Edward John Hughes, CM, OBC (February 17, 1913 – January 5, 2007) was a Canadian artist.
Hughes was born in North Vancouver, British Columbia, and spent a significant part of his childood in Nanaimo, British Columbia. Raised during the Depression he studied at the Vancouver School of Applied Art and Design where he graduated in 1933. His talent was recognized early, one of his teachers was Frederick Varley of the Group of Seven (artists), and another member, Lawren Harris, recommended him for the inaugural Emily Carr Scholarship.
In 1934 he formed a partnership with the muralist Paul Goranson and Orville Fisher in a commercial art firm.[1]
Hughes died of cardiac arrest in Duncan, BC at the age of 93.[2]
Contents |
When World War II began in 1939, he enlisted with the Royal Canadian Artillery as a gunner and was posted to England. From 1943 to 1946, he served as one of Canada's official war artists.[3] Hughes traveled to England and Alaska where he depicted concern for ordinary men caught up in the world wide event.
After being discharged from the military in 1946 he returned to the west coast of Canada with his wife Fern and settled in Shawnigan Lake on Vancouver Island. Hughes spent much of the remainder of his life living on Vancouver Island where he pursued a lifelong study of the province and its landscape as a professional artist.
In the 1950s Hughes reputation grew, especially after he began to be represented by Max Stern, the owner of the Dominion Gallery in Montreal. In 1954 he was one of 18 artists asked by the Canadian Pacific Railway to contribute murals for cars used on the transcontinental railway. In 1992, Canada Post used one of his images on a stamp commemorating 125 years of Confederation.
Hughes’ paintings are best known for their strong and appealing images of the landscape and seascape of British Columbia. Jack Shadbolt described Hughes as "the most engaging intuitive painter of the BC landscape since Emily Carr." His distinctive style of painting is marked by the use of flattened space, skewed perspective and simplified shapes. The paintings combine compelling clarity with a sense of the unknown and an appreciation for natural surroundings.
Hughes was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1968. Hughes was awarded with Honorary Doctorates from the University of Victoria in 1994 and the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design in 1997.[4]
In 2001, he received the Order of Canada and in 2005 he was awarded the Order of British Columbia. Both of the latter awards cited his dedication to representing Canada with passion and originality.
The Vancouver Art Gallery has the most extensive holding of Hughes' work in public hands and mounted a major retrospective exhibition in 2003.[5]
His painting Lake Okanagan was purchased at a rural Ontario yard sale for C$200. Six years later, in 2007, the purchaser sold it at auction for $402,500.[6][7][8]
A Journey with E.J. Hughes, By Jacques Barbeau, 2005 180-page hardcover, Douglas & McIntyre ISBN 1553651537
EJ Hughes Restoration: Triumph over hard times," is a 2009 HD documentary on the life of EJ Hughes and the restoration of his Malaspina mural, a large 9x12 foot work of art now worth over 4 million dollars. The documentary was nominated for a Leo Award, and won a Gold Remi from the Huston International Film festival.