Jock Macdonald Remembered

This site honours the special occasion of Evolving Form, a major retrospective exhibition of the work of Jock (J.W.G.) Macdonald, a former Canadian painter. Henri van Bentum is one of the few surviving students of Macdonald, having studied with him both at Ontario College of Art and privately in 1959 and 1960. Henri shares his experiences of this remarkable man, who was his mentor and his teacher.

Henri van Bentum, National Gallery of Canada Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue Toronto 1969

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By Henri van Bentum

Far Off Drums, 1960

I first saw Jock’s work in Toronto in 1958 at the Park Gallery (The Painters Eleven exhibition) and later at the Here And Now Gallery on Cumberland Street where he had a show in 1959. I must have gone there eight or nine times to see that show and they were all there: Far Off Drums, Clarion Call, Fleeting Breath, Will O’The Wisp, Through Shifting Sands. They were all there, to be had for almost nothing. The National Gallery had no work of his at that time. Transitory Clay was there, and the painting that Charles Band eventually bought, Heroic Mould.

When he left I had not enough time, nor hands, nor head, nor material, to put down things that came out his visits. The third visit he said: “I’ve been thinking about your painting Mussorgsky. If you have to paint the feelings of music, which is absolutely excellent, you have to let the music play.”

He had the ability to draw out the best in his students. It was as if he carried a little vial of oil and by putting a small drop onto the flame one had burning within you to bring things out what you wanted to express but felt inadequate or incapable of doing. This was a great gift. He made you see things that were inside yourself; he would make you wonder who you really were, what you really were and why, and what is creativity. I remember him saying that it isn’t important what you keep adding to your work but it is important what you take away from it.

— Interview with Henri van Bentum, 12 September 1979 by Joan Murray, Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Reproduced in catalogue Jock Macdonald’s Students

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Fall (Modality 16), 1937

Departing Day, 1939

He was a human being with an enormous amount of insight into the capacity of other human beings and with the ability to bring out in them things which many other teachers could not do.

He wanted the viewing of his work to be a very personal experience through which a person gradually becomes aware of the totality of the Universe whose unseen forces are too delicate and intangible to be contained within hard edges. By November of 1960, Jock was certain that he was reaching another breakthrough. He was concerned about having not enough time to express his new concepts before his upcoming exhibition at the Roberts Gallery.

The last three years of Macdonald’s life were in many ways his happiest and most productive. He was aware that he finally was achieving a personal style that would express all his feelings and ideas concerning life and nature.

Airy Journey, 1957

Orange Impulse, 1955

— Henri van Bentum, National Gallery of Canada Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue Toronto March 17 1969 p.31

Nature's Platter, 1954

He was very much involved at that time in preparing for his own exhibition. So to experience something like that was like having the sun come into your house. When he visited, he was like a magician.

— Interview with Henri van Bentum, 12 September 1979 by Joan Murray, Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Reproduced in catalogue Jock Macdonald’s Students

Fall (Modality 16), 1937

At that time he was very much involved in preparing for his own exhibition. So for me, to experience something like that was like having the sun come into your house. When he visited my studio, he was like a magician.

Jock Macdonald

Departing Day, 1939

Henri van Bentum is one of the few surviving students of Macdonald, studying with him at the Ontario College of Art in 1959 and 1960.

Remembered

Henri shares his experiences in this personal perspective of this remarkable artist, his mentor and his teacher.

This site honours the special occasion of Evolving Form, a major retrospective of the work of Jock (J.W.G.) Macdonald, a major Canadian painter.

— Henri van Bentum, March 17, 1969, p.31, National Gallery of Canada, Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition catalogue 1969-70.

Henri van Bentum, National Gallery of Canada Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue Toronto, Ontario March 17 1969

This site honours the special occasion of Evolving Form, a retrospective exhibition of the work of Jock (J.W.G.) Macdonald, a major Canadian painter. Henri van Bentum is one of the few surviving students of Macdonald, having studied with him both at Ontario College of Art and privately in 1959 and 1960. Henri shares his experiences of this remarkable man, who was his mentor and his teacher.

