A SENSITIVITY TO ART AND HISTORY - BUT YOU HAVE TO ASK US FIRST
ANTIQUE AND ART DEALERS HAVE TO BE PASSIONATE TO STAY IN BUSINESS
MOST OF OUR ANTIQUE AND ART TRANSACTIONS ARE PRETTY BASIC. CUSTOMERS FIND SOMETHING THEY LIKE, APPROACH THE COUNTER, POTENTIALLY ASK A FEW CURSORY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PIECE OR PIECES, ASK WHETHER WE MIGHT OFFER A DISCOUNT, AND THEN DEPENDING ON THE OUTCOME, AGREE TO PURCHASE, OR SET THE ITEM BACK WHERE THEY FOUND IT IN THE SHOP. IF THE ITEM IS DESIRED, AND THUSLY PAID FOR, THE PURCHASES ARE CAREFULLY WRAPPED, PACKAGED, AND HANDED FROM OUR SIDE OF THE COUNTER, TO THE EAGER INDIVIDUAL(S) ON THE OTHER SIDE. THERE ARE PLEASANTRIES, AND PROMISES TO COME BACK AGAIN, BUT GENERALLY, IT'S A SHORT INTERACTION WITHOUT A LOT OF CONVERSATION. TODAY WITH THE PREVALENCE OF PHONES IN PURSES AND POCKETS, IT'S LUCKY IF YOU CAN GET IN A FEW COMMENTS, WITHOUT BEING INTERRUPTED. AS WELL, I'M NOTICING HOW MANY FOLKS, EVEN UP IN MUSKOKA, ON VACATION, ARE IN A HURRY BUT THEY REALLY DON'T KNOW WHY. IT'S AS IF TRULY, THEY COULDN'T STAND THERE AND TALK LIBERALLY, FOR ANY MORE THAN THIRTY SECONDS, WITHOUT FEELING THEY HAD TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT VENUE. WE IN MUSKOKA LIKE TO DAWDLE JUST A LITTLE LONGER THAN THE STANDARD THIRTY SECOND HIATUS….ESPECIALLY IN THE GENTLE NON-THREATENING ENVIRONS OF AN ANTIQUE SHOP. DAWDLING AND CONVERSATION IS AN INTEGRAL PART OF OUR RESPECTIVE BUSINESS MODELS. WE WANT TO KNOW OUR CUSTOMERS AND WE THINK THEY SHOULD GET TO KNOW US. YOU JUST CAN'T JAM THAT UNCEREMONIOUSLY INTO LESS THAN A MINUTE'S WORTH OF CASUAL STORY EXCHANGING. HONESTLY, YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE HOW RUSHED WE FEEL, JUST WATCHING HOW RUSHED THEY ACT. IF THEY ONLY TOOK A FEW MINUTES TO CATCH THEIR BREATH, WE MIGHT BE ABLE TO ENGAGE THEM IN SOME INTERESTING CONVERSATION. WE KNOW A LOT OF STUFF AND WE DON'T MIND SHARING.
WHAT A MAJORITY OF CUSTOMERS DON'T REALIZE, BECAUSE MOST ARE IN SUCH A HURRY TO MOVE ON TO THE NEXT SHOP VENUE, IS THAT ANTIQUE AND ART DEALERS ARE ITCHING TO CONVERSE; DESIROUS OF SHARING SOME STORIES ABOUT THEIR PROFESSION, AND WOULD LOVE TO BE ASKED QUESTIONS RELATED TO THEIR FIELD. WHAT ISN'T RECOGNIZED, IS HOW MUCH THESE FOLKS BELIEVE IN WHAT THEY PERFORM OUT THERE…..HUNTING AND GATHERING THESE COLLECTIBLE AND ARTISTIC PIECES; RECORDING SOME PRETTY AMAZING FEATS OF DARING RECOVERY….., SECURING THESE HEIRLOOM ITEMS, THAT POSSIBLY, IF YOU TOOK THE TIME, WOULD FIND INTERESTING OR EVEN AMAZING. I SUPPOSE WE GIVE THE IMPRESSION, THAT OURS IS A SECRET OPERATION, FULL OF COVERT, STEALTH-LIKE MOVEMENTS AND MANIPULATIONS, OOZING OF MYSTERY AND INTRIGUE, UNIMAGINABLE TO THE GENERAL ANTIQUE OR ART BUYER. WHILE I WILL NEVER DENY, THAT THERE ARE A LOT OF REASONS FOR BEING CAREFUL WITH SOURCE INFORMATION, DUE TO INCREASINGLY TOUGH COMPETITION FOR THE BEST PIECES, WE AREN'T ADVERSE TO DISCUSSING THE RIGORS OF OUR PROFESSION, AND OFFERING ADVICE FOR UP AND COMING DEALERS LOOKING FOR GROUND-FLOOR ADVICE.
