{{Short description|Painter}} {{Infobox person |birth_place=Nipawin, Saskatchewan, Canada |birth_date=September 11, 1926 |death_place=Squamish, British Columbia, Canada |death_date={{death date and age|2000|8|3|1926|9|26}} |occupation=painter, educator |awards= Humanities Research Council grant through the Canada Foundation, 1956–1957; Canada Council Senior Fellowship, 1963–1964 }} '''Arthur Fortescue McKay''', best known as '''Art McKay''' L.L. D. (September 11, 1926 &ndash; August 3, 2000) was a painter and a member of the Regina Five. Most of his work is abstract.<ref>Bart Gazzola. [http://old.planetsmag.com/story.php?id=1456 "Into The Rewild"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180208124141/http://old.planetsmag.com/story.php?id=1456 |date=2018-02-08 }}. ''Planet S''. VOL.14 ISSUE. 26</ref>

==Early life and education== McKay was born in Nipawin, Saskatchewan.<ref>[https://www.pressreader.com/canada/regina-leader-post/20090606/282037618132894 "Godwin reflects on his Regina (Five) Years"]. Nick Miliokas, ''Regina Leader-Post''. 2009-06-06</ref> His father was Joseph Fortescue McKay, a son of Angus McKay whose own grandfather was the younger John Richards McKay and whose grandmother was Harriet Ballenden. This and other ancestry would qualify McKay as an Anglo-Métis artist in Saskatchewan and in Canada. His mother, Georgina Agnes Newnham, was a daughter of another historical figure in Saskatchewan, the Anglican Bishop of Saskatchewan, Jervois Newnham.

From an early age, McKay drew landscape. His training in art began at the Provincial Institute of Technology and Art (now the Alberta University of the Arts) in Calgary (1946–1948), and later at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris (1949–1950), Columbia University in New York (1956–1957), and The Barnes Foundation in Merion, Pennsylvania (1956–1957).<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Fenton |first1=Terry |title=Canada's Arthur Mckay |journal=Artforum |date=1968 |volume=7 |issue=4 |url=https://www.artforum.com/features/canadas-arthur-mckay-210950 |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>

==Career== In 1952, McKay joined the staff of the Regina Art School (today University of Regina).<ref name="Harper1977">J. Russell Harper. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=bxss7eeWAeYC&pg=PA352 Painting in Canada: A History]''. University of Toronto Press; 1977. {{ISBN|978-0-8020-6307-6}}. p. 352ff.</ref> From 1951 to 1956, he was a lecturer in art at the University of Saskatchewan.<ref name="Lord1974">Barry Lord. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=c5hQAAAAMAAJ The history of painting in Canada: toward a people's art]''. NC Press; 1974. {{ISBN|978-0-919600-12-6}}. pp. 209–210</ref> While there, McKay helped organize a series of Emma Lake Artists' Workshops in rural Saskatchewan.<ref name="Walrus">{{cite web |last1=Henderson |first1=Lee |title=The Legacy of Saskatchewan's Most Controversial—and Impactful—Artist Program |url=https://thewalrus.ca/the-legacy-of-saskatchewans-most-controversial-and-impactful-artist-program/ |website=The Walrus |publisher=The Walrus |access-date=2 October 2023 |date=28 September 2023}}</ref><ref name="Carney2017">Lora Senechal Carney. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ekczDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA254 Canadian Painters in a Modern World, 1925–1955: Writings and Reconsiderations]''. McGill-Queen's University Press; 2017. {{ISBN|978-0-7735-5115-2}}. p. 254ff.</ref> He became an associate professor in art there between 1956 and 1974, and director from 1964 to 1967. In 1978, he was an associate professor of art at the University of Regina.

