Draw Breath

Canadian artist Claire Wilks exhibited at home and internationally through her lifetime. As a figurative artist, she said: " The naked body is my landscape." Her figures, mostly women, were often alone, sometimes with their lovers, and when in severe crisis, clustered together for love and support, each drawing and monoprint a striking moment on the long fuse of memory. Anne Michaels, whose prose and poetry have been translated into more than 45 languages, has meditated long and deeply on the singular power of Wilks' work, saying, " How much longing, fear, passion, self-knowledge, tenderness, joy, abysmal loneliness, grief, resignation, despair, is in the position of a foot, the weight of a limb or breast, bodies so full they are empty, so empty they are full." This is her meditation on the power of Claire Wilks, one woman artist reflecting on another woman artist. Includes 12 B&W and 6 Colour artworks by Claire Wilks; she exhibited for over 60 years, prior to her death in 2017.