(Marie) Illy Gepe (1903-) was a ceramic artist born in the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the area that later became Czechoslovakia. She and her husband, Herbert Gepe, immigrated to Canada in 1935. Illy Gepe was an honourary member of the Women’s Art Association of Canada in Toronto, offering pottery classes there in 1952, and a friend of Florence Wyle and Frances Loring’s.
Donald J. Gillies (1938-) is a former professor of photography who corresponded for many years with the artist Dennis Burton. Gillies attended Dennis Burton's History of Art course at The Three Schools in Toronto, where he befriended the artist. He joined the Photographic Arts Department of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute in 1968, eventually retiring as Director of the Joint York-Ryerson Graduate Program in Communication and Culture, Ryerson University, in 2003.
The Fairlies were a prominent Canadian family who lived and worked throughout Ontario during the first half of the twentieth century.
Reverend John Fairlie (1844-1919) and his wife Hannah Waldrup Fraser (ca. 1847-1929) came from Scotland to Quebec in 1873, then to Kingston in 1900. They had nine children—four girls and five boys. One of their sons, Matthew Fraser Fairlie (ca. 1883-1944), attended Queens University in Kingston, Ontario. He graduated in 1902 with a Bachelor’s Degree in Mining Engineering and moved to Cobalt, Ontario with his wife, Anne Louise Fitzpatrick (ca. 1881-1961) to work for Kerr-Addison Gold Mines Ltd. during the Silver Rush of 1903. They moved to Toronto in the late 1920s, purchased a house in Forest Hill, and adopted two children: Alan Fraser Fairlie (1927-2001) and Joyce Fairlie (1929-1956). Alan attended both Crescent School and Upper Canada College (ca. 1935-1948), two prestigious all-boys private schools in Toronto. Joyce attended Bishop Strachan School for girls (ca. 1935-?).
After attending the University of Toronto for Radio Broadcasting (1949-?), Alan F. Fairlie started a film company, Monarch Productions Ltd. He was commissioned to produce films for the Canadian Rugby team in Bermuda, the development of Giant’s Tomb in Penetang, Ontario, and various programs for CTV Television Network. He also shot and produced his own films documenting archaeological caves in Yucatan, his travels to Mexico, and footage in various countries throughout Europe. Alan married Snezana Susanne Popovich in 1962. They had two children: LuAnne Fairlie (1963- ) and Matthew Peter Fairlie (1966- ). Alan retired to Salt Spring Island, British Columbia where he lived until his death in 2001.
Pollock Gallery (Toronto, Ont.)
The Pollock Gallery (active 1960–1981), was a commercial art gallery in Toronto established by art dealer, author, art educator and painter Jack Pollock. First located at 205 Elizabeth St in downtown Toronto in 1960, the gallery initially represented Canadian artists, most notably Norval Morrisseau. In 1966, the gallery showed works by the Hungarian-Canadian painter Julius Marosan. Later, works by British and American and other artists were exhibited, including those by David Hockney, Willem de Kooning, Anni Albers and Dieter Roth.
Within a year, the gallery relocated to 201 Elizabeth St (1961–1963), then 599 Markham St (1963–1971, with another site at 604A King St West 1966–1968), 356 Dundas St West (1972–1975, with another site at the Toronto Dominion Centre 1972–1973), and lastly 122 Scollard St in the Yorkville area of Toronto (1975–1982, with another site, 209 Adelaide St East 1980–1983). During its years of activity, the gallery employed Brian A. Marshall Schieder, Philip Ottenbrite (assistant director), Eva Quan, Frank Costin, Laurie Payne (graphic director), Helen Boyd, Renya Onasick (advertising and publicity), Lawrence Hurst (gallery administrator), Stephen Long (librarian) and others. Within months after Jack Pollock became chronically ill, the main gallery officially closed in December, 1981; the Pollock Gallery went into bankruptcy in 1983.
In 1950, the Women’s Committee formed the Junior Women’s Committee to provide mentorship opportunities for younger women. The Junior Women’s Committee provided help to the Women’s Committee with various annual events such as the Men’s Luncheon.
In 1974, the Women’s Committee was renamed the Volunteer Committee and the Junior Women’s Committee renamed the Junior Volunteer Committee in an attempt to be more inclusive and reach out to more members. No other significant changes were made to either Committee otherwise.
The Board of Trustees disbanded both Committees in 1998, and their functions were taken over by departments of paid staff within the Gallery. Another volunteer committee oversaw the work of docents.
The first Educational Committee (later Education Committee) was established in March 1926 and a four-page plan for educational programs presented to Council in May of the same year. Art Classes for children began in 1930 under the tutelage and planning of Arthur Lismer, who was hired in 1927 to oversee art education classes. In 1930, educational programming also included public lectures, musical evenings, and printmaking classes for adults; lectures, talks, and classes for school teachers; free Saturday classes for children; school visits; loan exhibitions (mostly prints and reproductions); and circulation of the slide collection.
Walter Moos was born in Karlsruhe, Germany in 1926. He was educated at the Ecole Supérieure de Commerce in Geneva (graduated 1946) and at the New School for Social Research, New York, from 1948 to 1951. Moos moved to Toronto from New York in 1959, having become acquainted with the city through visits with his brother, an engineer, who lived there. He married Martha Wegmuller in 1962, and had two sons, Michel André and David Alfred. The Moos family has a well-established history as gallery owners. Walter Moos was a founding member of the Art Dealers Association of Canada, and served as its president from 1971 to 1978. He was the chairman of its appraisal committee from 1972 to 1989. He served on the Canadian Eskimo Arts Council from 1972 to 1982 and was the founder and past trustee of the Gershon Iskowitz Foundation. Moos died in Toronto in 2013.
Tess Boudreau Taconis (1919-2007) was a photographer known for her portraits of Canadian artists in the 1960s. Born Mary Theresa Boudreau in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, she grew up in southwestern Ontario. A skilled darkroom technician, she was working in Paris when in 1950 she met and married Kryn Taconis, a photojournalist born in the Netherlands. The couple moved to Amsterdam and then to Canada in 1959, settling in Toronto. Tess Taconis photographed contemporary artists, particularly those associated with the Isaacs Gallery, such as Joyce Wieland, Michael Snow, William Ronald and Graham Coughtry. Tess Boudreau Taconis died in Guelph, Ontario in 2007. Her work is in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada and the Art Gallery of Ontario, among other institutions.