Title

Bay Bébé II

Artist

Fafard, Joe

Date

2012

Medium

bronze

Type

sculpture

Dimensions

109.2 height x 22.8 width

Owner

City of Burnaby

Accession Number

PA2018.2

Location

Civic Square (Bob Prittie Library), Metrotown

Category

City of Burnaby Public Art Collection

Collection

Public Art

Lat/Long

49.22765,-123.0067

View in Google Maps

http://www.google.com/maps?q=49.22765,-123.0067

The artwork Bay Bébé II is a life-size figurative sculpture of a foal. Intended to share a view of the history and culture of settler Canada, the figure refers to rural life and the relationships between people and animals. Domesticated animals and humans are considered by this artist to be interlinked at the deepest levels of survival. Horses have played an integral part of farm life, which has an important resonance to Burnaby area agricultural history. Joe Fafard expresses this symbiotic relationship that exists between animals and the people of his home province, Saskatchewan. Fafard is one of a handful of Saskatchewan artists that found themselves outside contemporary aesthetic standards in the Sixties, but whose work has nonetheless made a lasting impact. Bay Bébé II figures his commitment to create artwork with immediate and accessible sources.

Nationally and internationally acclaimed artist, Joe Fafard, was born September 2, 1942 to French-Canadian parents in the small agricultural community of Ste. Marthe, Saskatchewan. He attended the University of Manitoba (BFA 1966) and Pennsylvania State University (MFA 1968). He was at the University of Saskatchewan, Regina from 1968 – 1974 and visiting lecturer at the University of California at Davis in 1980-1981. Joe Fafard is a distinguished full-time artist and sculptor who currently resides on an acreage near Lumsden, Saskatchewan. Mr. Fafard is one of Canada’s leading professional visual artists and has exhibitions of a wide variety of work in galleries and museums across the country and around the world, including the United States, Great Britain, France and Japan. He is widely recognized as being at the forefront of his art, and his outstanding contributions to the arts have significantly raised the profile of both Saskatchewan and Canada on the national stage. He was named an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1981; awarded the Architectural Institute of Canada Allied Arts Award in 1987; received an honorary degree from the University of Regina in 1989, and from the University of Manitoba in 2007; received the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2002; received the National Prix Montfort in 2003; received the Lieutenant Governor’s Saskatchewan Centennial Medal for the Arts in 2005; was named CTV Citizen of the Year in 2006; and the Saskatchewan Arts Board Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Joe Fafard also received his third honorary doctorate degree from the University of Saskatchewan in June of 2012.