WE CAN'T ALL BE AS GENEROUS AS CANADIAN ART PATRON, DOUGLAS DUNCAN, AS I'VE BEEN PROFILING OVER THE PAST SEVERAL DAYS. HE WAS GENEROUS TO A FAULT, AND WAS ENORMOUSLY PATIENT AND FLEXIBLE WITH ARTISTS AND CLIENTS, AND OPEN AND KIND TO ANYONE SEEKING ADVICE BASED ON HIS YEARS SPENT IN COMPANY OF OLD BOOKS, BOOK COLLECTORS, ART, ARTISTS, AND THOSE PATRONS WHO SOUGHT OUT THE NEWEST TALENTS IN NATIONAL ART. BUT WITHIN OUR PROFESSION, I HAVE KNOWN MANY DEALERS AND COLLECTORS WHO HAVE BEEN SIMILARLY GENEROUS, AND HAVE ALWAYS SHARED THEIR STORIES AS EDUCATION, WORTS AND ALL. THEY ARE HISTORIANS BY IMMERSION, IN A PROFESSION THAT DEMANDS OF ITS MEMBERS, AN INTIMATE, UNFLINCHING APPRECIATION OF THE PAST; BECAUSE IT'S AN IMBEDDED REQUIREMENT OF THEIR BUSINESS SUCCESS. JUST BECAUSE THEY DON'T WRITE REGIONAL, PROVINCIAL OR NATIONAL HISTORIES (INCLUDING BIOGRAPHIES), DOESN'T MEAN THEY AREN'T EXPERTS IN THEIR PARTICULAR FIELD OF CHOICE…….AND KNOW THE BIOGRAPHIES OF THE ARTISTS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE PAINTINGS AND SCULPTURES ETC., THEY HAVE IN THEIR PRIVATE COLLECTIONS, AND FOR SALE IN THEIR SHOPS. THESE OFTEN UNASSUMING HISTORIANS, ARE ROUTINELY OVERLOOKED AS PART OF THE HERITAGE COMMITTEES, BECAUSE THEY OFFER ITEMS FOR SALE…..THE PURIST HISTORIANS SEEING THIS AS A TRAVESTY TO STEWARDSHIP……PREFERRING THAT EVERYTHING THAT'S OF ANY MERIT WHATSOEVER, IN THE ANTIQUE OR ART DOMAIN, SHOULD BE DONATED TO AN HISTORICAL SOCIETY, MUSEUM, OR PUBLIC GALLERY.
