Arnaud Maggs

File:Maggs 03a.jpg

Maggs's explorations of the grid, portraiture, and collecting informed his investigations into such themes as systems and classification, time, memory, and death.{{Cite book |last=Cibola |first=Anne |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/arnaud-maggs/significance-and-critical-issues/ |title=Arnaud Maggs: Life & Work |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4871-0276-0 |location=Toronto |language=English}} Characteristic of Maggs' early work are his black-and-white portraits taken from the front, side and back, and presented in grid formation.[http://www.macm.org/en/expositions/44.html Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal ::: Arnaud Maggs: Nomenclature] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081121042549/http://www.macm.org/en/expositions/44.html |date=November 21, 2008 }} Maggs' use of the grid was influenced by his background in graphic design as well as his interest in Conceptual art.{{Cite book |last1=Bassnett |first1=Sarah |last2=Parsons |first2=Sarah |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/photography-in-canada-1839-1989/key-photographers/arnaud-maggs/ |title=Photography in Canada, 1839–1989: An Illustrated History |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2023 |isbn=978-1-4871-0309-5 |location=Toronto}} By including numerous similar photos in one work, Maggs invoked the idea of duration, inviting viewers to compare changes in images over time. In his series 48 Views, 1981-1982, he used this grid style to portray cultural figures including Yousuf Karsh, Jane Jacobs and Michael Snow.

The most famous of his grid works were his internationally acclaimed portraits of Joseph Beuys, Joseph Beuys: 100 Frontal Views, Düsseldorf, 21.10.80 and Joseph Beuys: 100 Profile Views, Düsseldorf, 21.10.80.[http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggavma/2006/yh127864873627123010.htm The Canada Council for the Arts – Maggs Essay] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219205539/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggavma/2006/yh127864873627123010.htm |date=February 19, 2012 }} Created in Beuys' Düsseldorf home in 1980, the images appear to be identical, but are 200 different photographs of Beuys attempting to sit completely still. The same year, Maggs photographed André Kertész, then 86, in his André Kertész, 144 Views.{{cite journal |last1=Monk |first1=Philip |title=Elgaic Pantomine: Arnaud Maggs After Nadar |journal=Canadian Art |date=June 16, 2014 |url=https://canadianart.ca/features/arnaud-maggs-elgaic-pantomine/ |access-date=2021-04-13}} His grid work "fascinated, disturbed and exerted tremendous influence in art and magazine circles," wrote Martha Langford in 2010.{{Cite book|url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/432401392|last1=Langford |first1=Martha |title=”A Short History of Photography, 1900-2000”. The Visual Arts in Canada: the Twentieth Century|p=295|date=2010|publisher=Oxford University Press|others=Foss, Brian, Paikowsky, Sandra, Whitelaw, Anne (eds.)|isbn=978-0-19-542125-5|location=Don Mills, Ont.}}

By the mid-1980s, Maggs shifted away from portraiture and turned his focus to typography, which had been a prominent aspect of his work as a graphic designer. He replaced the human head with number- and letterforms in his photography and paintings, although he displayed an ongoing fascination with shape, scale, and classification.

Maggs's concern for classification extended to work he made of historical documents such as the address book of Eugène Atget, rare books and ephemera, and collections of miscellany.{{cite web |last1=Weir |first1=Stephen |title=Arnaud Maggs Dies |url=https://www.huffingtonpost.ca/stephen-weir/arnaud-maggs-dies-_b_2170683.html |website=www.huffingtonpost.ca |publisher=Huffington Post |access-date=2021-04-14}} He was also fascinated with the history of photography.{{cite web |last1=Enright |first1=Robert |title=Designs on Life: An Interview with Arnaud Maggs |url=https://bordercrossingsmag.com/article/designs-on-life-an-interview-with-arnaud-maggs |website=bordercrossingsmag.com |publisher=Bordencrossings magazine, Fall 2012 |access-date=2021-04-15}}

Often examining existing systems of identification and classification in his works, Maggs developed his own classification scheme in Hotel Series, 1991. He photographed more than 300 vertical hotel signs in Paris, from which he compiled a selection of 165 signs to be published in a book designed by graphic designer and typographer Ed Cleary (1950–1994) and published by Art Metropole (Toronto) and Presentation House (Vancouver) in 1993. Maggs arranged the photographs in the book by lettering style so that each page contains five similar hotel signs.{{Cite book |last=Cibola |first=Anne |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/arnaud-maggs/key-works/hotel-series/ |title=Arnaud Maggs: Life & Work |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4871-0276-0 |location=Toronto |language=English}}

