser is a critic, literary theorist, and cultural analyst, who has been concerned in a variety of ways with relationships between energy and order.-Biographical Details:Fraser was born in Church End Finchley, North London, in 1928...
in 1956 and, in 1961, when he accepted a job in the Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University
Dalhousie University is a public research university located in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. The university comprises eleven faculties including Schulich School of Law and Dalhousie University Faculty of Medicine. It also includes the faculties of architecture, planning and engineering located at...
English Department, moved with him to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where she was to spend the rest of her life, with time in Provence and Mexico. In 1977 she developed asthma and hyper-allergic sensitivities because of urea formaldehyde foam insulation. Her career as an artist spanned more than thirty years. During this time she produced a large body of figurative work using a variety of media. In the later 1960s she moved away from a modified Expressionism to a hard-edged organicism with ongoing ecological themes. In the 1980s she did a series of over a hundred strong-hued symbolical watercolours. She was an avid gardener.
From 1964 to 1969 she taught drawing part-time at the School of Architecture at the Technical University of Nova Scotia. During the Seventies she curated a show of Expressionist prints and was Acting Director of the Dalhousie University Art Gallery for a year, curating the Fourth Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition in 1979. She also did free-lance public lecturing and in the Eighties did some art-reviewing for ArtsAtlantic. She believed in clarity in art-discourse, and practiced it herself. She died at her home in Halifax on April 3, 1991, of cancer of the lungs. A Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo
Frida Kahlo de Rivera was a Mexican painter, born in Coyoacán, and perhaps best known for her self-portraits....
calendar was on the wall beside her bed.
Selected Publications: by the artist
- The Expressionist Image, exhibition catalogue with introductory essay and descriptive commentary, Mount Saint Vincent Art Gallery, 1978.
- The 4th Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition, catalogue, Dalhousie Art Gallery, 1979.
- “Kokoschka; Knight-Errant of 20th-Century Painting,” memorial lecture, Dalhousie University Art Gallery, 1980.; printed in Article, Eye Level Gallery (Halifax), May 1980.
- “Tim Zuck—Paintings,” (exhibition review), ArtsAtlantic, 11, Spring 1981.
- “Actual Size—The Seventh Dalhousie Drawing Exhibition,” (review article), ArtsAtlantic, 20, Summer 1984.
- "Rockwell Kent: The Newfoundland Work," (review article), ArtsAtlantic, no. 29, Summer/Fall 1987.
Selected Awards and Honours
- Elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of ArtsRoyal Canadian Academy of ArtsThe Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is a Canadian arts-related institution founded in 1880, under the patronage of the Governor General of Canada, Sir John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, the Marquess of Lorne. Canadian landscape painter Homer Watson was a member and president of the Academy...
, 1976.
- Included in Who's Who in American ArtWho's Who in American ArtWho's Who in American Art is a biographical hardcover directory of noteworthy individuals in the visual arts community in the United States, published by Marquis Who's Who, formerly by R.R. Bowker Publishing. The directory has also listed some individuals from Canada and Mexico, plus some American...
, 1977.
- Included in Dictionary of International Biography, 1979.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
- Penthouse Gallery, Montreal, 1964
- APAC Travelling Exhibition 1965–7
- Wells Gallery, Ottawa, 1967
- ’Carol Fraser; Paintings and Drawings, 1967-1977’, travelling exhibition, Dalhousie University, 1977-78.
- Dalhousie University Art Gallery; Beaverbrook Art Gallery; Confederation Centre Art Gallery; Memorial Art Gallery; Burnaby Art Gallery; Southern Alberta University Art Gallery; Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery; Musée de Quebec.
- Dresden Galleries, Halifax, 1983
- Studio 21, Halifax, 1985–7–8–90
- 'Drawings by Carol Fraser', Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1987-88.
- Beaverbrook Art Gallery; Saint Mary's University Art Gallery; Confederation Centre Art Gallery; Memorial University Art Gallery; London Regional Art Gallery; Robert McLaughlin Art Gallery.
