Jack Chambers
Encyclopedia
- For the Australian entertainer, see Jack Chambers (entertainer)Jack Chambers (entertainer)Jack Chambers is a dancer, singer, actor & choreographer, from Brisbane Australia. Jack is best known as Australia's Favourite Dancer.-Early life:...
.
John "Jack" Chambers (March 25, 1931–April 13, 1978) was a Canadian
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
artist and filmmaker. Born in London, Ontario
London, Ontario
London is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada, situated along the Quebec City – Windsor Corridor. The city has a population of 352,395, and the metropolitan area has a population of 457,720, according to the 2006 Canadian census; the metro population in 2009 was estimated at 489,274. The city...
, Chambers' painting style shifted from surrealist-influenced to photo-realist. He began working with film in the 1960s, completing six by 1970. Stan Brakhage
Stan Brakhage
James Stanley Brakhage , better known as Stan Brakhage, was an American non-narrative filmmaker who is considered to be one of the most important figures in 20th century experimental film....
proclaimed Chambers' The Hart of London
The Hart of London
The Hart of London is a 1970 experimental Canadian film directed by Jack Chambers. Stan Brakhage proclaimed it as "one of the greatest films ever made". Shot in black and white and colour, the film is preoccupied with the tensions between nature and the city of London, Ontario.-Bibliography:*...
as "one of the greatest films ever made."
Biography
Chambers spent eight years (1953–1961) studying and working in EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
after studying at H.B. Beal Secondary School and the University of Western Ontario
University of Western Ontario
The University of Western Ontario is a public research university located in London, Ontario, Canada. The university's main campus covers of land, with the Thames River cutting through the eastern portion of the main campus. Western administers its programs through 12 different faculties and...
. While in Europe he met Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
, who suggested he continue his studies in Barcelona
Barcelona
Barcelona is the second largest city in Spain after Madrid, and the capital of Catalonia, with a population of 1,621,537 within its administrative limits on a land area of...
. He called his own work "perceptual realism," a kind of surrealism
Surrealism
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members....
based on his own dreams and memories and the existentialist
Existentialism
Existentialism is a term applied to a school of 19th- and 20th-century philosophers who, despite profound doctrinal differences, shared the belief that philosophical thinking begins with the human subject—not merely the thinking subject, but the acting, feeling, living human individual...
philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty
Maurice Merleau-Ponty was a French phenomenological philosopher, strongly influenced by Karl Marx, Edmund Husserl and Martin Heidegger in addition to being closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir...
. When he returned to London Chambers worked with fellow London native Greg Curnoe
Greg Curnoe
Greg Curnoe was a Canadian painter known for his concentration on subjects associated with regionalism and London, Ontario. He became known for work similar to the pop art genre, which continued to parallel his later work....
. In 1969 he was diagnosed with leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. For the rest of his life he painted more realistically, often depicting sites in London and the surrounding area. An example of this is 401 Towards London No. 1 (1968–1969), a view of Highway 401 heading westward towards London.
In 1967 he founded Canadian Artists’ Representation (CARFAC), now a national organization of artists, after an argument with the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
over reproduction rights and fees.
His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada , located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.The Gallery is now housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was...
, the Art Gallery of Ontario
Art Gallery of Ontario
Under the direction of its CEO Matthew Teitelbaum, the AGO embarked on a $254 million redevelopment plan by architect Frank Gehry in 2004, called Transformation AGO. The new addition would require demolition of the 1992 Post-Modernist wing by Barton Myers and Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg...
, and Museum London
Museum London
Museum London is an art and history museum located in London, Ontario, Canada. Its collection includes more than 5,000 regional and Canadian works and over 25,000 artifacts that reflect the history of the City of London as an important urban centre in Southwestern Ontario.The museum itself is...
. An elementary school Jack Chambers Public School
Jack Chambers Public School
Named after the London, Ontario artist Jack Chambers, Jack Chambers Public School was built in 1992, in Canada.- General school description and history :...
(and the streets surrounding it) are named for him in London, and a tree was planted in his memory in Gibbons Park after his death.
Films
Between 1964 and 1970, Chambers completed six films varying in length between nine minutes and 79 minutes. Working in both black and white and colour film, his works were montages dealing on the surface with his domestic life and images of London, Ontario. They were also examinations of the contrast between nature and society. Although for the most part peripheral to the history of avant-garde film, owing to his early death and reluctance to travel with his films for festivals, Chambers' filmography and in particular his feature-length film The Hart of London have become important within Canadian film history but have also grown in stature internationally.Filmography
- Mosaic (1964–65, black and white, sound, 9 min.)
- Hybrid (1966, colour, silent, 15 min.)
- Little Red Riding Hood (with Greg CurnoeGreg CurnoeGreg Curnoe was a Canadian painter known for his concentration on subjects associated with regionalism and London, Ontario. He became known for work similar to the pop art genre, which continued to parallel his later work....
and James ReaneyJames ReaneyJames Crerar Reaney was an influential Canadian poet, playwright, librettist, and professor, "whose works transform small-town Ontario life into the realm of dream and symbol."...
) (1967, colour, sound, 25 min.) - R-34 (1967, colour, sound, 30 min.)
- Circle (1968–69, colour/black and white, sound, 28 min.)
- The Hart of LondonThe Hart of LondonThe Hart of London is a 1970 experimental Canadian film directed by Jack Chambers. Stan Brakhage proclaimed it as "one of the greatest films ever made". Shot in black and white and colour, the film is preoccupied with the tensions between nature and the city of London, Ontario.-Bibliography:*...
(1968–70, colour/black and white, sound, 79 min.) - C.C.C.I. (unfinished) (c.1970)
- Life Still (unfinished) (c.1970)