Between the Pipes (Goalies Series)- Further Details

More details and notes on the ongoing
Between the Pipes
.The Goalie Series, 2011

Which includes the LOUIS VUITTON Goalie Equipment Collection (Sculptures & Prints)
And JESUS SAVES Limited Edition Prints.
etc.

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Art involving hockey goalies isn't really that new a thing in the Canadian lexicon. There have been many notable, and I'm sure less than notable pieces that have delved into the most unique and colourful position in our national sport.

Ken Danby's "At the Crease" is certainly the most recognizable, in fact it's the most widely printed picture in Canadian Art history. Charles Pachter has his mural "Hockey Knights in Canada" on the College Street Subway platform, Frances Norma Loring made her goalie sculpture and the Art Gallery of Ontario made a hole in the gallery roof to allow it to be craned in 1935, and recently contemporary artists Wanda Koop, Brian Jungen and John Scott have played with the idea of the goalie as well.

The goalie is everyone's favourite, it's clear. Though I'm a bit biased, I've played Goal since I was 6 years old. No one loves the goalie more than me. When I was quite young, I made hundreds of drawings and paintings of them. They were some of the first things I can really remember painting. And as this goalie/artist, or artist/goalie, not sure which one I'd like to come first, if I was being totally honest here. I know that there could be enough goalie artworks out there already in the world, but people are always needing another goalie and so what's one or two more gonna hurt.

Ken Danby
"At the Crease"
1972
© Ken Danby
Arguably the most recognized picture in Canadian Art History.
It has become iconic. More prints of this image have been sold in this country than any other in our history.

John Scott
"Shiva Goalie"
2011
© John Scott, Nichols Metivier Gallery
Scott was the first recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Visual Art in Canada in 2002. Since the 1980’s his rough drawings and sculptures have prophesized the fragmenting of our icons and changing psyche. And a former professor of mine at OCAD University.

Charles Pachter
"Hockey Knights in Canada"
College Street Subway Station Hockey Mural Panel
1984
detail - Toronto Maple Leafs Goaltender [Mike Palmateer]
(From College St. Station in the TTC Subway System Platform)
© Charles Pachter, City of Toronto, Toronto Transit Commission
When speaking once to Charles Pachter I asked him why the goalies, and he replied that goalie masks bore such a close similarity to the masks worn by Haida Native Warriors, that they had become a source of great fascination for him.

Frances Norma Loring
"Goal Keeper"
1935
© Art Gallery of Ontario
When the AGO installed this piece in the 1940s, they felt it to be so important and so large that it was necessarily to temporarily removed part of the roof to allow access for the large plaster sculpture to be lowered into the upper floor gallery with a crane.

Wanda Koop
"Hockey Head"
1986
© Wanda Koop. National Gallery of Canada,
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Koop is most commonly associated with large-scale landscape paintings, many of them inquiries into how history, memory, war, and technology frame our perceptions of the natural world. Sometimes she paints goalie masks. (#1 of 4 in Series)

Wanda Koop
"Hockey Head"
1986
© Wanda Koop. National Gallery of Canada,
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Koop has stated that the masks have been influenced by a combination of Kabuki masks from Chinese theatre and ice hockey goalie masks.
(#3 of 4 in Series)

Brian Jungen
"Untitled (Goalie Mask - Red/Yellow)"
Varied Edition of 10
2006
© Brian Jungen, Art Metropole Montreal
Jungen sees the Goalie Mask as a "interesting place to put a subversive message. In the corporate world of branding in professional sports, the painted goalie mask stands alone as a personalized emblem of the individual who wears it". Always alert of representation and commodity, in this series his aim was to produce unique patterns on mass produced products.

Brian Jungen
"Untitled (Goalie Mask - Red/Grey)"
Varied Edition of 10
2006
© Brian Jungen, Art Metropole Montreal
Jungen's Goalie Masks have been placed in the numerous Canadian Embassies around the world.
Simultaneously showcasing both our modern art and our traditional iconography.