- ‘A Visionary Gaze; In Memoriam Carol Hoorn Fraser’, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, 1993–94
- Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, Beaverbrook Art Gallery
- ‘Carol Hoorn Fraser: Unfinished Business’, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 2001
Selected Group Exhibitions
- American Federation of Art Traveling International Exhibition, 1955–58
- University of Minnesota Gallery, Minneapolis, 1956–7–8–9–60
- Walker Art Center Biennials 1956, 1958 (first prize and purchase award, 1958).
- UNESCO International Travelling Show, 1958-59.
- Minneapolis Institute of Art, Spring Biennial (first prize painting), 1959.
- ‘Sixteen Minnesota Artists’, Walker Art Center (purchse award), 1960
- National Gallery of Canada Biennials, Ottawa, 1962–3–4.
- ‘Canadian Watercolours, Drawings and Prints’, National Gallery, 1964
- Atlantic Pavilion, Expo ’67, Montreal, 1967
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Spring Show, 1968.
- New Talent Festival, Midtown Galleries, New York, 1974
- Nova Scotia Pavilion, Montreal Olympics, Montreal, 1976
- ‘Painting Now’, Agnes Etherington Art CentreAgnes Etherington Art CentreThe Agnes Etherington Art Centre is in Kingston, Ontario, Canada and is operated by Queen's University. The centre holds 12-15 exhibitions annually, as well as artists' talks and performances, public lectures, symposia, workshops, and school and family programs...
, Kingston, 1976–7 - Other Realities; the Legacy of Surrealism in Canadian Art’, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, 1978
Selected Public Collections
Acadia University Art Gallery; Air Canada; Art Gallery of Nova ScotiaArt Gallery of Nova Scotia
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is the provincial art gallery for the province of Nova Scotia. It is located in the central downtown region of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada with a branch gallery in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia....
; Beaverbrook Art Gallery
Beaverbrook Art Gallery
The Beaverbrook Art Gallery is a small art gallery on the southwest bank of the Saint John River at the edge of the central business district of Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada...
; Canada Council Art Bank; Concordia University; Confederation Centre Art Gallery; Dalhousie University Art Gallery; Department of External Affairs, Ottawa; Howe International, Toronto; Mount Allison University Art Gallery; Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery; National Portrait Gallery
National Portrait Gallery (United States)
The National Portrait Gallery is an art gallery in Washington, D.C., administered by the Smithsonian Institution. Its collections focus on images of famous individual Americans.-Building:...
, Smithsonian Institution; National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
; Norcen Energy Corporation, Toronto; Province of Nova Scotia Art Bank; Teleglobe Canada, Inc., Montreal; Walker Art Center
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is a contemporary art center in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. The Walker is considered one of the nation's "big five" museums for modern art along with the Museum of Modern Art, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Guggenheim Museum and the Hirshhorn...
Selected References
- ‘Artscope—Carol Fraser’, half-hour CBC TV program, producer-director Janet Smith, 1984
- Barry, Philippa, 'Interview with Carol Fraser,' ArtsAtlantic, no.25, Spring, 1986, pp. 33–35.
- Drawings by Carol Fraser 1948–1986, introd. Ian G. Lumsden, fore. Mimi Cazort, Fredericton, N. B., Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1986.
- Kelly, Gemey. 'Carol Fraser (1930-1991),' ArtsAtlantic, no.41, 1991.
- Lumsden, Ian G. 'The First Decade,' Charlottetown: Confederation Centre Art Gallery, 1975.
- MacLachlan, Mary E. Carol Fraser: Paintings and Drawings: 1967-1977, Halifax: Dalhousie Art Gallery, 1977.
- Drawings by Carol Fraser 1948–1986, introd. Ian G. Lumsden, fore. Mimi Cazort, Fredericton, N. B., Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1986.
- Riordan, Bernard. Nova Scotia Art Bank. Halifax: Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, 1983.
- A Visionary Gaze: In Memoriam Carol Hoorn Fraser 1930–1991, Leighton Davis and John Fraser, Saint Mary’s University Art Gallery, 1993
- Walker Art Center. 1958 Biennial Paintings Prints Sculpture, Minneapolis: Walker Art Center, 1958.
- Wiseman, Ian. 'Carol Fraser; the Triumph of Art over Allergy' Cities magazine, 1985.