IT IS WORTH NOTING, THAT ANTIQUE AND ART DEALERS, ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR SALVAGING A HUGE PERCENTAGE OF HERITAGE ITEMS EVERY YEAR, THAT MIGHT HAVE OTHERWISE WOUND UP BEING DISCARDED OR DESTROYED, BECAUSE NO VALUE WAS ATTACHED BY THE OWNER. THESE HIGHLY TRAINED AND REMARKABLY RESPONSIVE INDIVIDUALS, ARE WILLING TO PUT IN THE RESEARCH TIME, THROUGHOUT THE YEAR, TO BONE-UP ON WHAT THEY DON'T KNOW……THAT THEY FEEL THEY SHOULD, IN ORDER TO GRASP IMPORTANT HEIRLOOM PIECES FROM THE JAWS OF GARBAGE BINS AND LANDFILL SITES. I'VE BEEN INVOLVED IN THIS MANY TIMES SINCE THE MID 1970'S, WHEN MY APPETITE FOR THE PROFESSION TOOK OFF…..WITH ME DRAGGING BEHIND. THERE'S NOTHING SWEETER, THAN RESCUING IMPORTANT HISTORICAL MATERIALS, THAT AN ESTATE, FOR EXAMPLE, WAS GETTING READY TO DUMP INTO THE GARBAGE BOX SITUATED IN THE DRIVEWAY. I CAN'T COUNT THE NUMBER OF TIMES, FOLKS HAVE COME IN TO SEE ME, WITH A HUGELY SIGNIFICANT ART PIECE OR COLLECTION OF DOCUMENTS, WONDERING IF THEY WERE WORTH A FEW BUCKS……ONLY TO FIND OUT THEY WERE WORTH SEVERAL THOUSAND DOLLARS. TO THEIR CREDIT, A LOT OF DEALERS I KNOW PERSONALLY, ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR IDENTIFYING THESE VALUABLE PIECES, AND ATTACHING PROVENANCE BECAUSE OF THEIR OWN EXPERIENCE; AND ENABLING OWNERS TO ACHIEVE A GREATER FINANCIAL RETURN, SHOULD THEY STILL WISH TO SELL THE SUBJECT ITEMS. THERE IS A PERCEPTION, AND THERE IS SOME TRUTH TO IT, THAT DEALERS PREY ON IGNORANCE, AND WILL LOW-BALL FOR THESE PIECES, JUST TO GET A BIGGER PROFIT ON THE OTHER END. I'VE MET A FEW OF THESE FOLKS, BUT CERTAINLY THEY ARE IN THE MINORITY.
WE'RE GENERALLY PROUD TO BE IMBEDDED IN THIS HISTORIC PROFESSION, AND WE'D BE DELIGHTED TO SHARE SOME OF OUR AMAZING ADVENTURES, AND ADVICE ABOUT THE INDUSTRY. LIKE DOUGLAS DUNCAN, WE REPRESENT THE ITEMS WE HAVE COLLECTED, WITH THE UTMOST RESPECT……AND WHILE IT'S TRUE WE NEED TO PROFIT FROM OUR DEDICATION OF TIME, AND EXPENSE, WITHOUT THE PASSION FOR BEAUTIFUL AND HISTORIC PIECES, WHATEVER THEY MAY BE……WE WOULD PROBABLY CHOOSE ANOTHER OCCUPATION. IT'S JUST NOT POSSIBLE TO SEPARATE PASSION FROM THE ANTIQUE AND ART ENTERPRISE……AND NO, IT'S NEVER "JUST ABOUT THE MONEY." WE WON'T TELL YOU THIS, BECAUSE WE DON'T WANT YOU LAUGHING AT US……BUT MOST ANTIQUE DEALERS DO THINK OF THEMSELVES AS CURATORS OF THEIR COLLECTIONS. THEY'RE UNSUNG AS STEWARDS AND CONSERVATORS, OF THESE IMPORTANT HEIRLOOM OBJECTS. IF YOU DON'T BELIEVE ME, TAKE A FEW MOMENTS OF TIME, AND ASK YOUR FRIENDLY ANTIQUE OR ART DEALER, ABOUT THEIR OWN LOVE FOR THE BUSINESS. I THINK THE DOOR YOU OPEN, WILL OFFER A BETTER EXPLANATION, IN PERSON, THAN I CAN PROVIDE, VIA THIS BLOG.
NOW, LET US RESUME OUR LOOK AT THE AMAZING CAREER OF CANADIAN ART LEGEND, DOUGLAS DUNCAN, VERY MUCH AN UNSUNG HERO OF ART IN THIS COUNTRY……AND FRIEND TO SO MANY ARTISTS WHO OWE PART OF THEIR SUCCESS, TO THIS GENTLE AND CARING MAN.
