Fonds LA.SC093 - John Boyle fonds

Identity area

Reference code

LA.SC093

Title

John Boyle fonds

Date(s)

  • [ca. 1960]-2000 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

2.6 m of textual records and graphic material 30 works on paper (prints and drawings) 24 posters 4 multiples 2 compact discs 1 baked porcelain panel

Context area

Name of creator

(1941-)

Biographical history

John Bernard Boyle (1941- ) is an artist, activist, curator and writer who has lived and worked in St. Catharines, London, Elsinore, and Peterborough, Ontario. He married Janet Perlman, with whom he has one daughter, Emily. Boyle was educated at London Teachers’ College and the University of Western Ontario, and is self-taught as a painter. He taught elementary school in St. Catharines intermittently between 1962 and 1968. In 1974 he moved with his family to a converted church in Elsinore, Ontario (near Owen Sound), where he had his studio until 2002. He is currently based in Peterborough. Boyle began to exhibit his paintings in 1964, the same year he was inspired by meeting London artists including Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe. In 1966 controversy arose at the London Public Library and Art Museum over Boyle’s exhibited piece Seated Nude. Boyle was an early participant in London’s 20/20 Gallery. In 1972 he designed sets for the play Buffalo Jump at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto; that same year he curated the first Billboard Show in St. Catharines. In 1980 Boyle completed the mural Our Knell for Queen Subway Station, Toronto. From 1973 through the 1990s, Boyle exhibited regularly at Nancy Poole’s Studio, Toronto. A key figure among the artist activists who established professional representation and rights for artists in the early 1970s, Boyle was the founding spokesperson of Canadian Artists Representation Ontario (CARO) in 1971. In 1970 he served as the first president of the Niagara Artists Co-operative (later Company). Boyle was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1975-1977. Boyle has written extensively in journals including 20 Cents Magazine, Parachute, and Twelve Mile Creek. His regular column “According to Boyle” in CAROT (1975-78) dealt with challenges facing artists. Boyle has written three novels, No Angel Came (1995); and the unpublished The Gergovnians and The Peregrinations and Permutations of a Young Artist in Canada. His illustration and book design work includes The Port Dalhousie Stories by Dennis Tourbin (1987), as well as several magazine articles and book jackets. He initiated the discipline of “Canadology” in 1989 to record the social customs of the country. Boyle is a founding member (since 1965) and principal kazooist of The Nihilist Spasm Band. His work is represented in numerous Canadian collections, including the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Archival history

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Fonds was acquired from the creator in 2003.

Content and structure area

Scope and content

Fonds consists of the personal and professional records of John Boyle, including documentation of his work as an artist and his writing projects. Fonds includes documentation of Boyle’s involvement with Canadian Artists’ Representation Ontario, the Niagara Artists’ Company, and the Nihilist Spasm Band. Fonds is comprised of the following series: Exhibition and project files Nihilist Spasm Band files Canadian Artists’ Representation Ontario files Niagara Artists’ Company files Studio business files Manuscript writings Inventories of art works Adjunct art works Posters Financial records Published writings and illustrations

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

Further accruals are expected.

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Open

Conditions governing reproduction

Copyright is held by the creator. Copyright belonging to other parties, such as that of photographs, may still rest with the creator(s) of these items. It is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain permission to publish any part of the fonds.

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Notes area

Note

Some material is in French and Japanese.

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Dates of creation revision deletion

Prepared by Amy Marshall, 2003.Modified by Sylvia Lassam, 2006
Uploaded and adapted by Nirvana Chainani, 2019.

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