Series 6 - Studio work, exhibitions and performances

2.64 m of textual and graphic records

This series begins with Frederick Urban’s formative years as an artist when he created a large number of exhibits and participated in some performance pieces, primarily in Halifax and New York City. For some of these, he drew on his personal experiences. Two examples are An Acadian genealogy (April 1977), inspired by his family roots in the Acadian region of Brunswick, and Monk (July 1977) by his training as a novice in 1961-1962.

The files cover his years at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (1976-1977), continue through his post-graduate studies at the Whitney Museum of American Art, his interest in the art and architecture of Italy (spurred on by his meeting Giuseppe Panza di Biumo), and several installations connected to Canadian architecture and architectural history. The last exhibition, ‘The place of work’, accompanied the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada’s annual conference in Winnipeg in 1989. The arrangement is primarily chronological.

The series ends with several files on performance pieces, the most significant being Anne Wilson and her Butler’s lives of the saints, which was performed both in Halifax and New York City, and an oversized folder of posters for exhibitions and performance pieces collected by Urban.

Some of the exhibitions and performance pieces contain correspondence, drawings and sketches, photographs and/or slides. A number are represented by a combination of photographs and slides or slides alone, with no textual accompaniment. There are also several oversized folders of sketches and drawings for of posters for exhibitions and performance pieces with which Urban was involved and one of posters for events which he may have attended but to which he did not contribute.

Open