Henri van Bentum, National Gallery of Canada Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition Catalogue Toronto 1969

Departing Day, 1939

— Henri van Bentum, March 17, 1969, Toronto Page 31, National Gallery of Canada, Jock Macdonald Retrospective Exhibition catalogue 1969-70.

At that time he was very much involved in preparing for his own exhibition. So for me, to experience something like that was like having the sun come into your house. When he visited, he was like a magician.

— Interview with Henri van Bentum, 12 September 1979 by Joan Murray, Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Reproduced in catalogue Jock Macdonald’s Students

Far Off Drums, 1960

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After class in still life, Jock picked out a few students to stay behind. This was an example of the generous nature of Jock Macdonald. He was painting at the time, creating, developing that non-objective style that I call “moth-eaten” shapes, beautiful lyric abstract paintings. He was beginning to break into that intriguing development and yet, despite the fact he had so much work to do himself, he took time out to stay with certain students after class. Six o’clock was nothing. (School finished at 3:30 p.m.)

He was beginning to break into that intriguing develop-ment and yet, despite the fact he had so much work himself, he took time out to stay with certain students after class.

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Above: Lawren Harris, Jock Macdonald and A.Y Jackson at Nan Cheney's, North Shore, Vancouver, September 1944 — National Gallery of Canada

He was beginning to break into that intriguing develop-ment and yet, despite the fact he had so much work himself, he took time out to stay with certain students after class.

I asked Dorothy Cameron once again why the National Gallery or the Art Gallery of Toronto didn’t come to the gallery. The prices were $600, $400, $300. I couldn’t understand why no one bought them. In 1959 I was studying with Murray MacDonald in Banff and he suggested I go to Toronto (I’d originally come from Holland and lived in Toronto before coming West.) I went to the Ontario College of Art and met the Head of Drawing and Painting, Carl Schaefer. I brought my sketches, drawings and paintings. Some of my best work and my fantasy work was there. He said, “You must enroll in first year, foundation year.” I said, “Is Jock Macdonald there?” He said, “Jock Macdonald, Jock Macdonald. Yes, he’s there… I don’t know what kind of class you will get him as a teacher but you can’t go into second year.”A fter class in still life, Jock picked out a few to stay behind. This was really the generous nature of Jock Macdonald. He was painting at the time, creating, developing that non-objective style that I call “moth-eaten” shapes, beautiful lyric abstract paintings. He was beginning to break into that intriguing development and yet, despite the fact he had so much work to do himself, he took time out to stay with certain students after class. Six o’clock was nothing. (School finished at 3:30 p.m.)

Above: Lawren Harris, Jock Macdonald and A.Y Jackson at Nan Cheney's house, North Shore, Vancouver September 1944 — National Gallery of Canada

I found a room in a boarding house at 150 Walmer Road. I went to OCA and waited until Jock came out of the building to speak with him. He said, “Oh, it’s nice to see you. Where are you living now?” I told him. He often visited me at the room on Walmer Road on Saturday mornings. It was March 1960.

Henri van Bentum around the time he was studying with Macdonald at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto

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I lasted until February 1960 at OCA. I went to Jock and told him I was unhappy. “I’m getting confused. I can’t sleep anymore and am dreaming about these things I’m told and they don’t jive with me. I see it differently. I want to put it down as I see it right away, not with perspective lines, depth and whatever. I can’t do it, is it a shortcoming of mine?”

Jock said, “No, it isn’t. It is actually what happened to you a long time ago. You have started without teaching. You are self-taught. You have had a different life experience from the other students. You were at it a long time, you lived through a war, you have been out in nature a lot. Our teachers (at OCA) can’t always understand that. You have to see what is in you.” Then he said to me, “Quit school. I’ll give you classes.” I did, in February 1960.

