David Askevold

David Askevold broke into the art scene when his work was included in the seminal exhibition Information at New York’s MOMA 1970, which cemented Conceptualism as a genre. He later became recognized as one of the most important contributors to the development and pedagogy of conceptual art; his work has been included in many of the genre’s formative texts and exhibitions.

This illustrated volume takes readers on an eclectic journey through the various strains of Askevold’s pioneering practice — sculpture/installation, film and video, photography and photo-text works, and digital imagery. David Askevold moved from Kansas City to Halifax in 1968 to lecture at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design.

During the early 1970s, his famous Projects Class brought such artists as Sol Lewitt, Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, Dan Graham, and Lawrence Weiner to work with his students, focusing critical attention on his adopted city and on his own unorthodox approach to making art. He quickly became on one of the most important conceptual artists practicing in Canada and throughout his career he remained at the vanguard of contemporary practice.

David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East features essays by celebrated writer-curators Ray Cronin, Peggy Gale, Richard Hertz (author of The Beat and the Buzz), and Irene Tsatsos as well as several of Askevold’s contemporaries including Aaron Brewer, Tony Oursler, and Mario Garcia Torres. It accompanies an exhibition that will open at the National Gallery of Canada in October 2011 and will tour thereafter to the Confederation Centre of the Arts in Charlottetown and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.

AUTHOR

David Diviney

David Diviney is the senior curator at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax. He is the editor of Close to the edge… The Work of Gerald Ferguson: Collected Writings and Statements, the definitive account of this late artist’s approach to his art and times, and his writing on the art of the 1960s and ’70s, contemporary art, and visual culture has been published widely in journals and exhibition catalogues. Diviney has also taught curatorial studies and fine arts at the Alberta College of Art and Design, University of Lethbridge, Thompson Rivers University, Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, and NSCAD University.

Reviews

Nova Scotia artist David Askevold (1940-2008) is recognized as a key contributor to the development and pedagogy of conceptual art. His work was included in the seminal exhibition Information at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1970 that cemented conceptualism as a movement. He quickly gained a reputation as one of the most influential conceptual artists in Canada, with his work apearing in many of the genre’s formative texts and exhibitions. During his forty-year career, Askevold remained at the vanguard of contemporary practice.

Askevold was born in Conrad, Montana. After studying at the University of Montana, Brooklyn Museum Art School, and Kansas City Art Institute, he moved to Halifax in 1968 to lecture at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. During the early 1970s, his famous Projects Class brought such artists as Sol LeWitt, Vito Acconci, John Baldessari, and Lawrence Weiner to work with his students, focusing critical attention on his adopted city and on his own unorthodox approach to making art.

This illustrated volume examines the various strains of Askevold’s pioneering practice — sculpture and installation, film and video, photo-text works and photography, and computer-generated imagery. David Askevold: Once Upon a Time in the East features essays by celebrated writer-curators Ray Cronin, Peggy Gale, Richard Hertz, and Irene Tsatsos as well as contributions from several of Askevold’s contemporaries, including Aaron Brewer, Tony Oursler, and Mario Garcia Torres. The book accompanies an exhibition that opens at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and travels to the Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in Halifax.