Nov 2006–Jan 2007 - Preview

Practical Art History orConfessions of a Fine Art AppraiserBY JIM FINLAYJAMES FINLAYFINE ART WEALTH MANAGEMENTChapter 8. The Case of MS.I was asked to identify the artist involved in painting three oil on canvaspaintings, representing locations around Vancouver. The paintings were notsigned, however, they did bear a monogram, lower right hand corner, with adate of 1978. The owner had apparently inherited the pieces from his fathersome years earlier and recalled his father telling him that he had purchased thepaintings directly from the artist, possibly on Granville Island. Since thepaintings were of local scenes I surmised that the artist probably was local orhad spent some time in Vancouver during the mid to late seventies.The monogram appeared to be the stylized initials MS. Armed with thisclue I visited the Vancouver Public Library’s Fine Art Department and examined their artist clippingfile. This is a file created and maintained by library staff of articles, photographs and reviews,relating to the activities, exhibitions and other endeavours of local artists.I determined after a review of the files that the initials MS might refer to a listed local artistnamed Maurice Spira. A quick search of the artist on the Internet revealed his website and thereemblazoned across his home page was the monogram.In conversation with the artist he mentioned that he beganusing the monogram rather that signing his name, due tohis admiration of the Pre-Raphaelites and their rejection ofthe conventions established by the Royal Academy. Hischoice of the stylized MS comes from a graphic designbackground.Maurice Spira was born in Kent, England, July 4, 1944MS, Untitled (no date), oil on canvasMS, Untitled (no date), oil on canvasand studied at The Provincial Art School, Kent, from 1960to 1964. He immigrated to Canada in 1966 and settled inMontreal, where he became involved in radical politics.“That’s where I developed an analysis that saw variousforms of authority as being something that we createourselves” 1 .Although the subject matter of the paintings I wasasked to identify are innocuous landscapes, Spira issomewhat controversial.When I visited the Surrey ArtGallery to purchase a 1988 exhibition catalogue of hiswork, the receptionist remembered MS and in particularhis grotesque and ghoulish paintings. The curator of theSurrey show did not hang one of his paintings because “there would be a tremendous problem withthe painting” 2 , however an image of the painting did appear in the exhibition catalogue. His workhas been described as “grotesque images of society’s dark power mongers” 3 and in 1989 hecancelled a show due to what he perceived as censorship of his work, not by the public, but by aVancouver gallery. In 1996 his painting ‘Yuletide Cheer’ was removed from a Gibsons art gallerywhen one of the gallery board members remarked “Gee, this is going to cause trouble-I know it is.” 4Although somewhat controversial, Maurice Spira has stood by his Pre-Raphaelite credo and Iadmire him for doing so.1 Godley, Elizabeth. The Vancouver Sun, July 23, 1988; 2 Godley, Elizabeth. The Vancouver Sun, Dec 2, 1989; 3 Godley, Elizabeth. The Vancouver Sun, July 23 1988; 4 Proctor Jason. TheProvince, Feb 20 1996.NEXT ISSUE: THE CASE OF CAMALDOLI.Monogram28 PREVIEWwww.preview-art.com