Betty Roodish Goodwin (Canadian, 1923-2008) CPE
Laurentian Winter Landscape
Quebec School, oil on masonite
(actual) 14” high x 19” wide
(framed) 21 ¾” high x 25 ¾” wide
Markings: signed lower right
Condition: Excellent Condition – Framed and Ready for Display.
Notes: Born in Montreal, Betty Roodish Goodwin excelled in the art scene with an instinctive understanding of experimentation and self-employment – time and again she found herself at the fore of her incidental profession: “The strange part is that I never said I am going to become an artist … I just kept going and persevered .. I have said it many times, you push and push and push, and there is a moment when the work begins to pull you.” Known primarily for her mixed media, installations, and series Goodwin also explored the Canadian landscape. Here, the palette of burnt ret and orange, contrasted with blue and yellow hues, along with the feathery brush strokes, is immediately recognizable as Goodwin’s signature tone, vest or not.
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.