DOUGLAS DUNCAN, FOR THE LOVE OF ART AND ARTISTS
IN EARLY JANUARY, 1964, BARBARA MOON, WROTE AN INSIGHTFUL EDITORIAL PIECE, (PUBLISHED BY MACLEAN'S MAGAZINE), WHICH SHE REFERRED TO AS A "PORTRAIT," OF ART PATRON DOUGLAS DUNCAN. "SO FAR AS I KNOW, IT WAS THE ONLY FULL LENGTH PROFILE OF HIM IN A GENERAL PUBLICATION. WHEN I BEGAN WORK ON IT I HAD MET AND INTERVIEWED DUNCAN ON ONE EARLIER OCCASION, IN CONNECTION WITH AN ARTICLE ON DAVID MILNE. AND OF COURSE, I HAD SOME KNOWLEDGE OF DUNCAN'S UNIQUE ROLE IN THE ART WORLD, SINCE IT WAS THIS THAT PROMPTED THE ASSIGNMENT IN THE FIRST PLACE." THIS APPEARED AS AN INTRODUCTION, TO HER RE-PUBLISHED ARTICLE, FROM 1964, INCLUDED IN THE MEMORIAL BOOK, ENTITLED "DOUGLAS DUNCAN - A MEMORIAL PORTRAIT," EDITED BY ALAN JARVIS, AND PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS IN 1974.
"DOUGLAS MOERDYKE DUNCAN, A SIXTY-ONE YEAR OLD TORONTO BACHELOR, IS A VERY TALL, NARROW MAN WITH A SHREWD WHIMSICAL FACE AND A SWIFT, SELF CONSCIOUS WALK THAT SUGGESTS SOMEONE PRACTISED IN AVOIDING PROJECTIONS SUCH AS TABLE CORNERS AND PACKING CRATES. HE IS THE PROPRIETOR OF THE PICTURE LOAN SOCIETY, WHICH OFFERS ORIGINAL ART FOR RENTAL BY THE MONTH (AT TWO PERCENT OF THE ASSIGNED VALUE, MINIMUM RENTAL ONE DOLLAR PER MONTH), AND ALSO SPONSORS ABOUT TEN SMALL ONE-MAN EXHIBITIONS AND SALES OF PAINTINGS A YEAR," WRITES BARBARA MOON. "THE ENTERPRISE IS SO MODEST AS TO BE NEARLY CLANDESTINE. IT IS OPEN ONLY NINE MONTHS OF THE YEAR, AND THEN ONLY IN THE AFTERNOONS AND ONE WEEKDAY EVENING. AN EXIGUOUS WEEKLY NEWSPAPER NOTICE IS ITS ONLY PUBLIC ADVERTISEMENT, DIRECT MAIL NOTICES ALSO GO TO A CONSTITUENCY OF ABOUT FIVE HUNDRED BUT DUNCAN WANTS TO PRUNE THE LIST. 'IT'S TOO MUCH NUISANCE AND COSTS TEN CENTS A NOTICE JUST TO PAMPER THEIR EGOS BY GETTING LOTS OF MAIL,' HE SAYS TARTLY.
