Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful an interview with Dr. Stephen Borys

Robert Houle. Sandy Bay, 1998–1999. oil, black and white photograph, colour photograph on canvas, masonite, 300 x 548.4 cm. Collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery. Acquired with funds from the President’s Appeal 2000 and with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance program/Oeuvre achetée avec l’aide du programme d’aide aux acquisitions du Conseil des Arts du Canada, 2000-87 a-e. Photo: Ernest Mayer.

Robert Houle: Red is Beautiful brings together the work of the Saulteaux artist from Sandy Bay First Nation into a single, stunning exhibition. “Robert is one of Canada’s leading artists at this moment. Not only is he a great painter and designer, he has produced a body of work that has defined his own niche in the art world,” says Dr. Stephen Borys, Director and CEO of the Winnipeg Art Gallery-Qaumajuq.

The exhibition, which is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario and curated by Wanda Nanibush, is a major retrospective featuring over 90 large installations, paintings, and drawings spanning 50 years of Houle’s work, and includes works from WAG-Qaumajuq’s permanent collection. For Borys, hosting Red is Beautiful at the WAG is, in some ways, a story coming full circle. “I love the fact that Robert, early on in his career, spent time here at the WAG; he worked in the studios and produced new works during his residency,” says Borys. Houle has a long history of involvement with the Gallery. From February to April 1989, Houle was the artist-in-residence at the WAG, producing a body of work entitled Manitowapah or The Place Where God Lives, and later organized two solo shows at the Gallery: his first solo show Robert Houle: Indians from A to Z, 1990, and, almost a decade later, Robert Houle: Sovereignty over Subjectivity, 1999. These exhibitions showcased Houle’s unique perspective and approach to artmaking that blends physical representation and spiritual meaning.

As a painter, Houle is colourist whose work is often abstract and conceptual; he fully engages in the contemporary art scene while honouring his Saulteaux Anishinaabe roots. “I love Robert’s work, I love his paintings,” says Borys. “And from a perspective of style and technique they’re outstanding, but as you go deeper, you become aware of the themes, the symbolism, the iconography, the stories, and the issues that he brings together – including as a First Nations painter – that have cemented his role and place in Canadian art history.”

With Red is Beautiful coming to the Gallery spaces, Borys is also thinking about the role that the Gallery can play in reconciliation, and the history of the WAG’s relationship to Indigenous artists. “The biggest shift here is allowing Robert’s voice and Wanda’s voice – critical First Nations voices – to come out first in a project like this,” says Borys. “That was not always the case here at the WAG and I feel a personal and professional responsibility to see that that has changed.”

Houle’s work doesn’t shy away from difficult topics – his works focused on Sandy Bay Residential School delve directly into his own experiences as a child at residential school. Other works deal with spirituality, including the confluence of Saulteaux spirituality and the Catholicism that had been forced on him at residential school. “It’s not just a great exhibition – it’s an important learning experience, and it’s a way for us to engage more people in meaningful discussion,” says Borys. “I’m hoping that this show will not just move the WAG forward, but also move our community forward, and help the WAG continue to play a useful role with reconciliation. That would be my goal.”