Harold Klunder
"A Short History of Harold Klunder"
Written by David Sommers, 2005
"Firstly a disclaimer, this work is not a "Short History of Harold Klunder"; it's not even a long history of Harold Klunder. While there is some history in it and it is about the work of Harold Klunder, it is by no means a retrospective of the career or life of Harold Klunder. The inspiration for this title derives from my recent reading, and subsequent re-reading of Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. I began reading Bryson's wonderfully engrossing book at the same time I started thinking about this exhibition. As a great believer in serendipity, I soon realized the seemingly unrelated works of Bryson and Klunder were connected. From that realization this essay was born.
In A Short History of Nearly Everything Bill Bryson attempts "to see if it [was] possible to understand and appreciate - marvel at, enjoy even - the wonder and accomplishments of science at a level that isn't too technical or demanding, but isn't entirely superficial either." " Bryson has created a book that delves into the origins of the universe and the foundation of our brief lives on the planet. He asks, "How big is the universe and how long would it take you to get to the end of it? Quite a long time as it turns out - best to bring an extra suitcase. Or, "How much does the earth weigh?" In answering these questions
Bryson pulls together the combined knowledge of Nobel laureates, geniuses, madmen and scholars. In the end he poses as many questions as answers. The more I read the book, the more I found parallels between Bryson's writings and Klunder's work and method. In discussing these similarities I hope to provide further insight into the recent work of one of Canada's most important artists.
In his introduction to A Short History of Nearly Everything Bryson states the book is "...about how it happened - in particular how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us and also some of what happened in between and since. That's why the book is called A Short History of Nearly Everything, even though it really isn't. It couldn't be." This last line, was the eureka moment for me, the catalyst bringing these bodies of works together
More than any other painter in this country Harold Klunder is an amalgam of art, artists and culture. He is catholic in his tastes and his interests lie in literature, history and most importantly, art. One can get a glimpse into Klunder's activity from a visit to one of his studios - Montreal, Flesherton and Pouch Cove.
Upon entering Klunder’s studio, one sees a number of works-in-progress as he works on several paintings at one time. Surfaces are strewn with stacks of books ( many open to pages highlighting something that caught his eye), articles and pictures torn from magazines and newspapers, as well as other artists' works. Small notes are scribbled on the walls, including future and current painting titles. Upon further inspection one can see a jumbled variety of objects and materials acting as talismans-
Klunder keeps these at hand, as well as in his mind, each time he stands before a canvas or sheet of paper. He attempts to transfer all of this accumulated knowledge, feeling and experience into each work. He has said that I've always tried to say everything in every painting."
Like Bryson, Klunder attempts to pour all of his acquired practice into each and every painting. They admit that ultimately it is an impossible proposition. Rather, it is the journey, the intellectual wrestling, the back and forth, that is the meat of the matter.
Take a painting such as Sun and Moon (Self- Portrait) from 2002. It is a huge claustrophobic painting in three parts, packed with symbols and motifs resembling a crowded room, a busy street or an overflowing nightclub. It is almost as though Klunder tries to turn his head inside out and dump his entire psychic inventory onto the canvas. This work and several others in the exhibition represent a download of personal history. This evocation, this summoning up of the past and present, is a big part of what Klunder has been trying to do with his work. Klunder says that painting is a “humbling experience”. I think his attempts to bring together recollection of the past (both personal and historic), combined with the present day and all of the other substance that makes a life, is what is so important in his paintings. In varying degrees his career has been dedicated to a search for the "perfect painting". He knows he will never achieve perfection but he continues to strive for it.
To bring the discussion back to Bryson and to science it might be best to illustrate Klunder's work/career/oeuvre with a scientific formula of sorts:
K= (Po x M)mc
CP x DHA
K equals Klunder, Po represents Jackson Pollack and M is Mondrian. The small mc is the Modernist Constant, CP is Canadian Painting (all of it) and DHA is Dutch Historical Art. Bearing in mind that this formula is far from accurate and it is only a blithe attempt to illustrate that Klunder's work is complicated, soaked in history and wrapped up in personal meaning.
This formulaic application can be viewed in another sense through what Bryson calls "The Stuff of Life", in which he details how all humans are so incredibly similar. The differences between each human being are very, very, small and we are for the most part 99.9 per cent the same. As Bryson says "when someone boasts to you that he is descended from William the Conqueror or the Mayflower Pilgrims, you should answer at once: 'Me tool!” It is in that 0.01 per cent where all the uniqueness is contained, and for Harold Klunder that singularity takes advantage of everything marked with picture making.
This anomaly can be exposed in the painting House of Orange, 2002. Although House of
Orange, in many ways, is an atypical Klunder - without much of the texture and crustiness
that is usually expected from him - it is still a tour-de-force of expression and significance. A ground awash in warm tones of orange and yellow that appears like rain on a windshield of an idling car is punctuated by archetypal Klunder forms resembling silhouettes of organic forms. What does the title, House of Orange refer to? Does it speak to the dominant colour perception of the painting or does it more symbolically refer to the Royal House of Holland, the national colour of the Dutch and Klunder's heritage?
Although much of House of Orange is not usual for Klunder it is still infused with layers of meaning, accumulated through the years and revealed through unconscious decisions pooled with a lifetime of knowledge. So, too, are the set of prints, 1952 which Klunder recently printed in Montreal at Studio PM. The title refers to Klunder's arrival in Canada with his family in 1952, Each print set in the set of 13 (except) for one entitled Saskia) recall every month of that intitial and often frightening year in a new country. Like the paintings that accompany 1952, these prints merge Klunder's perception of history (personal and worldly) and his ability to render a pictorial vocabulary that speaks to so many of us.
Just as Bryson could not possibly relay the entire history of everything in one book, Klunder can never begin to describe his entire experience in one perfect painting. It begs the question, "Does it even matter?" Keep in mind that Klunder is, in the opinion of many, working at the top of his form - this after a 30-plus year career, leaving his long time dealer SableCastelli and departing Toronto for Montreal. Most of us at this point in our lives would begin to look at retirement, taking it easy and putting our feet up. Harold Klunder is currently making some of the best work of his career and there appears to be no stopping him. This exhibition, while not a "Short History of Harold Klunder", does convey the power and mastery of this
very important artist and further establishes his position within the lexicon of Canadian art."
Written by David Sommers, October 2005
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