September 15, 2005

Carl Beam, R.C.A. (1943 – 2005)

Carl Beam was a husband, father, grandfather and friend. He was an internationally acclaimed contemporary Canadian artist of Ojibwe descent, whose work will survive as a milestone in the development of the Aboriginal voice within the context of the presence of Canada on the international art scene. He was a big man; he had big ideas and a big heart.

As a child he was sent to the Garnier Residential School in Spanish, a less than pleasant experience briefly referenced in a small work based on a class photo in which he outlined himself with red ink. Beam’s art studies were at the Kootenay School of Art, the University of Victoria and the University of Alberta. In 1986, the National Gallery of Canada was the first of the major Canadian galleries to recognize Beam’s work with the purchase of The North American Iceberg. From 1983–1992 his work was included in all the landmark exhibitions that altered the segregation of Aboriginal art in Canada.

Beam told stories with pictures. His works can be read as morality plays juxtaposing long held perceptions with challenging alternatives. His well known images, a pieta, an embryo, Abraham Lincoln, Sitting Bull, a crow, the Pinta and Maria, Einstein among others, were cultural markers overlaid with references to time and space. With a linear pattern or formal grid, he tried to visually create the fourth dimension in his work, a spiritual space inhabited by a quiet intellect. That he was an artist of native and white heritage added to the scope of the complex subjects he chose.

Over the years, the Canada Council Art Bank purchased several works including Burying the Ruler, a work that incorporated the concept of linear space with Beam’s self portrait.

In the late eighties as his reputation grew, Beam would arrive at short notice at the Ufundi Gallery with a body of new work that he wanted to immediately sell. These works ended up in all the major galleries and institutions in the area. Beam often carried his painting bag, an exquisite collection of brushes and tools, beautifully maintained to put finishing touches on a work. Once, while at the Gallery, he painted shamanic images from the American southwest on a drum, a work that I have kept as a personal souvenir of the years of working with Carl.

Beam and his wife Ann and their daughter Anong traveled widely but finally settled in his home community of M’Chigeeng on the northern shore of Manitoulin Island where in the early nineties, they built an adobe house. He delighted in describing how well it survived Ontario’s harsh winters.

When Beam received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in March, 2005, it was clear at the ceremony that Beam was very ill. He died July 30, 2005 of complications arising from diabetes. At 62, he left us too early. There are stories still untold.

Victoria Henry, the Director of the Canada Council Art Bank, was the Director of the Ufundi Gallery and Carl Beam’s dealer from 1986-1992.

A memorial service will be held in Carl Beam’s honour on September 18, 2005 at the Canadian Clay and Glass Gallery in Waterloo, ON

Examples of Carl Beam's works in the Art Bank collection

"The Unexplained", 1988
Carl Beam, R.C.A. (1943 - 2005)
photo emulsion, acrylic, etc. on paper

"Burying the Ruler #1", 1991
Carl Beam, R.C.A. (1943 - 2005)
photo emulsion and acrylic on canvas

"Forced Ideas in School Days", 1991
Carl Beam, R.C.A. (1943 - 2005)
photo emulsion and ink on paper

“My works are like little puzzles, interesting little games. I play a game with humanity and with creativity. I ask viewers to play the participatory game of dreaming ourselves as each other. In this we find out that we're all basically human…. My work is not fabricated for the art market.  There's no market for intellectual puzzles or works of spiritual emancipation.” – Carl Beam in an interview with Allan J. Ryan