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- 6 days ago
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A Week with Roald Nasgaard and Lori Walters

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SATURDAY EVENING POST

September 28th, 2024

It was an immense honour to have been able to host renowned writer, curator, and art scholar Roald Nasgaard and his wife, Lori Walters, a distinguished scholar of Medieval Studies. Nasgaard and Walters form a remarkable partnership, where travel often blends professional commitments with personal exploration. On this occasion, Lori accompanied Roald as the supportive spouse, has quickly become an honorary and important member of our Vancouver art community. Her keen intellect, perceptive observations, and sincere engagement with artworks bring a fresh perspective, often marked by insightful commentary and a vibrant sense of humour.

I had an ultimate starstruck moment the first time I met Roald Nasgaard. When Roald and Lori visited the gallery a few years ago, after viewing the exhibition, he casually pointed to a book on the office shelf, saying, “You have my book.” Those words left me profoundly confused for a moment before it dawned on me, there was Abstract Painting in Canada, one of my all-time favourites, and there stood in front of me, Roald Nasgaard. It is no longer as embarrassing to recount this story, especially after spending more than a week in his company, but it still feels humbling to admire a scholar of his stature.

Roald’s sense of humour is brilliantly nuanced—full of subtle wit and understated sarcasm that often lingers before revealing its depth. His words carry profound weight, they are light, but serious. His single sentence often distils complex thoughts into clear and compelling analyses. Roald writes with the strength of emotions, his writing is not just “good”, fille with history, logic, and precise words, but the writing possesses a soul. The soul comes in traces of experience, brilliancy, sorrow, and lots of thoughts that had been reflected and digested, words that had went through a lengthy process of atonement. Roald engages with art in a manner that is pure and unjaded, approaching each work with a fresh, inquisitive perspective that betrays no cynicism. Despite his extensive experience and history, he remains very eager to learn, embodying a belief that learning is a form of renewal and perhaps, healing.

Roald is a steadfast supporter of the arts, yet his contributions are sometimes underappreciated in Canada. His influence on Canadian art and its institutions is undeniably monumental. His work should be required reading for anyone learning about Canadian art, as it sets a critical tone for these generations and many more to come. He writes with integrity and passion, viewing art through an informed lens free of biases related to faction, gender, politics, or the desire to cater to prevailing trends. His narratives are not spoon-fed; instead, they provoke questions and invite readers to engage deeply with the material. Roald challenges us to consider an artist’s purpose, history, and relevance—then, now, and into the future—while reflecting on whether the work resonates with his sensibility and with the larger art community.

So why did we have the honour of hosting Roald and Lori? As Roald puts it, “I am actually here as a punishment or atonement”. When he did his research for his book Abstract Painting in Canada he said: “I believed he had met up with or researched every artist that in any way had practiced, or flirted with abstract painting, I somehow completely missed Joseph Kyle”.

We hosted a lecture this past Wednesday, where Roald delved into Joseph Kyle’s unique voice within the abstract tradition, highlighting his geometric, colour-focused compositions that defy figure-ground relationships. Comparisons are drawn with the works of Bridgit Riley and Lawren Harris, suggesting both thematic and formal alignments, particularly around spiritual and transcendent experiences in art. The lecture also traced Vancouver’s art history, noting Joseph Kyle’s associations with key figures like BC Binning, Gordon Smith, and Tak Tanabe, and situated Kyle within a Vancouver mystical tradition influenced by Theosophy and other spiritual pursuits. Ultimately, the lecture raised questions about the interconnectedness of artists like Lawren Harris, Brian Fisher, and Joseph Kyle in articulating a shared transcendental vision unique to the Vancouver art scene.

At the end, Roald asks: “Can we meaningfully speak of a Vancouver tradition, a Vancouver mystical tradition, in some coherent way?”

Doing very serious work in the gallery while photos are not permitted.

Lovely dinner with our friends, old and new.

From left to right: (front) Anthony Kiendl, Kathleen and Laing Brown, Diamond Zhou, (back) Paul Kyle, Scott Watson, Roald Nasgaard, Ian Wallace, Neil Campbell, Landon Mackenzie, Allen Kolkowitz, Lori Walters.