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RIP, Alex Colville
Jul. 17th, 2013 07:42 pmI grew up around the campus of Mount Allison University, the school he'd attended, and consequently was exposed from an early age to his paintings, mainly in the form of murals in the university buildings. My brother commented today that he couldn't find an image of the Colville mural in the Mt. A gymnasium building, but that if he saw it he'd be able to smell the chlorine from the pool. I suppose in a way he was the Canadian Magritte -- not exactly, but there was something of the same quality of the strange in the everyday.
An interview with his son today reminded me of those paintings, in a way, and why not -- Colville's family were often his models. It suggests to me that the Colville family was one where genuine affection was conveyed not in spite of, but through, a certain formality:
“He managed to maintain a high quality of life including reading and conversation and so on until really a few days of the end. As recently as Friday at noontime, he was lying in bed and he said to me when I came into the room, ‘It seems that everyone around here is worried about my condition, but I really feel quite well.’ That was really the last conversation I had with him and we shook hands.”
An interview with his son today reminded me of those paintings, in a way, and why not -- Colville's family were often his models. It suggests to me that the Colville family was one where genuine affection was conveyed not in spite of, but through, a certain formality:
“He managed to maintain a high quality of life including reading and conversation and so on until really a few days of the end. As recently as Friday at noontime, he was lying in bed and he said to me when I came into the room, ‘It seems that everyone around here is worried about my condition, but I really feel quite well.’ That was really the last conversation I had with him and we shook hands.”