SHE WRITES THAT, "IT GOES WITHOUT SAYING THAT THE PICTURE LOAN HAS NEVER BEEN A MONEY-MAKING OPERATION SINCE ITS FOUNDING IN 1936. IN THESE DAYS OF THE EIGHT MILLION DOLLAR CANADIAN ART BOOM, OF CARPETED GALLERIES WITH GLAMOUR LIGHTING AND SMART ADDRESSES AND OF MUCH ART MARKET TALK BY KNOWING PEOPLE, DUNCAN MIGHT WELL SEEM AN UNWORLDLY OLD PARTY AND HIS SHOP A QUAINT BACKWATER. BUT TO THOSE IN THE KNOW - TO EVERYBODY WHO IS ANYBODY IN CANADIAN ART - DOUGLAS DUNCAN IS A CULTURAL FORCE, MAYBE EVEN A MAJOR INFLUENCE. FOR, LIKE SIR ROBERT WATSON WATT, IN WARTIME BRITAIN, DUNCAN IS ONE OF THOSE ETERNALLY FASCINATING UNOFFICIAL FIGURES, A BACKROOM BOY. 'DUNCAN HAS BEEN TREMENDOUSLY IMPORTANT,' SAYS CHARLES COMFORT, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL GALLERY IN OTTAWA. 'VITAL' AGREES HAROLD TOWN, ONE OF CANADA'S TOP LIVING ARTISTS. JOHNNY WAYNE, OF WAYNE AND SHUSTER, IS EVEN MORE SENTENTIOUS. 'WHEN THE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF CANADIAN ART IS WRITTEN,' WAYNE SAID RECENTLY, 'DOUGLAS DUNCAN WILL GO DOWN AS ONE OF THE REALLY GREAT MEN IN IT.' WAYNE WAS SPEAKING NOT AS A COMIC BUT AS SOMEONE WHO WANDERED INTO THE PICTURE LOAN FIFTEEN YEARS AGO, AND LEARNED FROM DUNCAN THAT THERE WERE GOOD CANADIAN ARTISTS WHO COULDN'T GET A SHOWING, COULDN'T GET A SALE, AND SOMETIMES DIDN'T HAVE THE PRICE OF A MEAL. WAYNE VOWED ON THE SPOT THAT HE'D HANG NOTHING ON HIS WALLS BUT CANADIAN ART AND HAS SINCE BUILT A VERY RESPECTABLE COLLECTION. (CIRCA 1964).
Barbara Moon adds to this, that "the Picture Loan was started explicitly as a showcase for living Canadian artists and for almost twenty years was the only commercial gallery in Canada to specialize. 'He to me, is the pioneer,' says Dorothy Cameron. Miss Cameron has her own - chic, successful - contemporary gallery in Toronto, and there are nearly two dozen more flourishing across the country. 'Without Douglas none of us would exist,' says Miss Cameron. Or take Harold Town, who is the top-priced abstract artist in Canada and has a growing international reputation. Town says, 'Any real interest in my work begins precisely with the moment I first met Douglas Duncan.' Town was a commercial artist nine years out of art college, had sold only three serious paintings, had never been given space in a commercial gallery when he bumped into Duncan in the doorway of a framing shop in 1953. Duncan looked at the print of a horse that Town was carrying and promptly arranged a Town exhibition at the Picture Loan two months thence."
"In fact, Duncan has launched so many now-well-known Canadian artists into the crucial Toronto art market that even a partial list sounds like willful name-dropping. As well as Town, it includes Carl Schaefer, Will Ogilvie, Lemoine Fitzgerald, Andrew Bieler, Henri Masson, Kazuo Nakamura, Robert Hedrick, and Paul-Emile Borduas. In addition he was in very early indeed with Emily Carr. He is not just a good handicapper; he is very much an active better. And he unfailingly gives his help when it's going to count the most. For example, of the six prints sold from the first Town show, four were bought by Duncan for his personal collection."
His best known connection, and most influential, was with reclusive artist David Milne, writes Barbara Moon. "The case in point is David Milne, the hermit-genius of Canadian art. 'Duncan would be important in Canadian art for the Milne thing alone,' says one knowledgeable observer. Duncan spotted Milne's work at a Toronto gallery in 1934, sought him out in the Muskoka wilderness in 1935, and in 1938 became his agent. For the next fifteen years he gave Milne an annual one-man show at the Picture Loan and for the last thirteen years of Milne's life, guaranteed Milne's income by making purchases for his personal collection to augment regular sales. In addition he became so devout an evangelist for the artist, that a volatile Slavic painter in the Picture Loan group, Paraskeva Clark, burst out discontentedly, 'Agh, Duncan. With heem it's all Meelne, Meelne, Meelne, Meelne, Meelne!'
