Derek Michael Besant

File:Derek Michael Besant Waterfall.jpg, Toronto. UV epoxy on canvas grid.]]

Besant studied at University of Calgary, where he received a BFA Honours in 1973{{Cite news|last=Robertson|first=Patricia|date=2001-09-14|title=A month that changed a life|pages=72|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60356928/a-month-that-changed-a-life/|access-date=2020-10-01}} and continued with Graduate Studies in 1974. He was the Exhibitions Designer for the Glenbow Museum between 1973–1977. He designed exhibitions throughout the art gallery and museum spaces, along with catalogues and travelling exhibitions. The Alberta University of Art and Design invited him to teach in the Drawing and Fine Arts Department in 1977. He taught there for forty years and retired from teaching in 2017. He was the Head of the Drawing Department between 1979–1993.{{cite web |last1=Besant |first1=Derek Michael |title=The Dark Woods (Revisited)|url=https://issuu.com/vernonpublicartgallery4/docs/derek_besant_catalogue_issuu |website=issuu.com |publisher=Vernon Public Art Gallery, 2018|page=62ff |access-date=2020-07-08}} Since 1980, he has also been a lecturer at Texas State University in San Marcos.

Some of his public commissions include: The Flatiron Mural in 1980 behind Toronto's landmark Gooderham flatiron building on Front Street, Waterfall at 15 storeys high inside the atrium of Scotia Plaza at King & Bay in 1989,{{Cite news|last=Gustafson|first=Paula|date=1988-03-28|title=Rockies waterfall to tumble down Toronto highrise|pages=10|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/58701335/rockies-waterfall-to-tumble-down/|access-date=2020-09-05}}{{Cite web|title=Water works: Alberta artist Derek Besant designed this life-size mural of an actual Rockies waterfall. The 11-storey work was installed this weekend in the Scotia Plaza lobby.|url=https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMDC-TSPA_0109403F&R=DC-TSPA_0109403F|access-date=2020-09-05|website=Toronto Public Library|language=en}} two murals for Worldwide Centre at 58th and 8th Manhattan Cineplex New York City in 1989, and Train of Thought, a series of portraits at the uOttawa station of the Ottawa O-Train in 2018.{{cite web |title=O-Train Confederation Line |url=https://ottawa.ca/en/residents/transportation-and-parking/oc-transpo-and-public-transit/o-train-confederation-line |publisher=City of Ottawa |access-date=17 September 2019}}{{cite web |last1=Markus |first1=Jason |title=The artist behind Calgary's portrait fiasco has a $200,000 piece coming to Ottawa |url=https://www.macleans.ca/culture/the-artist-behind-calgarys-portrait-fiasco-has-a-200000-piece-coming-to-ottawa |website=www.macleans.ca |publisher=Maclean`s, November 29, 2017 |access-date=2020-07-15}}

File:Derek Michael Bessant Flatiron Mural.jpg, Toronto.]]

Besant's exhibitions have included: representing Canada in the Sharjah Biennial in 2003, United Arab Emirates, University of London Goldsmiths College, Tokyo Media-Art Festival, Metropolitan Museum of Photography in Japan, the 2004 SIGGRAPH International Conference on Computer Imaging + Interactive Technologies, Los Angeles in 2004, and in many other international exhibitions since then, including one-person shows such as 15 Restless Nights (2008), Body Of Water (2008), and The End Of Language (2011) which have been shown in various galleries in Canada, and in Edinburgh, Madrid, Tokyo and Cambridge, UK, among other places.

In 2018, for the exhibition The Dark Woods (Revisited), curated by Lubos Culen for [https://www.vernonpublicartgallery.com the Vernon Public Art Gallery], Vernon, British Columbia, he created large scale (though deliberately slightly out-of-focus) images using UV thermal transfer printing which contained embedded fragments of text from a book by ]]Alberto Pérez-Gómez]], accompanied by a video projection of dark woods environments.{{cite book |last1=Culen |first1=Lubos |title=Introduction, Derek Michael Besant The Dark Woods (Revisited)|page=6 |date=2018 |publisher=Vernon Public Art Gallery |location=Vernon, British Columbia|url=https://issuu.com/vernonpublicartgallery4/docs/derek_besant_catalogue_issuu |access-date=2020-07-11}} In 2020, his exhibition Drawing Conclusions in which he used lenticular and latex UV ink technologies to record architectural construction sites was shown at the International Duoro Printmaking Biennial held at the Côa Museum in northern Portugal. He has continued, despite Covid, to participate in international projects such as, in 2021, developing five large-scale shaped engraved images that echoed his earlier work from unmade hotel beds as landscape which were installed at La Boverie Musée, Liège, Belgium in its Engraving Triennial exhibition.{{cite web |title=Engraving Triennial |url=https://www.laboverie.com/expos-evenements/Actuellement/triennale-de-la-gravure |website=www.laboverie.com |publisher=La Boverie Museum |access-date=2021-10-14}} In 2022, The 3rd International Müvészeti Digital Triennial premiered his new video production Faultline in Budapest, Hungary and he was among 16 international artists commissioned

to produce new in-situ art installations on the theme of Das Paradies liegt vors Uns (Paradise in front of us) for the "125th Anniversary of The Bruerei Clemens Härle" at Bodensee on Lac Constance in Southern Bavaria, Germany.

