William Caldwell (1928-1998) WHAT Paintings and Drawings, oils, pastels, charcoal WHERE Lorraine Caldwell, The Caldwell Collection Watson's Corners (near Balderson) SHOWS Balderson Art Gallery, Jan. 3 - Feb. 29 (Open from 9-5 every day at the Balderson Cheese Store, 1410 Hwy 511, 267-4492) WHY "It had to be the soul and nothing, nothing, led me astray from that." See samples of William's work	Previous Artist Trading Cards

William Caldwell - Art and Conscience
By Sally Hansen

A tribute to the life achievement of an unusually gifted and exceptionally principled artist will be on exhibit at the Balderson Art Gallery throughout the months of January and February. William Caldwell's art is uncompromisingly honest, austere and hauntingly beautiful. With figures isolated and stripped to their essence, his portraits depict the consequences of human injustices. In the words of Reva Dolgoy, area art historian and educator, "With the drawings and paintings of Bill Caldwell we see an artist who drew on the human condition to explore his own concerns of responsibility by community.

Bill Caldwell died of cancer in November, 1998, leaving his vast lifetime body of work to his best friend, devoted supporter and wife of 43 years, Lorraine Caldwell. No-one is better qualified to tell the story of his life and his art. With the help of local admirers and friends Sandi and Dennis Jones and Reva Dolgoy, Lorraine has catalogued and photographed almost 1,000 of her husband's paintings and drawings, creating a CD titled The Art of William Caldwell . She also shared a transcription of an interview by Jean Garneau with her husband shortly before his death that is the source of the quotations attributed to him in this article.

Although he made a point of avoiding the established art world, Caldwell's paintings and drawings were exhibited at Gallery Arcturus in Toronto in 2001. In 1994 he was the only Canadian artist invited to the Delaplaine Visual Arts Centre in Frederick, Md., where he was described as "a modern master." His works are in private collections all over North America.

Intuition Guides, Logic Governs
By the age of 23 Caldwell's personal commitment to confront social injustice asserted itself when he resigned his commission in the Canadian army to protest the inequities between officers and enlisted men. His action triggered a lengthy estrangement from his father, a Colonel in the Medical Corps. Without any formal training he forged a successful career as an industrial designer in Oshawa, only to become disillusioned again by what he saw as the failure of business leaders to accept responsibility for the social consequences of their decisions.

In 1965 Caldwell started winding down his design business to see if he could meet his own very high standards as an artist. Pausing only long enough to work with fellow artists to create a public art gallery in Oshawa (it became the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in 1967), he taught himself to draw. Always a loner, he never trusted educators because "I would find, tragically, a critical fault... and then I disassociated." He refused to study anatomy because he didn't want to "be afraid to step out of the parameters of normal anatomy."

In 1970 he decided to give himself five years to see if he was capable of being an artist. He convinced Lorraine to move to Newfoundland with him in the belief that it would be more affordable. They sold most of their possessions and took their life savings of $26,000 and 1,500 books with them. They searched most of the 200 outports left vacant by Joey Smallwood's resettlement policies before leasing a lighthouse at Rocky Harbour for $500 a year. Four and one-half years later they left with 79 sketches and one painting. Bill burned everything else before moving to Watson's Corners where Lorraine had located a great buy on the 1860's blacksmith shop that became Bill's spartan studio for the rest of his life.

The Newfoundland experience marked Bill in many ways. He sketched continuously, constantly striving to create a "shorthand" that would communicate the truth and honesty about the human condition that he could see in his subjects. When his interviewer commented that none of his portraits spoke of joy, his response was, "They do speak of dignity..." When I asked Lorraine if he had been happy, she said "No. He cared too much about people."

Like the rest of us, Bill Caldwell made choices. He did not subscribe to conventions such as Christmas and anniversary and birthday gifts, but for Lorraine, his only "fellow traveller," he painted three wonderful landscapes a year as presents. They are vibrant and joyous.

For the rest of us, he painted portraits - portraits that are described on the CD by one of Canada's foremost contemporary men of letters, Dr. Gary Geddes, in the following words:

"...faces emptied of all but the most elemental emotions. No prettiness, no fashions, no endearing landscapes, no vocabulary of pleasant colours, no language of elegant rationalization. Creatures naked and exposed, a hundred Belsens in our brains, a thousand Hiroshimas in our hearts...

Canadians are not ready for the work of William Caldwell... Who is there among the community of artists, critics, statesmen who will dare to face Caldwell's terrible vision, his austere charcoal and chalk, his dreadful economy of line and colour, and find there the honesty and beauty that might still redeem us, make us human again?"

That said, Dr. Geddes owns two of William Caldwell's paintings.

My personal reaction to seeing some of Caldwell's original portraits was to view every one of the images contained on Lorraine's CD homage to her beloved fellow traveller. I strongly recommend that you drop in at Balderson Art Gallery (second floor above the Balderson Cheese store on Route 511 between Perth and Lanark) any day from Jan. 3 to Feb. 29 between the hours of 9 and 5 to seek some redemption in the new year. To help you decide, you can see examples of William Caldwell's work here. You can reach Lorraine Caldwell by calling 259-2313 or 259-2770.