# Alma Duncan

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{{Short description|Canadian painter, artist, filmmaker}}
{{Infobox artist
| name = Alma Duncan
| image =
| imagesize = 
| caption = Alma Duncan - Self Portrait with Braids (1940)
| birth_name = 
| birth_date = October 2, 1917
| birth_place = [Paris, Ontario](/source/Paris%2C_Ontario), Canada
| death_date = December 15, 2004 (aged 86)
| death_place = [Ottawa](/source/Ottawa), Ontario, Canada
| nationality = 
| partner     = Audrey McLaren
| movement = 
| awards = BAFTA ([British Academy Film Awards](/source/British_Academy_Film_Awards)) (1954)
| patrons = 
| bgcolour = 
| field = 
| training = 
| works = 
| influenced by = 
| influenced = 
}}

'''Alma Mary Duncan''' (October 2, 1917<ref name="archives " >{{Cite web|url= http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/lac-bac/results/arch.php?FormName=MIKAN+Items+Display&PageNum=1&SortSpec=score+desc&Language=eng&QueryParser=lac_mikan&Sources=mikan&Archives=&SearchIn_1=&SearchInText_1=Alma+Duncan+and+Audrey+McLaren+fonds&Operator_1=AND&SearchIn_2=&SearchInText_2=&Operator_2=AND&SearchIn_3=&SearchInText_3=&Media=&Level=&MaterialDateOperator=after&MaterialDate=&DigitalImages=&Source=&ResultCount=10&cainInd=|title=Alma Duncan and Audrey McLaren fonds [multiple media].|last=|first=|date=2016-04-12|website=Library and Archives Canada|publisher=Library and Archives Canada, LAC|access-date=2018-10-28}}</ref> – December 15, 2004<ref name="delake " >{{cite web|url= http://www.delake.com/estatescollections/page2.htm|title= Alma Duncan|accessdate= 2008-02-23|publisher= D & E Lake, Ltd.| archiveurl= https://web.archive.org/web/20080121050657/http://www.delake.com/estatescollections/page2.htm| archivedate= 21 January 2008 | url-status= live}}</ref>) was a Canadian painter, graphic artist, and filmmaker from [Paris, Ontario](/source/Paris%2C_Ontario). A prolific artist working in a variety of mediums including charcoal, chalk pastel, ink, watercolour, oil paint, puppetry, and film, Duncan's style evolved drastically over the course of her career to include portraiture, precise representational drawings, [machine aesthetic](/source/machine_aesthetic), and abstraction.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=11}}</ref>

==Early life==

Alma Duncan was born in the southern Ontario town of Paris, but attended high school in [Hamilton, Ontario](/source/Hamilton%2C_Ontario) and [Montreal](/source/Montreal), [Quebec](/source/Quebec).<ref name="archives " /> Her father, John Duncan, was a textile-firm engineer, exposing Alma to textile factories and influencing her interest in pattern and combinations of realism and abstraction in her later artwork.<ref name=":3 " /> Though largely self-taught as an artist, she studied with Canadian painter Adam Sheriff Scott as a teenager.<ref name="macdonald " /> Duncan made use of her drawing skills at a commercial art studio from 1936 to 1943, where she drew products for mail-order catalogues, revealing the precision that would show up in other work such as her anatomical drawings at [McGill University](/source/McGill_University),<ref name=":0 " >{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=18}}</ref> where she studied Political Economy.<ref name=":4 " >{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=153}}</ref> Duncan continued to take life-drawing and portraiture courses in this early stage of her career with [Ernst Neumann](/source/Ernst_Neumann) at the Roberts-Neumann School of Art, which was located in the same building as the commercial art studio, as well as with [Goodridge Roberts](/source/Goodridge_Roberts) at the [Art Association of Montreal](/source/Art_Association_of_Montreal).<ref name=":0 " /> During this period, Duncan exhibited her artwork regularly at the spring exhibitions at the Art Association of Montreal.<ref name=":4" /> In 1941, Alma joined other prominent Montreal artists on the executive of the Quebec branch of the [Federation of Canadian Artists](/source/Federation_of_Canadian_Artists) (FCA),<ref name=":0 " /> and attended their first meeting in Kingston, Ontario at [Queen's University](/source/Queen's_University_at_Kingston) with 150 artists, curators, and members of the arts community.<ref name=":5 ">{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=154}}</ref>

