John Ivor Smith remembered

 

The first sculpture teacher at Concordia died last August of prostate cancer. John Ivor Smith was hired by Alfred Pinsky in 1966 for the Sir George Williams University fine arts program, and took early retirement in 1982. Former student Richard Furbacher, with help from Lynn McIvor, Fraser Smith and Sylvia Tait, has provided some reminiscences:

“John arrived in Canada at the age of 13 as part of the refugee program to keep English children safe during the Second World War blitz on England. He was billeted with the Wiggins family in Montreal, with whom he always remained close, and he became fast friends with the neighboring Tait family.

“John earned a degree in physics at McGill University and went on to work for the Northern Electric Company (now Nortel), making ad films. From the earliest days John was a remarkable inventor who had a keen appreciation of the aesthetic and loved to draw.

“Sylvia Tait convinced John to take evening courses at the School of Art and Design at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. He studied under Jacques de Tonnancour, Eldon Grier and Arthur Lismer, winning two scholarships in drawing and one in sculpture. It was here that John’s interest in sculpture became his passion, and subsequently, his career.

“During the ’60s and ’70s he was influenced by the Italian sculptors Marino Marini and Manzu, but the irrepressible Smith humour and aesthetic still dominated all his work, despite the intense, creative purpose involved.

“John won a Canada Council fellowship, which enabled him to spend a year in Italy to work and study new and ancient techniques of casting. Other fellowships and awards followed.

“Two of his immense standing figures with welded steel substructures and reinforced polyester resin exteriors were displayed at Montreal’s Expo 67. John invented a novel technique to very accurately enlarge maquettes to the desired scale long before computers would facilitate and simplify this process.

“John and his friends established a coterie à la bohème, travelling to New York and Europe to explore the arts, since art was not yet a big word in Canada. His humour, warmth, empathy and sensitivity made him greatly loved and respected by his students.”