Product Tag: Betty Roodish Goodwin (Canadian 1923-2008)

Artist Biography: GOODWIN, Betty Roodish (Canadian, 1923-2008) CPE. Artist. Born in Montreal in 1928, Betty Goodwin was the only child of immigrant parents of Romanian origin. After completing high school, Goodwin studied design at the Valentine’s Commercial School of Art in Montreal. After graduating at the end of the 1940s, she began her career as a painter and engraver where she would study under Yves Gaucher (1968). With a multi-disciplinary approach to mixed-media she often included found objects and fabrics. Dark undertones are also found, especially after the death of her son by drug-overdose in 1974. Innovative and driven she became “it” in the art scene and one of the most recognizable Canadian artists of the 20th Century. EXHIBITIONS: Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1955, 1999); Burnaby Print Show (BC, 1967); Spanish International Biennial Exhibition of Fine Prints (Spain, 1974); International Biennale of Etching (Toyko, 1974); Ljublijana Graphic Art Biennale (1975); Biennial São Paulo (1985); Galerie Graff (Montreal, 1986); Espacc la Transchefile (Montreal, 1991); the Venice Biennale (1995); Stephen Friedman Gallery (London, 1996); Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, 1998); Oakville Galleries (Ontario, 2000); and the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 1996, 2002). AWARDS & HONOURS: Lynch-Staunton Award (1983); Banff Center National Arts Award (1984); Paul-Émile Borduas Award (1986); Guggenheim Foundation Award (1988); Gershon Iskowitz Award (1995); Harold Town Prize for Design (1998); Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2003); and honorary Doctorates issued by schools across Canada, including the University of Montreal, University of Guelph and University of Waterloo. Goodwin’s work can be found in numerous Canadian public and private art collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Art.