Henri van Bentum around the time he was studying with Macdonald at the Ontario College of Art, Toronto

I lasted until February 1960 at OCA. I went to Jock and told him I was unhappy. “I’m getting confused. I can’t sleep anymore and am dreaming about these things I’m told and they don’t jive with me. I see it differently. I want to put it down as I see it right away, not with perspective lines and depth and whatever. I can’t do it, is it a shortcoming of mine?”

I found a room in a boarding house at 150 Walmer Road. I went to OCA and waited until Jock came out of the building to speak with him. He said, “Oh, it’s nice to see you. Where are you living now?” I told him. He quite often visited me privately at the room on Walmer Road on Saturday mornings. It was March 1960.

I lasted until February 1960 at OCA. I went to Jock and told him I was unhappy. “I’m getting confused. I can’t sleep anymore and am dreaming about these things I’m told and they don’t jive with me. I see it differently. I want to put it down as I see it right away, not with perspective lines and depth and whatever. I can’t do it, is it a shortcoming of mine?”

I found a room in a boarding house at 150 Walmer Road. I went to OCA and waited until Jock came out of the building to speak with him. He said, “Oh, it’s nice to see you. Where are you living now?” I told him. He quite often visited me privately at the room on Walmer Road on Saturday mornings. It was March 1960.

Inner Reflections, Henri van Bentum Oil on canvas, collection Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Ontario

In September 1960, Jock was not happy. He said he was very busy with preparation of his work but asked if he could stay on for a while. He was depressed. Jock said, “I have a right to be depressed, you know. People think that artists are just full of joy and exuberance but I’m very depressed because of this, that and the other. He brought to Walmer Road a letter which he had received from the National Gallery in Ottawa. The National Gallery doesn’t understand us, and I have got to listen to these beings who are not worth the time. I have trouble at school because other faculty members take my notices off the billboard, and I’m busy preparing my one-man show.

When Jock came back and the painting was finished, he said, “See, isn’t that something quite different from your Bald Mountain painting? Put it next to it — there’s no comparison. Music is coming out of that work right now.”

Ithen asked him why he let himself be depressed by those forces at the National Gallery who didn’t understand him and the forces at the school who took the notices off the billboard. He said, “These things take time. They have to solve themselves but I don’t have that much time. My exhibition is coming up soon and I need all the time with no depression, worries or blocks, because this exhibition is very important to me. I hope I haven’t disappointed you by coming here like this, but I had to tell you that I am human too.”Jock was thrilled about his upcoming retrospective coming up in May, 1960, at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), but there was something about Jock in October. For instance, on one visit, there were messages coming to me that he was running out of time. He said things which he’d never said before. He once told me, “Henri, whenever someone comes to you to ask you to exhibit, don’t do it right away. Don’t force yourself.” Things like that. Even though his visits to my room on Walmer Road were only an hour or an hour-and-a-half, they were precious to me because I had no instruction. I had no one to criticize me except myself, no one else behind me who really had that insight and interest in evolving, speaking to me the way only Jock Macdonald could. He was a teacher, and he had insight. He was a master.

I had only a few records: Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; Mozart’s Magic Flute; Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos; Chopin; Beethoven’s 6th and 9th Symphonies; some Mussorgsky and two records by Debussy. Jock said, “Listen to the music that you like best at this point. Have your canvas or sketch pad handy. Forget that you are here, just listen with your eyes closed. When music touches the strings of imagination and inspiration, then start the recording again, and paint. Only when music and imagination blend into one will you be able to transform it visually.”Following up Jock’s advice, I started painting ‘music’ and one result is Inner Reflections (above), painted while listening to Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau. It was later purchased by the late Ann Southam, a close friend, and is now in the permanent collection of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery.

However, I carry with me a book called Dear Theo. It’s the life of van Gogh. I have it with me in the car and I leaf through it, and at any given page I stop, and say to myself — what am I depressed for? If I can give you some advice, Henri, get that book for yourself. You can never, never allow yourself to become depressed once you open the book at any page, and read his letters.

