Artist

Falk, Gathie

Title

Plaid Shirting (Blue and Yellow Plaid)

Date

2013

Dimensions

242.6cm height x 76.2cm width

Type

painting

Accession Number

2014.18.1

Collection

Permanent Collection

Gift of the artist

Gathie Falk was born in Alexander, Manitoba in 1928. Her parents were German-speaking Mennonites who had fled persecution in Russia. After the loss of her father, the family moved to Winnipeg and then settled in Vancouver in 1947. In the 1950s, Falk studied education at the University of British Columbia and worked as an elementary school teacher for 12 years (including 11 years at Douglas Road Elementary in Burnaby). During this time, Falk also began her formal training in the arts. She took summer classes at UBC and studied drawing and painting with J.A.S. Macdonald. In 1965, Falk left her position as a teacher and decided to pursue a career as a full-time artist. After travelling throughout Europe, Falk returned to Vancouver and began to establish herself as a performance artist and ceramic sculptor. Since 1978, Falk has focused on painting, incorporating a wide variety of surface grounds including canvas, paper and papier mâché objects. Today, Falk’s work is widely represented in galleries across Canada, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Musee d’art contemporain in Montreal, the Burnaby Art Gallery and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.