==War work==

In 1943, the same year she served as treasurer of the Writers', Artists' and Broadcasters' War Council in Montreal,<ref name=":5 " /> Duncan obtained permission to document the lives of [war workers](/source/Military_history_of_Canada_during_the_Second_World_War) and the members of the [Canadian Women's Army Corps](/source/Canadian_Women's_Army_Corps) with her sketches.<ref name="archives " /> Several of these pieces are now held by the [Canadian War Museum](/source/Canadian_War_Museum) in its Beaverbrook Collection of War Art.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1019134/?q=Alma+Duncan&page_num=1&item_num=1&media_irn=5486807&mode=artifact|title=Rivetting ships' boilers|last=|first=|date=|work=warmuseum.ca|accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1019135/?q=activity%3AConstruction+de+navire&page_num=1&item_num=16&media_irn=5486808&mode=artifact|title=Interior of boiler shop (ship building)|last=|first=|date=|work=warmuseum.ca|accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.warmuseum.ca/collections/artifact/1019136/?q=Alma+Duncan&page_num=1&item_num=2&media_irn=1103358|title=Shaping hot metal under hammer (ship building)|last=|first=|date=|work=warmuseum.ca|accessdate=2008-02-23}}</ref> These drawings of machinery sparked Alma's ongoing interest in industrial subject matter, even inspiring her to take leave to draw industrial subjects around Ontario in 1947, while she was working in the animation department at the National Film Board.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=21}}</ref>

==Film work==

In 1943, the [National Film Board of Canada](/source/National_Film_Board_of_Canada) invited Montreal-based Duncan to join its Graphics Division. She worked first with the Information Display department,<ref name="archives " /> designing posters, publications, and travelling displays for National Film Board projects. She moved to the NFB's Animation Department when the Graphics Division was disbanded and produced her first film, ''Folksong Fantasy'' (shown at the 1951 [Edinburgh International Film Festival](/source/Edinburgh_International_Film_Festival))<ref name="macdonald " /> while under contract with the NFB as an independent producer.<ref name="archives " /> In 1951, Alma Duncan and her longtime partner, photographer Audrey McLaren, formed the film company Dunclaren Productions. Their first film, ''Kumak the Sleepy Hunter'' (1953) was a retelling of an [Inuit](/source/Inuit) legend using [puppet](/source/puppet)s and a [stop-motion animation](/source/Stop-motion) technique.<ref name="archives " /><ref>{{cite web|url=http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=11590|title=Kumak, the Sleepy Hunter|work=National Film Board of Canada collections page|accessdate=2009-09-15|archive-date=2011-07-06|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706182002/http://onf-nfb.gc.ca/eng/collection/film/?id=11590|url-status=dead}}</ref> It was nominated for a [BAFTA award](/source/British_Academy_of_Film_and_Television_Arts) in 1954 as a documentary film.<ref name="imdb-bafta " >{{cite web  | title = IMDb: BAFTA Awards: 1954  | url = http://media-imdb.com/Sections/Awards/BAFTA_Awards/1954  | archive-url = https://archive.today/20130210050415/http://media-imdb.com/Sections/Awards/BAFTA_Awards/1954  | url-status = dead  | archive-date = 2013-02-10  | accessdate = 2008-02-23  }}</ref> They produced two other films, ''Hearts and Soles'' (1955), which used the same animation techniques as ''Kumak'', and ''Friendly Interchange'' (1959), which was made with chalk drawings. 

Though the production company never disbanded, it became inactive after 1960.<ref name="archives " /> Duncan retired from animated filmmaking in 1960 to allow herself to concentrate on her drawings and paintings,<ref name=":1 " /> which became increasingly abstract despite taking inspiration from her natural surroundings.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa: Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=24}}</ref>

== Mid-career ==
Duncan began experimenting with abstraction in the 1960s, with her ''Woman Series'' which deconstructed the female figure through circular forms.<ref name=":2 " >{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=56}}</ref> Works from this series appeared in the exhibition ''Canadian Water Colours, Drawings and Prints 1966'' at the [National Gallery of Canada](/source/National_Gallery_of_Canada) and then circulated across Canada, as well as appearing in international exhibitions and collections such as the [Brooklyn Museum](/source/Brooklyn_Museum), the [Canada Council](/source/Canada_Council) Art Bank, and [Museum London](/source/Museum_London).<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=70}}</ref> Her work coincided with and reflects the sexual liberation of [second wave feminism](/source/Second-wave_feminism), though she did not explicitly identify as a feminist at the time.<ref name=":2 " /> Duncan's earlier painting ''Self-Portrait'' (1943) also embodies a feminist outlook, according to art historian Jaclyn Meloche, as her depiction of herself as a young and confident working artist defied prevailing gender norms.<ref name="Burant 2022 " >{{Cite book |last=Burant |first=Jim |url=https://www.aci-iac.ca/art-books/ottawa-art-and-artists/key-artists/alma-duncan/ |title=Ottawa Art & Artists: An Illustrated History |publisher=Art Canada Institute |year=2022 |isbn=978-1-4871-0289-0 |location=Toronto |language=English}}</ref> Duncan produced her "dot" series of pen-and-ink drawings of celestial bodies using simple circular forms the same year as her ''Woman Series''.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=57}}</ref> In 1966, amid her exploration of abstraction, Duncan joined the [Canadian Society of Graphic Art](/source/Canadian_Society_of_Graphic_Art).<ref name= ":6 " >{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=155–159}}</ref> 

Duncan was particularly fascinated by the works of [Painters Eleven](/source/Painters_Eleven) as well as the [Abstract Expressionists](/source/Abstract_expressionism), both influencing her abstract works, seen in her 1967 series of paintings expressing pure colour and form.<ref name=":3 " >{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=64}}</ref>