Since the late 1970s, Maggs has been the subject of numerous retrospectives, solo exhibitions and group shows across the country and world-wide. Several shows were especially notable in Canada. In 1999, a survey exhibition of Maggs’s work titled Arnaud Maggs: Works 1976-1997 was organized by curator Philip Monk for Toronto's The Power Plant.{{cite web |title=Arnaud Maggs |url=https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artist/arnaud-maggs |website=www.gallery.ca |publisher=National Gallery of Canada |access-date=2021-04-14}} In 2006, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa; Gallery One One One, School of Art, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg; and McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton organized Arnaud Maggs: Nomenclature, curated by Linda Jansma. The show subsequently travelled to the Musée d’art contemporain in Montreal.{{cite web |title=Arnaud Maggs: Nomenclature |url=https://macm.org/en/exhibitions/arnaud-maggs/ |website=macm.org |publisher=Musée d’art contemporain |access-date=2021-04-13}} In 2012, the National Gallery of Canada gave him a retrospective titled Arnaud Maggs: Identification. In the United States, he was included in Special Collections: The Photographic Order from Pop to Now organized by Charles Stainback and toured by the International Centre of Photography in New York (1992).

His work is in many public collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, Art Gallery of Alberta, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts,{{cite web |title=Scotiabank today issued the following statement on the passing of Canadian artist and photographer Arnaud Maggs on November 17th, 2012 |url=https://www.newswire.ca/fr/news-releases/scotiabank-today-issued-the-following-statement-on-the-passing-of-canadian-artist-and-photographer-arnaud-maggs-on-november-17th-2012-511190071.html |website=/www.newswire.ca |publisher=Scotia Bank |access-date=2021-04-14}} the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa,{{cite web |last1=Maggs |first1=Arnaud |title=Collection |url=https://rmg.minisisinc.com/m3online/scripts/mwimain.dll/72/1/0?SEARCH&SHOWSINGLE=Y&ERRMSG=[M3ONLINE]error.html |website=rmg.minisisinc.com |publisher=Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa |access-date=2021-04-14}} McMaster Museum of Art,{{cite web |title=Collection |url=https://emuseum.mcmaster.ca/emuseum/search/quick/doSearcharnaud%20maggs?t:state:flow=43e6e39f-6f3f-46bd-937c-c7dfab45d189 |website=emuseum.mcmaster.ca |publisher=McMaster Museum of Art |access-date=2021-04-14}} and the Portland Art Museum, Oregon.{{cite web |title=Collection |url=http://portlandartmuseum.us/mwebcgi/mweb.exe?request=record;id=12929;type=701 |website=portlandartmuseum.us |publisher=Portland Art Museum, Oregon |access-date=2021-04-14}} Arnaud Maggs is represented by Susan Hobbs Gallery in Toronto.

In 1984, Maggs was given the Canada Council's Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award.{{cite web |title=Prizes |url= https://canadacouncil.ca/funding/prizes/victor-martyn-lynch-staunton-awards|publisher=Canada Council |access-date=15 August 2022}} He received the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 1991 and in 1992, the Toronto Arts Award. In 2006, Maggs was awarded the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts.[http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggavma/2006/ud127864841180459750.htm The Canada Council for the Arts – Maggs Bio] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120219205558/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/prizes/ggavma/2006/ud127864841180459750.htm |date=February 19, 2012 }} In 2012, Maggs was awarded the Scotiabank Photography Award.{{Cite web |url=http://www.scotiabankphotoaward.com/ |title=Scotiabank Photography Award |access-date=2019-11-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729093610/http://www.scotiabankphotoaward.com/ |archive-date=2018-07-29 |url-status=live }}

Arnuld Maggs died of cancer in Toronto on November 17, 2012. In 2013, an exhibition titled the Scotiabank Photography Award: Arnaud Maggs was held at the Ryerson Image Centre in Toronto. It featured a selection of work curated by the artist during his final months.{{cite web |title=Scotiabank Photography Award: Arnaud Maggs |url=https://ryersonimagecentre.ca/exhibition/scotiabank-photography-award-arnaud-maggs/ |website=ryersonimagecentre.ca |publisher=Ryerson University, Toronto |access-date=2021-04-14}}

Maia-Mari Sutnik of the Art Gallery of Ontario who had been invited by Paris Photo to curate an exhibition, curated Performance Propositions, featuring Arnaud Maggs’s autobiographical series, After Nadar (2012) in dialogue with selected original press prints of the 1930s from the Art Gallery of Ontario's collection, held at the Grand Palais, during Paris Photo in November 2013.Maia-Mari Sutnik, "Paris Photo: A distinctive, thrilling experience". Paris Photo 1997-2016 Parcours, 2016, Paris Photo and Éditions Xavier Barral, Paris The show was the exhibition`s centrepiece, and in it, Maggs took the role of Nadar's 1854-1855 series of mime Jean-Charles Deburau as Pierrot in nine photographs including an announcement of someone's death. As Sutnik observed, Maggs` performance in his own studio in these photographs, not only concerned the history of photography but, knowing that he was about to die, announced his own forthcoming death. She called them "poignant".

