Part Three

It’s almost 10 years since my dear friend, composer Ann Southam went ‘over the horizon’ on November 25, 2010, age 73.  In honour of the upcoming tenth anniversary of her passing, I'm publishing this In Memoriam & Recollections essay.  The essay explores our close friendship, the early days with her music, the vital role she played at the beginning of my career, and the fledgling art scene we experienced in Toronto, early 1960's.

Part Three 

Ann Helped with Early Days of my career and the early exhibitions

In early spring 1963, courtesy of an art collector, I was headed to Mexico to paint. Mostly in San Miguel de Allende -- at that time a fledgling artists’ colony for Canadians and Americans.

When I got back in the autumn of 1963, Ann and I picked up where we left off.

She paid for my watercolours, brushes or any art supplies I needed. However I always aimed for maximum results with minimum use of materials and was not wasteful.

By now I had moved to a new place, 59 Huntley Street. Peter Stollery rented the house and I sublet an apartment from him on the first floor.

The whole bohemian art scene had opened up for me, both through Barbara and mostly Ann.

While in Mexico, I met someone who lived in Mill Valley, California, who invited me to visit. Ann paid for the airfare.

There I met Kaye, a woman from Wisconsin of Norwegian and French heritage. We fell “heads over”, you know what I mean. Kaye took me to her home in Racine, Wisconsin. Afterwards we went to Toronto together.

While I had been away, Ann continued to pay the rent at Huntley Street. Kaye moved in with me.

579 Jarvis Street days

Not long after, I noticed a “For Rent, Apartment with Manager Duties” at 579 Jarvis Street.

Only five minutes from Huntley Street, the manager tasks consisted of collecting rents from the other tenants, putting out garbage, and making sure everything was in working order, including appliances.

We were accepted, and paid a low rent in exchange for carrying out these tasks. The apartment was on the ground floor, facing Jarvis Street, it was a solid, old stone building.

We had very little furniture: a bed, one solid wood table and four sturdy chairs, and a fridge and stove.

I painted at the back, in the kitchen.

"Helios Smiles", watercolour 1963  Henri van Bentum

Painted in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Shown at exhibition, First Unitarian Church

Not long after returning to Toronto from Mexico, I had my first exhibition. It wasn’t at a gallery but the First Unitarian Church. Toronto Star’s journalist Lotta Dempsey wrote her impressions of this exhibition.

"Dwelling of a Faun", acrylic on paper, 1963, Henri van Bentum

Also shown at the First Unitarian Church exhibition

Meanwhile Kaye found a job at Toronto City Hall, while I continued my explorations with a new medium: acrylic.

Ann Brings Her Baby Grand Piano to 579 Jarvis

Because our apartment was spacious and the front room was sparsely furnished, Ann asked if she could bring her Baby Grand piano, to practice.

Of course we were delighted. Kaye herself had played double-bass in Racine, Wisconsin but she didn’t practice in Toronto.

Ann invited singers and other musicians over to the apartment, such as Roxolana Roslak, for whom she also wrote and played.

Later on, Ann had the idea of turning the front room into a salon, a “Vienna of the North”, with private soirees for modern music aficionados, and those who were curious about contemporary music.

She rented chairs, brought wine and cheese and crackers. Before long, on several Saturday evenings our bare front room morphed into a ‘petit salon’. All because Ann “had an idea”.

Often I’d just stand and listen to Ann practising, stopping my work for a few moments. 

We mostly had our lunches there. I love cooking and would often prepare lunch, while other times Ann ordered take-out Chinese food.

At that time Ann had dark, deep moods. She tried to overcome this by drinking whiskey, straight. She called the ‘firewater’ her emotional blanket. But I never saw Ann intoxicated in my presence, nor anywhere else.

Sometimes she had self-doubt about her composing talent. Conflicts, confusion, “yes” or “no” about coming out. And her independent income caused conflicts for her too.

By nature she had an outgoing friendly disposition, and she wanted to know why these conflicts arose. She said she wished to be “more alive”.

Before I met Kaye, I had asked Ann to marry me. She replied, “Some day, Henri. Some day, my friend. . . .” Of course I never asked again, since later I sensed now her ‘gay’ nature, which I fully accepted and understood.

