William Perehudoff: The Mural Room

WILLIAM PEREHUDOFF: THE MURAL ROOM
Curated by Kent Archer

College Art Galleries
May 28 to Aug 30, 2013
Public Reception: Friday, May 31 at 7:30 p.m.
For more information:
T: 306.966.4571 | F: 306.978.8340
E: kent.archer@usask.ca, leah.taylor@usask.ca

William Perehudoff: The Mural Room refers to a set of murals designed and executed by William Perehudoff at the request of Fred Mendel, the one time owner of Intercontinental Packers Ltd. The fresco style murals were completed in the reception room at the Intercontinental Packers plant in 1953.

Perehudoff employed a conventional fresco technique for the murals, mixing dry pigments that were ground in lime water on to a freshly plastered area of the wall prior to the plaster settling, incorporating the pigments into the structure of the plaster. A 1953 Canadian Art magazine article quotes Perehudoff as stating: “The two side walls were painted white in order to create a feeling of openness. It was then decided to make the north wall blue, taken over by a yellow ceiling to a south wall of olive green. The different coloured walls create movement around the room and a unity of opposites. Since the room is used almost exclusively for entertaining, I used the arts as the basis for creation of forms. The free forms with intervening colours created a unity of line and opposing colours.”

The murals were rescued from a scheduled demolition of the plant in 2010 through a joint effort from the University of Saskatchewan, the city of Saskatoon and concerned members of the community. The rescue effort was spearheaded primarily by two committed individuals, Dave Denny and Lynne Earle with the University of Saskatchewan and the city of Saskatoon committing resources to the project. The University of Saskatchewan retained the services of Ian Hodkinson to remove and conserve the murals from their original home after which they were ultimately acquired by the Mendel Art Gallery.

Through a generous loan by the Mendel Art Gallery, the College Art Galleries will display the murals in their entirety in a reconstruction of the original Intercontinental Packers plant reception room. The exhibition will also include other examples of Perehudoff’s paintings from the University of Saskatchewan Art Collection.

The exhibition will be on view from May 28 to August 30, 2013 with a public reception scheduled for Friday, May 31 at 7:30 at the College Art Galleries.

Please join us to celebrate this important artist, his paintings and the efforts of the community who helped to save this important work.

For additional information, please contact Kent Archer or Leah Taylor at the coordinates below.

T: 306.966.4571 | F: 306.978.8340
E: kent.archer@usask.ca, leah.taylor@usask.ca