A postage stamp depicting Magg's photograph of Yousuf Karsh was issued on March 22, 2013, by Canada Post as part of their Canadian Photography series.{{cite web|title=New photography stamp series gives an appreciation of Canada's best |url=http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/pr/2013/2013_canadian_photography.jsf |publisher=Canada Post |accessdate=14 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017015608/http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/aboutus/news/pr/2013/2013_canadian_photography.jsf |archivedate=17 October 2013 }}{{cite web|title=Canadian Photography |url=http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/2013/2013_mar_photography.jsf |publisher=Canada Post |accessdate=14 October 2013 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20131017025736/http://www.canadapost.ca/cpo/mc/personal/collecting/stamps/2013/2013_mar_photography.jsf |archivedate=17 October 2013 }}

A documentary film about Maggs and his partner of 25 years, Spring Hurlbut, Spring and Arnaud, premiered at 2013 Hot Docs Film Festival. His fonds is at the City of Toronto Archives number 1598.{{cite web |title=Digitized Photographs By Fonds & Series |url=https://www.toronto.ca/city-government/accountability-operations-customer-service/access-city-information-or-records/city-of-toronto-archives/whats-online/digitized-photographs-by-fonds-and-series/ |website=www.toronto.ca |publisher=Toronto |access-date=2021-04-13}}

{{reflist}}

• Allen, Karyn. Arnaud Maggs Photographs 1975-84. Calgary: Nickle Arts Museum, 1984.
• Alleti, Vince. "Special Collections." The Village Voice (18 August 1992).
• Bassnett, Sarah; Parsons, Sarah. Photography in Canada, 1839–1989: An Illustrated History. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2023. {{ISBN|978-1-4871-0309-5}}
• Bedard, Catherine and Keziere, Russell. Arnaud Maggs: Notes Capitales. Paris: Canadian Cultural Centre, 2000.
• Blanchette, Manon. "A Work by Arnaud Maggs." Le Journal du Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, (November/December 1990).
• Campbell, James D. "Arnaud Maggs at Centre Saidye Bronfman and at Chapelle historique du Bon-Pasteur, Montreal." C Magazine (Spring 1991).
• Cibola, Anne. [https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/arnaud-maggs/ Arnaud Maggs: Life & Work]. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2022. {{ISBN|978-1-4871-0276-0}}.
• Craven, George M. Object & Image. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 1982.
• Drouin-Brisebois, Josée, Stainback, Charles, and Vogl, Rhiannon. Arnaud Maggs: Identification. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 2013.
• Franchette, Frédérique. "Double foyer pour Atget." Liberation (19 December 2000).
• Goldberg, Vicki. "Seven Thousand Pictures are Better than One." The New York Times (23 August 1992).
• Holubizky, Ihor. Numbering. Hamilton: Art Gallery of Hamilton, 1990.
• {{cite book |last1=Jansma |first1=Linda |title=Arnaud Maggs: Nomenclature |date=2006 |publisher=The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa); Gallery One One One, School of Art, University of Manitoba; McMaster Museum of Art, Hamilton |location=Oshawa, Hamilton, Winnipeg |url=https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/discovery/search?query=any,contains,Arnaud%20Maggs:%20Nomenclature&tab=LibraryCatalog&search_scope=UTL&vid=01UTORONTO_INST:UTORONTO&offset=0 |access-date=2021-04-14}}
• Jenkner, Ingrid. Arnaud Maggs Numberworks. Guelph: Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, 1989.
• Keziere, Russell. "Arnaud Maggs: Convergence Without Coincidence." CV Photo #39 (Summer 1997).
• Lindberg, E. Theodore. Arnaud Maggs, An Exhibition of Selected Works 1981-83. Vancouver: The *Charles H. Scott Gallery, Emily Carr College of Art and Design, 1984.
• Maclear, Kyo. "Arnaud Maggs." Toronto Life (April 1999).
• Macwilliam, David. Arnaud Maggs. Paris: Centre Culturel Canadien, 1980.
• Monk, Philip and Sutnik, Maia-Mari. Arnaud Maggs: Works 1976-1999. Toronto: The Power Plant, 1999.
• Portis, Ben. "Evidence of Existence: A conversation with Toronto-based photographer Arnaud Maggs." Art on Paper (May/June 2008).
• Popescu, Doina; Hackett, Sophie, and Sutnik, Maia-Mari. Arnaud Maggs. Göttingen/Toronto: Steidl/ScotiaBank Photography Award, 2013;
• Roegiers, Patrick. double vie, double vue. Paris: Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, 1996.
• Stainback, Charles. Special Collections: The Photographic Order from Pop to Now. New York: International Center of Photography, 1992.
• Sramek, Peter. "Seeing People/Seeing Space." British Journal of Photography (18 May 1984).
• Walsh, George. Contemporary Photographers. London, England: St. James Press, 1981.

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Category:1926 births

Category:2012 deaths

Category:Artists from Montreal

Category:Canadian photographers

Category:Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners

Category:Deaths from cancer