Went to ‘Heart of London’ exhibit.

Bought 3 shirts, Knock on Wood, MM.

Paul Butterfield LP came from London.

– Feb. 28, 1969

The Heart of London was a great National Gallery of Canada exhibition with 11 artists (“11-man” exhibition, hmph!) representing LondonOntArt . . . two of them, Ron Martin and Royden Rabinowitch just won $25,000 each as Governor General’s Awards honorees for 2012 today. Another winner, Geoffrey James, wrote a fine piece on the exhibition for
Vie des Arts, n° 53, 1968-1969, p. 44-48.

Let’s see if JBNBlog can remember the other nine artists: David Rabinowitch (Royden’s twin brother), Murray Favro, Tony Urquhart, John Boyle, Greg Curnoe, John (Jack) Chambers, Ed Zelenak, Walter Redinger and had to check the G. James piece again to remember the 11th “man” was Bev Kelly (a woman). Judith Rodger said recently she had connected with Bev Kelly & that reminds me to get on the case, too. The Heart of London . . . still beating strong.

Here is what George Bowering wrote about a beautiful image of Bev Kelly by late London photographer Don Vincent:

But then I remember that a month later I saw the latest in a number of magazine spreads about the London, Ont. art scene. This one was in the ‘Canadian’ edition of Time magazine. It was published in connection with Pierre Théberge’s The Heart of London show, but it failed to mention Pierre. Greg Curnoe was always careful to mention people. He would always mention Pierre Théberge or Dennis Reid or Michel Sanouillet. Time magazine did mention that Don Vincent took the photograph of Bev Kelly, probably at the 20/20 Gallery. I knew that I would never get my picture in Time magazine. That was one thing I could always hold over Greg’s head. In his picture he is sitting inside the famous Nihilist Spasm Band pyramid.

*An occasional series based on a v. cryptic diary kept as a pen&ink forerunner to JBNBlog during the late 1960s, when our family lived in London, Stratford (parts of summers of 1966 & 1967), Victoria, B.C. (July 4, 1968-July 4, 1969) and then London again until June, 1970 when I was in Grade 13.