The Mother of Invention

Geuer’s background is as intriguingly unique and complex as his art. Raised in the Netherlands and Germany, he moved with his pacifist parents and his nine siblings to Bolivia in 1939. Their efforts to forge a new life in the wilderness triggered Juan’s development as an inventor. Lacking the conventional supplies for his parents’ stained glass profession, Juan embarked on glass-making experiments that fuelled his enduring fascination with the natural world. During his 14 years in Bolivia he also became a textile artist and a social activist, like his mother. By virtue of necessity he taught himself how to build and maintain the looms and other machines the family needed in the Bolivian jungle.

In 1954 Geuer moved to Canada with his wonderful wife Else, and the first two of their children. Married for 61 years, the couple now have seven children and twenty grandchildren. Juan cites “watching the kids grow up, and being able to overcome hardships” as two of the most wonderful things he has experienced. Another is the continual floral display and garden harvest that Else sustains throughout the year both indoors and out.

Art is Fuzzy

Geuer claims that his unquenchable passion to demonstrate the power and innateness of art was ignited by the disdain with which art was regarded by the scientists he worked with in the 60s. Hired as a draftsman at the Dominion Observatory, which later became the Earth Physics Branch of the Department of Natural Resources in Ottawa, he began designing technical instruments and constructing models to explore and illustrate geophysical phenomena. He refused then and he refuses now to draw lines between art and science. His art is born of an absolute conviction that the perception of reality is a consensus, not a constant. He delights in challenging and expanding our perceptions.

Geuer’s artistic in(ter)ventions make his point that beauty is in the reality of things, and it is this beauty that entices us. As various curators have said of his works, they put the wonder back into our scientific understanding, and conversely, they illuminate our sense of wonder with scientific understanding. In our January edition of 2006, theHumm reported on the exhibition of Geuer’s remarkable piece titled “H20” at the National Gallery of Canada. The piece was designed by Geuer to seduce you into contemplating “the virtually unimaginable complexity in a familiar fluid substance – water.”

With pieces in major collections such as the National Gallery of Canada and the Museum Boymans-Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, and exhibits at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Ottawa Art Gallery and galleries around the world, I am surprised by Geuer’s response to my question, “What was your favourite art exhibit?” With no hesitation he replied, “A show we organized in the 70s at the Almonte Town Hall; I think it was called ‘Creative Characters and Complicated Artists’. The organizers received creative ideas from everybody, including a cornfield hanging upside down from the ceiling. It was hilarious and profound. This is art — real-life stuff that relates to what you do. It was very well attended and people came who had never gone to an art exhibit before.”

In Recognition of Geuer’s Art

The wonderful art of Juan Geuer seduces you into slowing down to contemplate things you have overlooked or taken for granted. He succeeds so well that this past July Geuer became a Fellow in the Royal Society of Canada — the “senior national body of distinguished Canadian scientists and scholars”…consisting of “men and women from across the country who are selected by their peers for outstanding contributions to the natural and social sciences and in the humanities.”

His RSC citation states, “Juan Geuer is an originator of interdisciplinary art practice in Canada, and a continuing pioneer in interactive art installation. He is nationally and internationally acclaimed for bridging the dichotomy between art and science. He has produced a body of highly complex, as well as elegantly simple, technologically and philosophically based works and large scale installations, as well as publishing articles on science and the arts. He continues to serve as mentor to students and young artists in interdisciplinary practices. His works have been exhibited and collected in major institutions in Canada and throughout the world, and he has received major grants and awards throughout his career.”

“We On Our Planet”

It is appropriate in more ways than there is space to list them that an exhibit and sale of many of Juan Geuer’s wonder-inspiring pieces will take place April 26 through August 15 at the Mississippi Valley Textile Museum in Almonte. Geuer has decided to express his love for his adopted country and town by donating a portion of the proceeds from the sale to the Museum. It is his profound wish that the pieces will continue to be shown and operated. Press kits are being sent to major art galleries and centres around the world to attract buyers to this unique opportunity.

In typical Geuer fashion, the energetic and energizing artist is hard at work creating new pieces, and will work on site at various times throughout the Exhibition and Sale. All of his pieces are intellectually and emotionally stimulating. Many of his smaller pieces would fit beautifully in an appreciative home or office setting. Don’t miss this opportunity to see an extraordinary body of work and to meet an inspiring individual who redefines aging gracefully.

The Mississippi Valley Textile Museum (MVTM) is located at 3 Rosamond St. E., in the annex of the former Rosamond Woolen Company in Almonte, Ontario. Constructed in 1867, this National Historic Site of Canada features a fabulous blend of the old and new all related to the history of the Mississippi Valley and the textile industry. It is a perfect setting for the art of Juan Geuer. Conversely, Juan Geuer’s art perfectly illuminates this historic setting. Check for details at www.textilemuseum.mississippimills.com, or by calling 256–3754.