==Canada Post==
<!-- Deleted image removed: frame|right|'Autumn' stamp from Alma Duncan's 1971 "The Maple in four Seasons" series -->

In 1970, [Canada Post](/source/Canada_Post) commissioned Alma Duncan to design [stamps](/source/Postage_stamp). She produced the series ''Maple Leaf in Four Seasons'' (released in 1971) and the series ''Floral Aerogrammes'' (released in 1973). Her "Autumn" stamp from the ''Maple Leaf in Four Seasons'' series was selected as the ''stamp of the month'' by the ''Scott Monthly Journal'', a periodical from the creators of the [Scott catalogue](/source/Scott_catalogue) that commented on stamps worldwide.<ref name="archives " /><ref name="macdonald " >{{cite book | last = Macdonald | first = Colin | title = A Dictionary of Canadian Artists | edition = 5th | year = 1997 | publisher = Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd. | location = Ottawa, Ontario, Canada | isbn = 0-919554-21-0 | pages = 662a–664a}}</ref><ref>"Stamp of the Month." Scott Monthly Journal 52 (19 Sept. 1971): 3.</ref>

==Later life==

From 1960 until her death, most of Alma Duncan's time was devoted to her painting and drawing, much of it done on location near her home outside of [Cumberland, Ontario](/source/Cumberland%2C_Ontario).<ref name="delake " /> She and her partner, Audrey McLaren, regularly hosted social gatherings that brought together members of Ottawa's artistic community.<ref name="Burant 2022 " /> Duncan maintained her interests in both industrial subjects (which began during her [World War II](/source/World_War_II) project and resulted in a traveling [retrospective](/source/retrospective) of her industrial and more up-to-date drawings and pastels in 1987, created by the [Robert McLaughlin Gallery](/source/The_Robert_McLaughlin_Gallery) in [Oshawa, Ontario](/source/Oshawa%2C_Ontario)), and the [Canadian North](/source/Northern_Canada) (spending two months in 1975 on a sketching trip to [Baffin](/source/Baffin_Island) and [Ellesmere](/source/Ellesmere_Island) Islands).<ref name="archives " /> Duncan became a board member of ATAI Arctic Creative Development Foundation in 1974, joined the Print and Drawing Council of Canada in 1976, and joined the [Canadian Artists' Representation](/source/Canadian_Artists'_Representation) in 1978.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=163}}</ref> 

Duncan also taught at various points in her career including teaching the course "Visual Presentation of Ideas" at [Laval University](/source/Universit%C3%A9_Laval) and at Macdonald College in Quebec, lectures on "The Art of Animation" at the Advertising Club in Montreal and later to the National Gallery Association, a three-year teaching position in painting and drawing at the Ottawa Municipal Art Centre (now the [Ottawa School of Art](/source/Ottawa_School_of_Art)), painting and drawing courses at the Rockcliffe Public School Art Club, and a lecture on "The Art of Collage" to the National Gallery Association.<ref name=":6 " /> Among her pupils was the printmaker [Betty Davison](/source/Betty_Davison).<ref name="HellerHeller2013 " >{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}}</ref>

Alma died on December 15, 2004, after living with Alzheimer's disease for nearly ten years.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Alma: the life and art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)|last1=McSorley|first1=Tom|last2=Maheux|first2=Anne|last3=Meloche|first3=Jaclyn|last4=Sinclair|first4=Catherine|last5=Tovell|first5=Rosemarie L.|publisher=Ottawa Art Gallery & Judith & Norman Alix Art Gallery|year=2014|isbn=978-1-894906-49-4|location=Ottawa|pages=165}}</ref>

== Awards ==
*[British Academy Film Awards](/source/British_Academy_Film_Awards);<ref name="macdonald " />

==Legacy==

In 2014, Catherine Sinclair and Jaclyn Meloche curated the exhibition ''Alma: The Life and Art of Alma Duncan (1917-2004)'' for the [Ottawa Art Gallery](/source/Ottawa_Art_Gallery) and Judith & Alix Norman Art Gallery in Sarnia, Ontario.

The Ottawa Art Gallery has named the Alma Duncan Salon in her honour.<ref>Ottawa Art Gallery https://oaggao.ca/facility-rentals/alma-duncan-salon/</ref>

==References==
<references/>

{{authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Duncan, Alma}}
Category:1917 births
Category:2004 deaths
Category:Canadian animated film directors
Category:Women animated film directors
Category:Canadian stamp designers
Category:Women stamp designers
Category:Canadian experimental filmmakers
Category:Stop motion animators
Category:Canadian women film directors
Category:People from the County of Brant
Category:World War II artists
Category:20th-century Canadian war artists
Category:Canadian women animators
Category:20th-century Canadian painters
Category:Canadian graphic designers
Category:Canadian women graphic designers
Category:Women experimental filmmakers
Category:Canadian LGBTQ artists
Category:20th-century Canadian LGBTQ people
Category:20th-century Canadian women painters

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Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Alma Duncan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Duncan) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alma_Duncan?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.