BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

Arthur Charles Erickson

June 14 1924 - May 20 2009

Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (ARCA 1966 RCA 1969)


Arthur Charles Erickson was born in Vancouver in 1924. His father Oscar Erickson was a decorated World War One veteran.

Erickson exhibited work in the 1941 B.C. Artists annual, and in the 1946 Jubilee exhibition, both held at the Vancouver Art Gallery. He was living in Vancouver at the time.

In 1982 Director Jack V. Long did a short documentary film on Erickson.

He later became one of Canada's most famous architects and designers, with signature projects such as the original Simon Fraser University Campus in Burnaby, the Museum of Anthropology at U.B.C., and the new Courthouse (1983) in downtown Vancouver being examples of his work in the Lower Mainland. The latter project included the relocation of the Vancouver Art Gallery itself into the former Courthouse on Georgia Street. He received the Order of Canada in 1973, and numerous other awards and honours.




Photographs of 1075 West Georgia Street, Oct. 19 2021.

1075 West Georgia Street is one of Erickson's most visible projects. It was originally designed as the headquarters for MacMillan Bloedel, but was referred to locally as the "waffle building." In 2019 the building was purchased by Reliance, and in October 2021 I noted that they have renamed it "the Arthur Erickson Building," which is a fitting name.


Evergreen building (detail), Gary Sim, Nov. 2 2021.

Erickson died in a care home in 2009, even as some of his final designs were under construction.


Provincial Court House, Entry to Main Hall, Gary Sim, 2013.


GROUP EXHIBITIONS
DATE EXHIBITION ARTWORK
1941 Sept. 26 - Oct. 19 VAG   B.C. Artists 10th Annual Negro Town
Seascape
Forest
1942 July 7 - Sept. 2 VAG   B.C. Artists 1st Annual Summer Composition
1943 Sept. 25 - Oct. 20 VAG   B.C. Artists 12th Annual Lily
1944 Sept. 23 - Oct. 22 VAG   B.C. Artists 13th Annual Composition
1946 July 2 - 28 VAG   Jubilee Exhibition Abstraction

References - BIBLIOGRAPHY

Refer to BIBLIO.

References - GROUP EXHIBITIONS

INTERNATIONAL IMAGE EXCHANGE DIRECTORY (refer to IB72)

ROYAL CANADIAN ACADEMY OF ARTS - EXHIBITIONS & MEMBERS 1880 - 1979 (refer to RCA81)
      Brief listing for Erickson; architectural work exhibited four years 1964 - 1976.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Erickson

ARTISTS IN CANADA 1982 - UNION LIST OF ARTISTS' FILES (refer to AIC82)

THE NEW SPIRIT - MODERN ARCHITECTURE IN VANCOUVER, 1938 - 1963
      1997, Rhodri Windsor Liscombe; 208 pages, ISBN 1-55054-555-8; illustrated b&w
      Foreword Phyllis Lambert; Introduction Adele Freedman
      Includes notes; chronology. buildings list; architects & engineers; bibliography

THE CANADIAN ENCYCLOPEDIA (refer to CE00)

IT'S A MATTER OF PRINCIPLE (refer to It's A Matter Of Principle 2000)

BIOGRAPHICAL INDEX OF ARTISTS IN CANADA (refer to BIAC03)
      7 references cited for Erickson incl. RCA above.

Clippings

"Among other prominent exhibitors are ... Arthur C. Erickson ... "
      From "Summer Show at Gallery Major Event for Art Lovers" by Palette
      Vancouver Province, July 7 1943

"A Building That Makes This A Big City" (1075 W. Georgia) by Joan Lowndes
      Vancouver Province, January 3 1969

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