Lot 300
BETTY DAVISON (1909 - 2000)
Provenance:
Vickie Henry Unfundi Gallery, Ottawa, ON
Note:
BETTY DAVISON (1909 - 2000)
Betty Davison (nee Elizabeth Mary Gertrude Young) was born in Ottawa, Ontario in 1909. She studied life drawing and sculpture with Lionel and Ernest Fosbery at the High School of Commerce. In the 1930s and 1940s Davison danced and acted with the Ottawa Little Theatre, where she was frequently photographed by Youssuf Karsh
In 1939, Davison married Richard Lewis, who passed away three years later. To support her family financially, Davison painted portraits and took on secretarial work at the Department of External Affairs in Ottawa. Her first solo exhibition was in the foyer of the Ottawa Little Theatre in 1945. In 1952, the artist married Arthur Davison, an architect and fellow actor at the Ottawa Little Theatre.
During the 1960's, Davison took several art classes at Carleton University and at the Ottawa Municipal Art Centre, under the tutelage of Alma Duncan. Davison's art has featured in solo and group exhibitions across Canada and the United States. She exhibited with notable artists such as Louise Nevelson and Frank Stella. In the 1970's, Davison began studying printmaking with Hilde Schreier, who also introduced her to the process of casting paper. One of Davison's cast paper prints, "Paper Roses" (1974), won her an award of $1,000 from the Ontario Arts Council. Over her lengthy career, Davison garnered numerous prizes and distinctions, including the Martha Jackson Gallery Purchase Award (1977), the Reid Memorial Award (1977), the Harold Pitman Prize (1979) for High-rise II - at the Pratt Graphics Centre in New York City. In 1987 the work exhibited in her retrospective, A Slice of Life, Ufundi Gallery, Ottawa, became part of many permanent institutional and corporate collections. Davison passed away in 2000.
Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections
Canada Council Art Bank
City of Ottawa Art Collection
Claridge Collection, Montreal, QC
Selected Awards and Grants
1979 Harold Ptiman Prize
1977 Reid Memorial Award
1974 Ontario Arts Council Award