Inner Reflections, Henri van Bentum Oil on canvas, collection Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Ontario

I had only a few records. I had Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring; Mozart’s Magic Flute; Felix Mendelssohn’s Midsummer Night’s Dream; Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos; Chopin; Beethoven’s 6th and 9th Symphonies; Mussorgsky and two records by Debussy. Jock said, “Listen to the music that you like best at this point. Have your canvas or sketch pad handy. Forget that you are here, just listen with your eyes closed. When music touches the strings of imagination and inspiration, then start the recording again, and paint. Only when music and imagination blend into one will you be able to transform it visually.”Following up Jock’s advice, I started painting ‘music’ and one result is Inner Reflections (see left), painted while listening to Debussy’s Reflets dans l’eau. (Later purchased by the late Ann Southam, a close friend and now in the permanent collection, Robert McLaughlin Gallery.) When Jock came back and the painting was finished, he said, “See, isn’t that something quite different from your Bald Mountain painting? Put it next to it — there’s no comparison. Music is coming out of that work right now.” In September, 1960, Jock was not happy. He said he was very busy with preparation of his work but asked if he could stay on for a while. He was depressed. Jock said, “I have a right to be depressed, you know. People think that artists are just full of joy and exuberance but I’m very depressed because of this, that and the other. He brought to Walmer Road a letter which he had received from the National Gallery in Ottawa. The National Gallery doesn’t understand us, and I have got to listen to these beings who are not worth the time. I have trouble at school because other faculty members take my notices off the billboard, and I’m busy preparing my one-man show. “However, I carry with me a book called Dear Theo. It’s the life of van Gogh. I have it with me in the car and I leaf through it, and at any given page I stop, and say to myself — what am I depressed for? If I can give you some advice, Henri, get that book for yourself. You can never, never allow yourself to become depressed once you open the book at any page, and read his letters.” I then asked him why he let himself be depressed by those forces at the National Gallery who didn’t understand him and the forces at the school who took the notices off the billboard. He said, “These things take time. They have to solve themselves but I don’t have that much time. My exhibition is coming up soon and I need all the time with no depression, worries or blocks, because this exhibition is very important to me. I hope I haven’t disappointed you by coming here like this, but I had to tell you that I am human too.” Jock was thrilled about his upcoming retrospective coming up in May, 1960, at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario), but there was something about Jock in October. For instance, on one visit, there were messages coming to me that he was running out of time. He said things which he’d never said before. He once told me, “Henri, whenever someone comes to you to ask you to exhibit, don’t do it right away. Don’t force yourself.” Things like that. Even though his visits to my room on Walmer Road were only an hour or an hour-and-a-half, they were precious to me because I had no instruction. I had no one to criticize me except myself. I had no one else behind me who really had that insight, in evolving, and speaking to me the way Macdonald could. He was a teacher and he had insight. He was a master.

Time went by; Jock would never say what to paint or how to paint, but his words stimulated me. He made me think and feel at the same time. For example, if I was frozen, he would thaw me out by his way of speaking.He’d speak to me and say, “Now, Henri, you’re here on Walmer Road. What is a lake to you? You’ve been in the West. What is a lake? How do you see a lake? I said it depends on whether there are mountains around it or if it is in wild country or in a cultivated area. He said, “But what is a lake? What does it do? What does it say to you? A lake is held by a cup of clay and it belongs to the earth, and there is a little cup or shape of a cup, and there is water in it, but that’s not all. There is a wind going over it. There is sun shining on it. The night sets on it. There’s rain going to come on it, and snow, and it can freeze over. There’s no end to it. Before long, the cosmic micro-macro relationship comes out of that topic — ‘lake’.”

But what is a lake? What does it do? What does it say to you? A lake is held by a cup of clay and it belongs to the earth. There is the shape of a cup, and there’s water in it, but that’s not all. There’s a wind going over it. There’s sun shining on it. The night sets on it. There’s rain going to come on it, and snow, and it can freeze over. There’s no end to it. Before long, the micro-macro relationship comes out of that topic: ‘lake.’

