The Artist
John Sadler (1931-2011)
Sculptor, Painter - Mentor to the arts in Ottawa
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Born: 26 August, 1931, Oshawa, Ontario, Canada.
Died: 23 July, 2011, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Overview: Artistic Training and Career
When John Sadler was a high school student at Oshawa Collegiate and Vocational Institute, he was encouraged by his art teacher Dorothy Van Luven (a friend of the abstract painter Alexandra Luke), to study at the Ontario College of Art (OCA) in Toronto. There, under Syd Watson’s tutelage, Sadler learned about the mathematical foundations of design in art, and much later in his career, Sadler acknowledged that this approach still informed the understructure of his abstract paintings and sculptures (1). In 1954, Sadler graduated from OCA, and subsequently found work as a freelance commercial artist and illustrator in Toronto, Detroit and San Diego, and as a technical illustrator at Avro Aircraft Ltd., and de Havilland Aircraft of Canada Ltd., Toronto. Sadler’s travels across the USA to seek work exposed him to the masters of American abstraction, which had a profound and lasting impact on Sadler’s work. In the mid-1980s, Sadler’s sojourns in Greece, Crete and Europe brought additional artistic ideas and influences.
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In 1969, Sadler moved to Ottawa and began working for the federal government as a designer of trade publicity for the department of Industry, Trade and Commerce where he soon thereafter assumed the responsibility as Chief Designer until 1972. Sadler remained in the Ottawa area for the rest of his life, residing in various locations including the Byward Market, the town of Almonte and the suburb of Orleans.
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In 1970, Sadler began teaching at the Ottawa School of Art, an association that evolved into a 41 year career. Over the years he taught courses in sculpture (metal welding, wood and stone carving), drawing, life drawing, painting, watercolor, portraiture. Sadler was well known as an inspiring and encouraging art teacher who was mentor to generations of art students. As an instructor, he valued the artistic freedom and the appreciation of sharing his knowledge and skills. Sadler was still teaching at OSA at the time of his death in 2011.
In 1972, aged 41, Sadler left the federal government to pursue a more stimulating career as an independent fine-art sculptor and painter, which he sustained until the end of his life. Sadler’s first inclusion in a public gallery exhibition was in 1972 at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre’s annual show, The Kingston Spring Exhibition. At this first show, he presented experimental mixed-media sculptures that incorporated Plexiglas and photography.
Also in 1972, Sadler ventured into a new enterprise as co-owner with Jeaninne Robertson of Braam Gallery in Ottawa’s Byward Market. The business initially sold art supplies and offered framing services, and in 1977 it opened a dedicated gallery space for paintings and other works of art much welcomed by local artists. In 1980, it became the first commercial gallery to sell high quality art books in our nation’s capital. The co-owners sold the business in 1985. In 1986, Sadler was appointed as the Interim Executive Director at the Ottawa School of Art.
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In 1978, John Sadler was selected as a Canadian artist by the Sculptors Society of Canada to created an abstract monumental sculpture to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Scuplture Society. The sculpture created by Sadler, Dialectic, was produced from five tons of white marble. It was sculpted outdoors on the corner of Sussex Drive and St Patrick Street over a period of four months. This placed Sadler in the public eye and garnered three articles in The Ottawa Citizen. Dialectic was then purchased by Janis Mierins, who installed it on the grounds of his residence in Rockcliffe Park, Ottawa.
In the late 1980s, when freed from the need to produce abstract works in acrylics and watercolours for successful gallery sales at Braam gallery, Sadler enthusiastically entered a period of deep exploration and creativity in his painting. New approaches and compositions emerged from this exciting opportunity of prolonged studio experimentation including the inclusion of unusual materials such as tar. The inclusion of tar in Sadler’s works proved to be a turning point in Sadler’s aesthetic development. The tar provided a deep, pure black colour and textural tensions which were off-set by other areas of colour and different materials. It was in 1989 at Sadler’s solo exhibition at the Ottawa School of Art that the fruits of his explorations with new materials where successfully exhibited in eleven abstract paintings and three sculptures. The various compositions included materials such as tar, wax, salvaged wood, sheet lead, stone, spray and oil paint to produce bas relief surfaces sometimes overlaid on aluminium backings. Blair Sharpe’s exhibition review noted the works had “a sense of lyric restraint and a tense… virtuosity” (2).
Sadler’s sculptural activity included participation in the National Museum of Natural Sciences’ (now Nature) group exhibition Living Nature Vivante in 1986, and with artist Gayle Hermick a joint exhibition of sculpture and installation, The Geology of Man at Arts Court during its inaugural year in 1988.
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In the spring and summer of 1991 and 1992, the Inuit Artists' College held workshops and seminars at the Ottawa School of Art for seven experienced Inuit sculptors. Sadler had been in contact with the Inuit Art Foundation following the disturbing events of the Oka Crisis (1990) as he wished to have an artistic connection with indigenous people to counter their confrontations with non-indigenous Canadians which were frequently reported by the media. Sadler in conjunction with the Inuit Art Foundation and working with two indigenous sculptor instructors, Abraham Anghik (B.C.) and Ron Senungetuk (Alaska) planned and instructed the courses in quarrying and stone carving. It was in 1992 that Sadler also held the position of sculpture coordinator at the OSA.
In 1991, Sadler was given a solo exhibition at The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, curated by director and curator, Joan Murray. It was his first major exhibition in a public gallery and a triumphal home coming for the artist whose art career had been encouraged by his Oshawa high school art teacher. The exhibition John Sadler: The Tar Paintings presented sixteen recent abstract paintings and was accompanied by an exhibition catalogue. In her essay, Joan Murray noted the last two years had been “a period of intense experimentation” for the artist. She described his paintings as having sculptural qualities which came from his inclusion of marble, wax and tar to create rocky, uneven surfaces; “If they recall landscapes they are apocalyptic ones or geological formation [s]...” The Robert McLaughlin Gallery acquired two of Sadler’s works Elemental Landscapes 1990-91, for their permanent collection. The Canada Council’s Art Bank in Ottawa also acquired an abstract work by Sadler in 1990. (Click here to listen to the John Sadler interview with Joan Murray in 1991.)
In 2010, Sadler was chosen as one of three finalists for the Victor Tolgesy Arts Award (administered by the Council for the Arts in Ottawa), in recognition of his important contribution to enriching the cultural life of Ottawa.
Notes
1. Interview with Sadler by Joan Murray, director/curator of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, 11 March 1991. Source: files from the artist’s estate held by his widow, Denise Garneau Sadler.
2. Blair Sharpe, “John Sadler,” , Vol. 7, No.5, Council for the Arts in Ottawa, Sept-Oct, 1989.
