‏‏‎ M.24. 03. 79 Part D

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Irene F. Whittome (b. 1942)

Irene F. Whittome is a celebrated contemporary artist who has embraced a variety of media during her career which spans six decades. Born in Vancouver, she attended the Vancouver School of Art, where she studied with Jack Shadbolt. From there she moved to Paris, spending another five years studying printmaking with Stanley William Hayter before settling in Montreal in 1968. From 1968 to 2007, she taught, first as a Masters Program associate and later as a full professor, at Concordia University in Montreal. As an artist her work over the years has been concerned with the idea of time, duration and traces, as well as museums, exhibition and collecting.

Drawing from an array of artistic techniques, including printmaking, photography, painting, drawing, sculpture and installation, as well as architecture, lighting and sound, Whittome’s considerable body of work has been widely exhibited in Canada and abroad. She has been recognized with solo exhibitions at the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, the Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Canadian Centre for Architecture and the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. The artist has received numerous prestigious awards recognizing her work. In 2005, she was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. She received the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2002. The Government of Quebec awarded her the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas in 1997. She also received the Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts in 1991 and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize in 1992. Irene F. Whittome’s work is represented in the collections of Canada’s most important museums.