Regatta No. 1, 1968

Artwork by Jack Chambers consisting of several parts. A realistic black and white illustration of a family with two adults and three small children is in the middle. A strip of photos of a boy is placed to the right, reproduced realistically in the middle and then as a silhouette in adjacent frames. Above and below the photos are scenes of a regatta, with triangular black and white sailboats drawn on a pink background. A blue plastic frame surrounds the artwork overall.

Jack Chambers, Regatta No. 1, 1968, oil and graphite on paper, mounted on Plexiglas, 129.5 x 122.5 cm, Museum London.

This is a richly and literally layered work. Chambers made a number of detailed drawings from newsreel images of the family of a boy lost in a boating accident and sandwiched them between layers of brightly coloured, rigid plastic. We may well ask whether this plastic “painting” is better thought of as collage or as montage. In an unpublished interview with the author Avis Lang, Chambers reported that at this time he felt a “hunger . . . to feel the dimension of things.”

Gallery

Regatta No. 1 - Art Canada