Title and statement of responsibility area
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Dates of creation area
Date(s)
-
[ca. 1960]-2000 (Creation)
Physical description area
Physical description
2.6 m of textual records and graphic material 30 works on paper (prints and drawings) 24 posters 4 multiples 2 compact discs 1 baked porcelain panel
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Archival description area
Name of creator
Biographical history
John Bernard Boyle (1941- ) is an artist, activist, curator and writer who has lived and worked in St. Catharines, London, Elsinore, and Peterborough, Ontario. He married Janet Perlman, with whom he has one daughter, Emily. Boyle was educated at London Teachers’ College and the University of Western Ontario, and is self-taught as a painter. He taught elementary school in St. Catharines intermittently between 1962 and 1968. In 1974 he moved with his family to a converted church in Elsinore, Ontario (near Owen Sound), where he had his studio until 2002. He is currently based in Peterborough. Boyle began to exhibit his paintings in 1964, the same year he was inspired by meeting London artists including Jack Chambers and Greg Curnoe. In 1966 controversy arose at the London Public Library and Art Museum over Boyle’s exhibited piece Seated Nude. Boyle was an early participant in London’s 20/20 Gallery. In 1972 he designed sets for the play Buffalo Jump at Theatre Passe Muraille, Toronto; that same year he curated the first Billboard Show in St. Catharines. In 1980 Boyle completed the mural Our Knell for Queen Subway Station, Toronto. From 1973 through the 1990s, Boyle exhibited regularly at Nancy Poole’s Studio, Toronto. A key figure among the artist activists who established professional representation and rights for artists in the early 1970s, Boyle was the founding spokesperson of Canadian Artists Representation Ontario (CARO) in 1971. In 1970 he served as the first president of the Niagara Artists Co-operative (later Company). Boyle was a member of the Board of Trustees of the Art Gallery of Ontario, 1975-1977. Boyle has written extensively in journals including 20 Cents Magazine, Parachute, and Twelve Mile Creek. His regular column “According to Boyle” in CAROT (1975-78) dealt with challenges facing artists. Boyle has written three novels, No Angel Came (1995); and the unpublished The Gergovnians and The Peregrinations and Permutations of a Young Artist in Canada. His illustration and book design work includes The Port Dalhousie Stories by Dennis Tourbin (1987), as well as several magazine articles and book jackets. He initiated the discipline of “Canadology” in 1989 to record the social customs of the country. Boyle is a founding member (since 1965) and principal kazooist of The Nihilist Spasm Band. His work is represented in numerous Canadian collections, including the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Custodial history
Scope and content
Fonds consists of the personal and professional records of John Boyle, including documentation of his work as an artist and his writing projects. Fonds includes documentation of Boyle’s involvement with Canadian Artists’ Representation Ontario, the Niagara Artists’ Company, and the Nihilist Spasm Band. Fonds is comprised of the following series: Exhibition and project files Nihilist Spasm Band files Canadian Artists’ Representation Ontario files Niagara Artists’ Company files Studio business files Manuscript writings Inventories of art works Adjunct art works Posters Financial records Published writings and illustrations
Notes area
Physical condition
Immediate source of acquisition
Fonds was acquired from the creator in 2003.
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Restrictions on access
Open
Terms governing use, reproduction, and publication
Copyright is held by the creator. Copyright belonging to other parties, such as that of photographs, may still rest with the creator(s) of these items. It is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain permission to publish any part of the fonds.
Finding aids
A detailed inventory is available for this fonds.
Associated materials
Accruals
Further accruals are expected.
General note
Some material is in French and Japanese.