McKay received national and international attention as one of the painting group the Regina Five.<ref>''[https://books.google.com/books?id=iZNMAQAAIAAJ Canadian Library Journal]''. Vols. 29–30. Canadian Library Association.; 1972. p. 201.</ref> The group's paintings were exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada in 1961 in a show titled "Five Painters from Regina".<ref name="Pitsula2008">James M. Pitsula. ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=THE_jJUr0JIC&pg=PA46 New World Dawning: The Sixties at Regina Campus]''. University of Regina Press; 2008. {{ISBN|978-0-88977-210-6}}. p. 46ff.</ref> He was influenced in the 1960s by Barnett Newman,<ref name="CanEnc">[https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/arthur-fortescue-mckay/ "Arthur MacKay"]. ''The Canadian Encyclopedia''. {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921064453/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004924 |date=September 21, 2009 }}</ref> whom he, Ron Bloore, and Roy Kiyooka invited to the Emma Lake Artists' Workshop as guest artist in 1959.<ref name="DavisGreenhill2015">''[https://books.google.com/books?id=vA51BgAAQBAJ&pg=PA302 A Companion to American Art]''. Wiley; 30 January 2015. {{ISBN|978-1-118-54249-1}}. p. 302ff.</ref>

McKay's best known works are his scraped enamel circular and rectangular "mandalas", in which he uses relaxing, contemplative imagery to depict ideas related to Zen Buddhism. McKay was included in Clement Greenberg's 1964 "Post-Painterly Abstraction" exhibition.<ref name="CanEnc" /><ref name="Walrus"/> In the 1970s, he continued to paint abstractions but also reintroduced the landscape in his work.

In 1997, the MacKenzie Art Gallery mounted a national travelling exhibition, "Arthur F. McKay: A Critical Retrospective". At the exhibition opening, McKay said: "If I had known I was that good, I would have painted more."

His work is in many collections, both public and private, such as the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa and Art Gallery of Guelph.

McKay died on August 3, 2000, in Squamish, British Columbia, at the age of 73.

==Honours and memberships == * Honorary Doctor of Laws, University of Regina with the other members of the Regina Five (2001);<ref>{{cite web |title=Recipients |url=https://www.uregina.ca/president/assets/docs/honorary-degree/zhdr-recipients-chrono.pdf |website=www.uregina.ca |publisher=U Regina |access-date=13 January 2024}}</ref>

==References== {{Reflist}}

=== Bibliography === *{{cite book |last1=Howard |first1=David |title=Arthur F. McKay, a critical retrospective |date=1997 |publisher=MacKenzie Art Gallery |location=Regina|url=https://search.library.utoronto.ca/search?N=0&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Nu=p_work_normalized&Np=1&Ntt=Arthur%20F.%20McKay%2C%20a%20critical%20retrospective&Ntk=Anywhere |accessdate=2020-10-07}} *{{cite book |title=Arthur F. McKay |date=1979 |publisher=Gallery O |location=Toronto |url=https://search.library.utoronto.ca/search?Ntx=mode%20matchallpartial&Ntk=Anywhere&N=0&Ntt=Arthur%20F.%20McKay&Nr=p_work_normalized:McKay%20Arthur%20F%201926-%20Arthur%20F%20McKay&uuid=0c88ef45-9da4-421f-947e-e61887a6cb39|accessdate=2020-10-07}}

==External links== * {{cite web|url=http://www.artmckay.com|title=Arthur MacKay website}} * {{cite web|url=https://www.uregina.ca/news/commun/report/2000/sep0800/memoriam.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130116014903/http://www.uregina.ca/news/commun/report/2000/sep0800/memoriam.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2013-01-16 |title=Kenneth In Memoriam: Arthur Fortescue McKay }} * {{cite web|url=http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004924 |title=Canadian Encyclopedia: Arthur MacKay |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090921064453/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0004924 |archive-date=2009-09-21 |df= }}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:McKay, Arthur}} Category:1926 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Artists from Saskatchewan Category:People from Nipawin, Saskatchewan Category:Alumni of the Académie de la Grande Chaumière Category:20th-century Canadian painters Category:Canadian male painters Category:20th-century Canadian male artists Category:Canadian abstract artists