Jock at the opening of the Painters Eleven exhibition, Park Gallery, Toronto, Ontario 1957

The opening of the Painters Eleven exhibition, 1957, Park Gallery, Toronto. Macdonald is 5th from left

He didn’t have a magic wand in his hand, but he’d look around at what I had done. I was doing Night on a Bald Mountain to music by Mussorgsky, a painting with strange types of skeletal creatures and dark clouds on top of the mountain. But I’d also done some other, very free exercises on canvas board or Masonite. I’d put them aside as I didn’t think too much of them. He looked at the painting and said, “What is that?” I told him, and then he looked at the exercises, and said, “Those are interesting, what are they?” Here I thought I had quite something on the easel, and he was looking at the exercises.Jock explained I had to stay away from putting overly realistic images into my work if I felt that I liked to be free. The freer I could be, the bolder I could be without concepts or recognizable form. He said, looking at the exercises, “Look at what you are doing here.” Then, turning to the canvas, he said, “Now why do you do this?” I said, “I don’t understand; because I hear the music and my father was a diamond-cutter and I’m from Holland, I feel that I’m not exactly ready to break. Murray MacDonald (in Banff) said the same thing to me, but I see these forms. I walk outside and see these trees, and what shall I do. What shall I do?” Jock said, “Use your bold imagination. There is bold imagination in this canvas but don’t give these things realistic form as you do. Make it much bolder. If you want to do a skeleton, go into something eerie, use a poisonous type of green. Show us “death” in a different way. Use the formation of poetry which you have in you. I said, “Have I?” He said, “Yes.” Time went by; Jock would never say what to paint or how to paint, but his words stimulated me. He made me think and feel at the same time. For example, if I was frozen, he would thaw me out by his way of speaking. He’d speak to me and say, “Now, Henri, you’re here on Walmer Road. What is a lake to you? You’ve been in the West. What is a lake? How do you see a lake? I said it depends on whether there are mountains around it or if it is in wild country or in a cultivated area. He said, “But what is a lake? What does it do? What does it say to you? A lake is held by a cup of clay and it belongs to the earth, and there is a little cup or shape of a cup, and there is water in it, but that’s not all. There is a wind going over it. There is sun shining on it. The night sets on it. There’s rain going to come on it, and snow, and it can freeze over. There’s no end to it. Before long, the micro-macro cosmic relationship comes out of that topic — ‘lake’.”

He simplified things and made you see them in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression. He was a great teacher.

His last visit to me was in early November 1960 on a cold and windy day. After his private instruction, I brought him to his little black car and he said to me, “Henri, go!… Go out West. Leave Toronto — not perhaps in the winter, but as soon as you feel it is suitable. You can do it because you live alone.“Believe me, there is so much there of the primordial experience for the art student to learn: the rocks, the trees, the wind and the forest. The things that I talk with you about are all there, and you can come to terms with them in yourself. “Guts and creativity, Henri. Don’t listen to these conform-ists. Don’t go into those places and let yourself be misled by academic environments. You’re on the right track. “Another piece of advice I’d like to give you, if you want to listen is: do not break your back to exhibit.” These precious visits from my mentor Jock Macdonald didn’t last long, for in early December of that year he died prematurely at the age of 63 of a sudden heart attack. It was a great loss to Art and art students in Canada. He simplified and made you see things in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression. He protected you if you had trouble. I have never experienced such encouragement and protection from any other artist or art teacher. He was a great teacher.

Jock Macdonald students Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa 31 March–21 April, 1981

He simplified things and made you see them in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression…. He was a great teacher.