Nomadic Life in Toronto and Start of Major Exhibitions

Because of my wandering, nomadic nature I had lived in many different places. I worked as a gardener and did other odd-jobs.

Ann wanted me to have my own studio or permanent place, but I declined. So I moved around to several boarding houses all over Toronto.

The more contemporary art galleries showed little interest in my work, but Roberts Gallery did, and invited me to participate in a small Christmas group exhibition. The only other abstract artist there was York Wilson.

After a few sales, I was offered a solo exhibition at their stately quarters on the corner of Yonge and Isabella Streets. Jack Wildridge, the owner, set the opening date for February 1965. Just over a year away.

Meanwhile Ann often came over to our place at 579 Jarvis Street during the day, playing on her Baby Grand. And the soirees continued about once a month for some time.

Ann, from the moment I met her, must have already been a feminist, although I was somewhat ignorant of it.

She made sure I had all the art supplies I needed to prepare for the exhibition. Barbara Macdonald and Kaye helped with this too - - - the Three Graces, the Three Patrons, I called them.

Outside of invitation to solo exhibition, Roberts Gallery, 1965

The February 1965 solo exhibition at Roberts Gallery sold out. But because the prices had been kept low (as a newcomer, first major show), after the opening night expenses and framing, etc there was little left over.

A year and a half of work and nothing to show for it financially. However there was the inner joy of having been recognized.

Next: Part Four
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Part Four

It’s almost 10 years since my dear friend, composer Ann Southam went ‘over the horizon’ on November 25, 2010, age 73. In honour of the upcoming tenth anniversary of her passing, I'm publishing this In Memoriam & Recollections essay. The essay explores our close friendship, the early days with her music, the vital role she played at the beginning of my career, and the fledgling art scene we experienced in Toronto, early 1960's.
Henri van Bentum

PART FOUR

Henri with the widow of Jock (J.W.G.) Macdonald, Barbara

It was Ann Southam and Barbara Macdonald who first recognized my work. 

Ann also acquired one of my early acrylics on canvas, amongst several other works. Some I donated to her in gratitude for her generosity.

Following the success of the solo exhibition in 1965 at Roberts Gallery, director Jack Wildridge offered me a second solo exhibition in two years – February 1967.

My contacts with the contemporary scene (thanks to Barbara Macdonald and to Ann), plus my reading and involvement in Oriental philosophy made me change slowly but surely into yet another phase.

I was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists which held an annual exhibition at what was then called the Toronto Art Gallery (now AGO). I submitted three works for the 1966 exhibition. This was the very last show the OSA held at the Toronto Art Gallery.

I won First Prize and attended the posh gala with Kaye. Judy LaMarsh, Secretary of State in the Trudeau government, opened the show.

(To give you an idea of how parochial Toronto was in those days, when some board members with the Ontario Society of Artists (OSA) heard I was having a show in Paris, they thought it was the town of Paris, Ontario.)

One of the jury members was A.J. Casson, the only surviving member of the Group of Seven.

A compliment, considering the fact my prize-winning canvas, “Living Tapestry”, is an abstract painting.

"Living Tapestry", acrylic on canvas, 1966, Henri van Bentum

First-prize, annual OSA exhibition

Kaye and I were the only ones at the posh gala who were not wearing formal attire. As a matter of fact, Kaye’s dress came from the newly opened Finnish store, Karelia Studio, in exchange for a small watercolour of mine.

The “Globe and Mail” ran an article on the OSA show, and mentioned I’d won $1,000, but in fact the cheque was for only $800.

I’d opened the envelope on the way home on the streetcar after the gala, and called the Globe and Mail, but they said it was too late to change the article. The missing $200 went to the OSA, their 20% commission.

Ann in her usual casual attire

Ann didn’t attend the gala.  She had no great regard for their taste and insight since 99% of the members were into the figurative realm. Also she did not like formal “do”s. 

But when she heard from Kaye that the OSA had subtracted $200 from the award winnings, she immediately offered to pay it to repair the difference. Both Kaye and I did not accept this once-again generous offer.


