Joe Fafard Auguste 1993 Private Collection (Courtesy of the Douglas Udell Gallery)
Joe Fafard’s whimsical tour of politicians artists and cows
Scale. Shape. Texture. Cows and politicians. Sculpture with a humorous twist. Glenbow Museum’s exhibition of Joe Fafard’s works contains sculptures that are larger than life and some that are smaller (most notably Fafard’s depictions of certain Canadian politicians.) The internationally renowned sculptor hailing from Saskatchewan creates artistic works that are often described as whimsical including his trademark depictions of cows. Glenbow’s exhibition features sculptures and drawings with subject matter that includes caricatures of Fafard’s friends Canadian politicians famous artists (Kalho Van Gogh and Cézanne included) majestic horses and naturally cows. But explaining why his pieces are humorous is an exercise as futile as Sigmund Freud trying to write an essay about the concept of humour (which does take all the fun out of it). In the end you must see Fafard’s work for yourself. You will either get the joke or you won’t.
Fafard’s work is amazing for its use of texture and detail. The eyelids on his sculptures are exquisitely formed and smooth in texture. Shadows often give the sculptures a solemn expression as though they are aware they are being placed in a humorous context — at their own expense. The depiction of Van Gogh ( Vincent No. 4 1982 ) appears to know that his enlarged forehead not his eyes (which are darker brooding and shadowy) is the focus of the museum lights. A particular horse — Peggy 2004 — seems aware that she is larger than life but without a larger-than-life pasture. The presence of this gargantuan horse basking in the museum’s lighting or of rotund cattle hanging around smaller sculptures or of two foxes copulating (the wonderful See Jesse Look/Regarde Jesse Regarde 1991 ) gives Fafard’s ceramic and bronze work an interesting unnatural context in the museum space.
Fafard’s attention to detail is best exemplified in his subjects’ hands (although his portrayal of Jean Chrétien entitled Le premier ministre 2003 shows the politician with one hand in his pocket the other disguised under a glove). The veins and subtle lines are revealed in the charcoal drawing Auguste 2000 and in a sculpture of the same subject Auguste 1993 . Another work Wandering Spirit 1979 showcases veins wrinkles and the way the flesh on the body sags with gravity.
My favourite piece is Géricault 1990 which plays with two- and three-dimensional planes in bronze plates. The metal plates form the individual details of a bull — the head the horn the ears the doubled hooves the tail even the anus. They are put together to form a three-dimensional whole.
Fafard has an incredible and occasionally incredulous sense of proportion. “I’ve never seen a horse that tall” exclaims a small girl running through Glenbow. The horse she refers to is one of Fafard’s many statues in bronze and patina — the aforementioned Peggy 2004 . Another large work Smoothly She Shifted 1986-87 depicts a cow with a rough and interesting texture in bronze that the public isn’t allowed to touch. Her hide looks too rough in places to touch anyway. There is anatomical precision in Fafard’s work but it is often exaggerated. Protruding bovine hip bones stick out unrealistically the bellies are enlarged and the knees are slightly more bulbous. Fafard who sculpts with the same attention to detail as a political cartoonist gives extra consideration to the particular features that distinguish his subjects.
His subtle use of colour (and context) is also extraordinary. Bull/ Taureau 1970 is beautiful in its subdued colour palette — hints of blue are only visible in the cracks of the glaze. It is the cracks that make the piece interesting however as the blue balances the orange hues of the bovines’ horns and hooves.
As for Fafard’s use of context one needs to look no further than Trudeau 1984 . This work has a sculpture within a sculpture feel (like Hamlet’s play within a play) featuring a contemplative Pierre Trudeau. He leans to the side his legs crossed a red rose tucked behind his left collar and an empty seat adjacent to him. Again the eyelids are sculpted to give the subject a solemn look. It is up to the beholder to imagine what this Trudeau is pondering.