Jock Macdonald students Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa 31 March–21 April, 1981

His last visit to me was in early November 1960 on a cold and windy day. After his private instruction, I brought him to his little black car and he said to me, “Henri, go!… Go out West. Leave Toronto — not perhaps in the winter, but as soon as you feel it is suitable. You can do it because you live alone.“Believe me, there is so much there of the primordial experience for the art student to learn: the rocks, the trees, the wind and the forest. The things that I talk with you about are all there, and you can come to terms with them in yourself. “Guts and creativity, Henri. Don’t listen to these conform-ists. Don’t go into those places and let yourself be misled by academic environments. You’re on the right track. “Another piece of advice I’d like to give you, if you want to listen is: do not break your back to exhibit.” He simplified and made you see things in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression. He protected you if you had trouble. I have never experienced such encouragement and protection from any other artist or art teacher. He was a great teacher. These precious visits from my mentor Jock Macdonald didn’t last long, for in early December of that year, he died prematurely at the age of 63 of a sudden heart attack. This was a great loss to Art and art students in Canada.

He simplified things and made you see them in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression. He protected you if you had trouble…. He was a great teacher.

His last visit to me was in early November 1960 on a cold and windy day. After his private instruction, I brought him to his little black car and he said to me, “Henri, go!… Go out West. Leave Toronto — not perhaps in the winter, but as soon as you feel it is suitable. You can do it because you live alone.“Believe me, there is so much there of the primordial experience for the art student to learn: the rocks, the trees, the wind and the forest. The things that I talk with you about are all there, and you can come to terms with them in yourself. “Guts and creativity, Henri. Don’t listen to these conform-ists. Don’t go into those places and let yourself be misled by academic environments. You’re on the right track. “Another piece of advice I’d like to give you, if you want to listen is: do not break your back to exhibit.” These precious visits from my mentor Jock Macdonald didn’t last long, for in early December of that year, he died prematurely at the age of 63 of a sudden heart attack. This was a great loss to Art and art students in Canada. He simplified and made you see things in a different light. He had insight into the need for freedom of expression. He protected you if you had trouble. I have never experienced such encouragement and protection from any other artist or art teacher. He was a great teacher.

He believed that the process of an understanding of the totality of life, the meaning of all its forces, the unseen powers of nature - was gradual and very slow.In the same manner, he viewed his life as a gradual development towards an understanding and expressing of these spiritual laws and realized in these last three years that he was finally reaching the culmination of his life’s search. His canvasses became softer and more spiritual in quality. Jock Macdonald was concerned with the idea and thinking about unseen forces behind all matter, and wanted his paintings to express this concept.

Catalogue cover Retrospective exhibition National Gallery of Canada 1969-70

Catalogue cover, Jock Macdonald Retrospective exhibition, National Gallery of Canada 1969-70

He believed that the process of an understanding of the totality of life, the meaning of all its forces, the unseen powers of nature — was gradual and very slow.

Evolving Form Catalogue cover Vancouver, Oshawa, and Victoria 2014-2015

O n the influence of Jock Macdonald on the work of Henri van Bentum: Jock Macdonald and Henri van Bentum both share a love for music, as well as an intense interest in the metamorphosis of organic forms, the hidden forces in nature, and the transitory elements of growth and decay in all natural forms and life itself. — Harry Malcolmson, Toronto Telegram art critic, 1963 ….in Banff Murray MacDonald sent van Bentum to the late Jock Macdonald in Toronto, who had tremendous influence on his development, and whose death was an irreplaceable loss to students as well as art lovers. — Lotta Dempsey, Toronto Star, November 26, 1963 ….that van Bentum’s watercolours should resemble Jock Macdonald’s oils is far from strange, for the soft, blurred edges and the textures of Macdonald’s oils always strongly suggest watercolour effects. — Harry Malcolmson, Toronto Telegram, February 13, 1965 Completely introspective in his work, van Bentum is probably a born abstract painter. Jock Macdonald, with whom he studied, was one of the first to encourage van Bentum to develop his individuality, and it is certainly under Macdonald’s influence that he achieved his present independence. — Marina Sturdza, Canadian Interiors, October 1966

Evolving Form Catalogue cover Vancouver, Oshawa, Victoria 2014/2015

Evolving Form Catalogue cover Vancouver, Oshawa, and Victoria 2014-15