Back to Europe and Show in Paris on Horizon

Following this I decided to go to Europe, first to Amsterdam, to visit my parents and also Paris to show my work to some galleries. Galerie Raymond Casanave, rue de Boetie (off the Champs d’Elysee) was interested, and offered me an exhibition in the spring of 1966.

So, off I went back to Toronto, and worked feverishly on my Paris show, scheduled for May. It would be a combination of acrylics on canvas and works on paper.

The canvasses needed to be crated and shipped over to Paris. Again, Ann paid for the costs.

She also paid for my return airfare to Paris, a 3-week excursion ticket, allowing me to attend most of the month-long show.

Henri van Bentum at the time of his Paris exhibition

Photo by TIME Magazine photographer

TIME Magazine wrote a feature article about the exhibition in its May 1966 issue.

Toronto Art Scene – continued

Contemporary artists began to make themselves known more and more. On one occasion the Canada Council held a conference at The Inn on the Park about “The Future of Artists”, without inviting a single artist!

This really put our fins up. A group of artists got together, seventeen of us, and protested.

Ann was delighted I took part in this rebellion. Our group chartered a TTC bus and when we arrived at the Inn on the Park, we were directed to the back of the hotel, near the kitchen area.

One of the conference organizers persuaded us to refrain from crashing the conference. We were served soggy salmon and cucumber sandwiches with coca- cola. We were promised by the Canada Council that we would be given our own conference in Toronto at a later date.

They kept their promise, and all of us were invited to a two-day conference at the Four Seasons Hotel on Jarvis Street, the same street we were living.

Paris Exhibition

Back to my Paris Solo. Because the three week charter flight didn’t cover the full month of the exhibition period, I had to leave Paris one week before it ended.

The exhibition had been officially opened by Jules Leger, former Governor General and at that time Ambassador of Canada to France.

"Amethysta", acrylic on canvas, 1965, Henri van Bentum
Shown at Paris exhibition. Artist's Collection

The prominent art critic at the time in Paris, Michel Seuphor. (who was well known for his early recognition of one of the pioneers of abstract art, Piet Mondrian,) wrote positively about the show in l'Express: 

“At present there is an exhibition at Galerie Casanave (rue de la Boetie) by Henri van Bentum, a young Canadian artist of European origin. His work reveals techniques and vistas hereunto unknown or seen. We predict a successful career for this gifted young man.”

After the show I learned that several of my paintings had gone “astray”. Galerie Casanave had sold one, to the Museum of Modern Art.

I sent several letters to the Department of Foreign Affairs asking if they could check on the whereabouts of them in Paris, to no avail.

Ann was not amused!

The only one who replied was Jules Leger, who wrote in a personal letter that he was sorry to hear several of my works went astray. He also wrote that he remembered my exhibition very well.

Next Steps

Now I went full-steam ahead to prepare for my 1967 exhibition.

Ann had meanwhile moved to an apartment where she could play the piano without disturbing the neighbours. However Ann’s style of playing was never loud, but delicate and sensitive.

So, the Baby Grand, her presence and her playing were absent and very much missed from 579 Jarvis Street. 

We recently learned that it is very likely this very same piano is now with Eve Egoyan, which delighted us.

When the time came for the February 1967 show at Roberts Gallery, Lutz Dille, a friend and Austrian photographer who had connections to “W5” the show on CBC suggested they film the opening. They didn’t take up his suggestion.

Lutz said we should do something different for the opening (Roberts Gallery always had very traditional hors d’ouevres and hard liquor.)

We got brown bread on planks of wood, cheese and grapes, and let the guests help themselves. Instead of the liquor, we had red and white wine, and bubbly.

When Jack Wildridge heard about these plans, he was not amused! However we went ahead anyway.

Ann thought it was a fabulous idea!

In the meantime the local art collecting network had heard my work had changed from the 1965 exhibition. By now I had created mostly spheres on untouched, blank canvas.

These works could be easily damaged because of the extensive blank space and had to be handled with a lot of care.

This prompted the regular attendees at Roberts Gallery openings to give their invitations to their older children.

Solo Exhibition of new work by Henri van Bentum, Roberts Gallery, 1966 (partial view)

All of whom happily consumed the goodies but they didn’t have the monetary strength of their elders. This translated into a sale only four paintings out of thirty-four, at the end of the three week show.


Next: Part Five

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