Accession 2009-31 - Anthony Thorn

Anthony Thorn is the pseudonym of Arthur Goldman, the son of Leon and Dorothy Goldman, born in Regina in 1927. He is a graduate of the University of Saskatchewan (BA, 1947) and pursued graduate studies in English literature at the University of Chicago.

Thorn began to paint in 1948. His first studies in painting were in Regina with Kenneth Lochhead followed by studies in figure drawing at the Chicago Art Institute, studies in oil painting techniques with Frederic Taubes at the Banff Centre, studies in stained glass design at the Centre d’Art Sacré, Paris, and drawing at the Academie de la Grande Chaumière, Paris. In 1955 Thorn was apprentice to the muralist David Alfaro Siquéiros in Mexico and studied in acrylic technique with Jose Gutierrez. In later years he studied watercolor and sumi painting with Mataichiro Isoda in Kyoto, Japan, and metal-smithing in Corfu, Greece.

His work has been exhibited with galleries across Canada but also in France, Mexico, the Canary Islands and the United States. About 40 of his works are in corporate and public collections in Canada. Notably in the collections of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and the Greater Victoria Public Library; they consist of paintings and carved works in gold leaf, ivory and other precious materials. Eight of his works in public collections have been honored with the designation “of outstanding significance and national importance” by the Canadian Cultural Review Board.

As an educator, along with various teaching in Toronto, Thunder Bay and Victoria art classes, his main academic teaching was as a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay (1977 to 1979) and an Instructor in painting for the Department of Extension of the University of Victoria (1981 to 1984) He wrote as an art reviewer and critic for the publication Toronto Citizen (1971 to 1972)

Anthony Thorn lived in Victoria, British Columbia until his death in July 2014.