Also in 2022, he curated ANTHEM / Expressions of Canadian Identity of new artist book works which premiered at The Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt and opened in Toronto at the Canadian Language Museum in 2023.{{cite web |last1=Palamarchuk |first1=Andrew |title=article:Canadian Language Museum launches exhibit on national anthem |url=https://www.toronto.com/news/canadian-language-museum-launches-exhibit-on-national-anthem/article_cea2d522-a9c5-5959-ae51-955fa576ee5d.html? |website=/www.toronto.com |publisher=North York Mirror |access-date=25 December 2023}} In 2023, he exhibited a video installation titled Homeless, at the Council of the City of Sydney Libraries, Australia.

Besant's Flatiron Mural (1980) on Toronto's Gooderham Building has been called "a symbol of the liveliness of Toronto's contemporary art scene" (Boston Globe){{Cite news|last=Temin|first=Christine|date=1990-04-08|title=Toronto art scene: It's Henry Moore, a whole lot more|pages=123|work=Boston Globe|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60357577/toronto-art-scene-its-henry-moore-a/|access-date=2020-10-01}} and along with the building itself, "a landmark in its own right" (Toronto Star).{{Cite news|date=2001-05-26|title=This city landmark towers above the rest; Flatiron Building possesses more character than most of Toronto's contemporary structures|page=J08|work=Toronto Star|id={{ProQuest| }}}} Writing about its unveiling in the Globe and Mail, John Bentley Mays called it an "engineering masterpiece and an artistic triumph."{{Cite news|last=Mays|first=John Bentley|author-link=John Bentley Mays|date=1980-09-19|title=Flying high on the Flatiron|work=The Globe and Mail|id={{ProQuest| }}}}

A 1985 review in the Edmonton Journal described Besant's images of "structures in the midst of diagrammatic environments" as "unusual and highly individual", and "dramatic enough to transcend the ordinary and encourage a thorough visual investigation."{{Cite news|last=Matousek|first=Phylis|date=1985-11-02|title=Besant's images unique|pages=40|work=Edmonton Journal|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60357446/besants-images-unique/|access-date=2020-10-01}}

In 2017, an investigation was ordered by the City of Calgary into allegations that Besant had plagiarized the content of a temporary public art installation.{{cite news|last1=Learmonth|first1=Andrew|title=Calgary artist accused of stealing Edinburgh Fringe comics' photos for $20k art project|publisher=The National|url=http://thenational.scot/news/15688386.Calgary_artist_accused_of_stealing_Edinburgh_Fringe_comics__photos_for__20k_art_project/|access-date=November 28, 2017}}{{cite news|title=Artist sorry for using comedians' faces in underpass art|publisher=BBC News|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-42178102|access-date=November 30, 2017}} Besant apologized and the mural was removed.{{cite web|last1=Ferguson|first1=Eva|title=Artist apologizes for using comedy festival pictures in Calgary public art piece|url=https://calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/artist-derek-besant-apologizes-admits-using-photos-from-brochure-was-misunderstanding|access-date=2020-07-13|website=calgaryherald.com|publisher=Calgary Herald, Nov. 30, 2017}}

• Member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1978){{cite web|title=Members since 1880 |url=http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |publisher=Royal Canadian Academy of Arts |access-date=11 September 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110526215339/http://www.rca-arc.ca/en/about_members/since1880.asp |archive-date=26 May 2011 }}
• Alberta Governor General's Award in Art (1980)
• World Culture Prize in Research Arts & Letters from Milan, Italy (1983);
• Signature Sculpture Competition ($100,000), Mount Royal College (1989) {{Cite news|date=1989-05-18|title=Local sculptor takes contest|pages=80|work=Calgary Herald|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/60358263/local-sculptor-takes-contest/|access-date=2020-10-01}}
• Lieutenant Governor of Alberta's Art Achievement Award (1999)
• Distinguished Alumni Award from University of Calgary (1999)
• Special Award for remarkable contribution in graphic art of the world, Bitola, Macedonia (2018)
• Member of the Society of Austrian Artists, Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria
• Member of the Editorial Board of PRINTMAKING TODAY, London UK.

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Category:Artists from Calgary

Category:Canadian muralists

Category:Living people

Category:Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

Category:1950 births

Category:University of Calgary alumni

Category:Canadian printmakers

Category:Printmakers