The last member of the famous art group, the Regina Five, has passed away.
Ted Godwin died late Thursday night in Calgary after suffering a heart attack.
But art experts say he will live on for decades through his work.
Eltje Degenhart has been painting Saskatchewan’s culture for years. It’s a craft he learned in part from Godwin, who was his former University of Regina professor.
He says looking back the most important lessons weren’t learned in the classroom, but afterwards at the Hotel Saskatchewan over drinks.
“That’s where he taught us the whole business of art,” said Degenhart. “He was very keen on that, teaching the business of art and what you had to do because it’s a tough road as a painter.”
All of Godwin’s students remember him vividly. They say he was a larger than life character with big visions and loud opinions.
“He was of that generation of artists that loved to play hard, drink hard, and paint hard,” remembers Timothy Long, a former student and now Head Curator of the MacKenzie Art Gallery.
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The Regina Five began back in 1961 in that very gallery. Ted Godwin, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Douglas Morton and Ronald Bloore opened an exhibit titled, “The May Show”. The new abstract style turned Canadian art on its ear.
“They were modernists,” said Long. “They believed in this new vision of art. That art was visual language.”
With just one show, the Regina Five was born. They were on the vanguard of this new scene and they did it all not from New York City, not from Paris, but from the middle of the Canadian Prairies.
They invited and attracted world leading artists here, putting Regina on the map.
“They made it possible for artists to think, I’m not just making art for my community, but this is going to go across the country and across the world,” said Mark Wihak, a Visual Arts Professor at the University of Regina, and the creator of the documentary, “A World Away – Stories from the Regina Five”.
The Regina Five and the modernist movement ruled the art scene until the 1970’s when the regionalist or funk art movement rebelled against it.
When Joe Fafard showed up for Godwin’s class one day, he brought along satiric clay figures of his “outdated modernist” professors.
This rift in the art world never really went away, but nonetheless Godwin’s art and teachings impacted thousands.
“Some students he passed on his gifts to, others reacted against it, but that’s important too as a teacher,” said Long.
Now after his passing colleagues, friends, and former students are remembering what they believe is his legacy.
“It’s the idea of being an artist in Saskatchewan and being able to stay here, but make work that gets seen around the world,” said Wihak.
“They left us with a city with a vibrant arts scene and with a gallery with a real history and sense of purpose,” said Long.
But perhaps the most meaningful way Godwin will live on, is through the painters he’s inspired for better or for worse.
“He didn’t like my work much when he first saw it,” recalls Degenhart. “Finally I just got mad and I started playing with colour in a different way than he was used to seeing. That’s when he said, now we’re getting somewhere.”
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