Sunday, June 05, 2005

Peggy Nicole

Today I saw a documentary about the life of the Canadian painter Peggy Nicole (1904-1949). The documentary started very powerful, then drained little by little, lost its intuitive spirit, fell into common rules of story telling. Apart from that, the subject matter was amazing. I was stunned by the sad and short life of this vigorouse, unconventional, and talented painter. Her paintings were so energetic and powerful. She had to fight with her close-minded mother who once burnt her paintings. She lived a Bohemian life depite her conservative environment. She lived poor and hungry and got hardly recognized for her art. However, she never stopped painting even when she couldn't afford buying colors. She was sort of a natural artist and hardly ever made money or gained recognition out of her amazing work. You could see some of her work at AGO and Natioanl Art Gallery of Ottawa.
In another level the documentary was reflecting the boring and relatively limited life that existed in Canada at the time. A kind of village mentality that still exists in small Canadian towns and cities. Without understanding this mentality we can not understand Canadian art, history and even democracy.

3 comments:

Solivan said...

It was a nice movie.

Jeffrey J. Boron said...

I also watched the film and was deeply moved by it. I felt sad that so little of her legacy is known to most Canadians. Such wonderful work. I plan to learn more about her and her work.

Jeffrey

Anonymous said...

what is it called? where can i find it?