Duncan ran errands for Milne, brought comforts to his cabin in the bush, respected his fierce need for privacy by acting as a mail-drop, fronted for him in so intimate a matter as divorce and astonishingly (because Milne was even more impatient of bookkeeping than he) performed as a business agent and an artistic auditor. As a result he has photographic records of every extant Milne he has seen, and intends to present this unique catalogue of artistic development to the National Gallery, along with his own hand-picked collections of 160 Milne drypoints."
Friend Rik Kettle added, "It was probably natural that I saw the picture-rental idea as something which could and should eventually develop on a larger scale with substantial public involvement. The obvious parallel was books and public libraries; there are hundreds of books one can and wants to read with pleasure and benefit; there probably are not an awful lot one can or wants to buy and own permanently. There are, likewise, not an awful lot of paintings one can or wants to buy, but quite a lot that have a useful, if relatively short existence. Why not something approaching the public library idea? In the early post-war years, I occasionally regretted that Douglas did not really push the rental side very much and that the number of people who participated remained relatively small. On the other hand, it was quite evident, thereafter, that the total 'happening' that went on at 3 Charles Street West, which was really Douglas himself, was so good and right that it couldn't have been anything else."
Kettle writes that, "It has always interested me that the picture-rental activities that have subsequently developed here have not really had much effect on the general public. They perform effectively and usefully but have remained, as far as I know, fairly small, sophisticated, and institutionalized. I suppose, though, that the whole situation is now totally different, because of public exposure to the arts through the massive visual communication opportunities, etc. Douglas took the picture-rental idea and built around it 'his own thing.' Today, in our frustrations over the increasing disorder, discomfort, and dissent in our affluent society, we talk about our concern for the quality of life! Douglas, sitting on the floor on his haunches and twitching his eyebrows, would probably have thought this pretentious; but he instinctively busied himself only in things where 'quality of life,' was concerned, and would have found it impossible to have done anything else."
Artist Will Ogilvie wrote, "He (Douglas) understood and spoke a painter's language and they knew he was knowledgeable about art, both in the technical sense and in the aesthetic. In going to him, they brought with them their own gift; trust in his judgement. Time, of course, is the final arbiter but I feel sure that the names of a goodly number of young artists, Douglas Duncan encouraged will be found eventually, among those who have made a significant contribution to the art of Canada."
He adds, "I think it could be said of Douglas, that he knew art was to be found in many and varied forms if one had the eyes to see, but he distrusted labels and was too concerned with the inner truth existing in all works of art to be trapped by the fashionable or the meretricious. He had great respect for and a deep understanding of the nature of art and he sought it out diligently. In concluding these observations, I find myself coming back to what perhaps was of principal concern to Douglas. I think this was a desire to share with others his love of art; to be moved by its excitement and mystery and to expand, as much as possible, the enjoyment and enrichment art gives to a way of life."
Comedian Johnny Wayne concluded, of his friend, "I can see him now, squatting elegantly on the floor, aboriginal style, in the famous Duncan crouch, studying a Milne water-color or a Varley drawing and discussing its fine points. For me, and my wife Bea, for who he had a special affection, there were countless hours of laughter and conversation about pictures and the people who painted them. Looking back now, I realize that besides having a hell of a good time then, I was going through what high-priced psychologists call a 'learning experience.' Douglas was not only a dear friend but a teacher, who in a subtle way taught me the art of enjoying art. Every picture I look at glows with his memory."
Thanks for joining me today to examine a portion of this rich Canadian art biography, which I have long held as a source of inspiration……as I also love and collect Canadian art. I own a well presented and thoroughly researched, signed copy, of a biography of David Milne written by art historian David Silcox, that I consult frequently…..all the while, thinking of how Douglas Duncan helped the artist get the exposure he needed, to be properly recognized in the art community. Please join me tomorrow, for a brief look at one of my other favorite source books, kept here at Birch Hollow, entitled "Adventures of a Paper Sleuth," the biography compiled by my old archivist friend, Hugh MacMillan. He has been a pivotal mentor in my own hunt and gather activities in the antique profession for many years now. Please join me for some more interesting stories about those stalwart, adventure-seeking folks who find so much fulfillment hunting and gathering. See you again soon.
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