Book Launch: The Life and Art of Arthur Pitts

Book Launch and Illustrated Talk by Kerry Mason for The Unheralded Artists of BC #10. Salt Spring Public Library. 3 p.m.

Arthur Pitts (1889-1972) born in London, UK, pursued a career of art and adventure, first in South Africa with the Zulus, then Canada. He travelled more than 4,000 miles in British Columbia and Alaska, and produced a large body of watercolours focusing on Coast Salish, Nuu-Chah-Nulth, Kwakwaka’wakw, Tlingit, Haida and Ktunaxa First Nations. He included the W̱SÁNEĆ (Saanich) Coast Salish cultural group, as well as Tsartlip, Tsawout, Tseycum and Pauquachin Peoples and Reserves in his work. Pitts’ fascinating story also includes life as an artist in Vancouver in the 1920s and 1930s, where he attended the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Art.

Kerry Mason, B.A. M.A. is an art historian, author, curator and art consultant who lectures at the University of Victoria, University of Colorado, the Victoria College of Art and Vancouver Island School of Art, offering courses on Canada and British Columbia with an emphasis on Emily Carr and Indigenous Arts of the Northwest Coast. Her previous book is, Sunlight in the Shadows: the landscape of Emily Carr. She has curated more than 50 exhibitions for the University of Victoria and institutions throughout North America.

Sponsored by Mother Tongue Publishing.