JOHN GRAHAM COUGHTRY. AOCA. CGP. P-CSGA. [1931-1999].

 

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Born in St-Lambert, Que., he became interested in art while at high school and later attended the Montreal Museum of Fine Art School and studied under Goodridge Roberts, Jacques de Tonnancour, and Gordon Webber [1948-49]. He also studied at the Ontario College of Art under Jock MacDonald, Eric Freifeld, Harley Parker and Frederick Hagan [1949-53]. He won an IODE prize and a T. Eaton travel scholarship in 1953 and took a trip to France and Spain [1954-55]. In France he studied the work of Pierre Bonnard and Alberto Giacometti (their work was to be very influential). He worked for Graphica Associates, Toronto [1955] and then at the graphics department of the CBC. His painting “Night Interior” was included in the Second Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art [1957]. He taught part-time at the OCA for two years [1958-60]. In 1959 Coughtry finally left the CBC and began to work on mural commissions. His work received critical praise from writers Robert Fulford and Elizabeth Kilbourn. In 1962 he made a large mural for the Toronto International Airport. From 1962 he was a member of the Artists' Jazz Band (along with Gordon Rayner, Robert Markle, Rick Gorman, Nobuo Kubota, etc.). In 1963 he completed a 16 foot bronze sculpture for the Yorkdale Plaza, Toronto. He continued his graphic work and created serigraphs using plexiglas-transfer. Coughtry produced a number of figurative paintings series included: Emerging Figure [1959]; Two Figures [1962]; Reclining Figure [1974-75]; Afternoon Lovers [1979]; Odalisque [1983]; Snow Queen - for Sarah Vaughan [1990]. In later career he also made landscape based works. He received many solo exhibitions, in particular at the Isaacs Gallery, Toronto [1956-1990]. Coughtry’s also received a number of major commissions including: Sculptured Walls, at Beth David Synagogue, Toronto [1953] and a mural for the Revere Electric Building, Toronto [1958]. His work is represented in numerous private, corporate, and public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Museum of Modern Art, New York; Detroit Institute of Fine Arts; Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo; Philadelphia Museum etc. He won many awards and was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Artists [1957- Pres. 1960] and the Canadian Group of Painters [1959-67]. Up till his death in 1999, he resided in Claremont, Ontario.

Bibliography: MacDonald, “Dictionary of Canadian Artists” [vol. 1, pp. 537a-539a]

Provenance: The Isaacs Gallery, Toronto.