Sixty years of John Koerner

OLGA LIVSHIN

“Early in my career I decided that, despite the horrors and disasters in this world, my work would celebrate all positive values.” These words begin John Koerner’s autobiography, A Brush with Life, published in 2005. The artist has lived and worked by this motto for more than 60 years, his art never succumbing to the temptation of darkness. On June 21, a 60-year-retrospective exhibition of his work opened at the Elliott Louis Gallery.

The retrospective, the artist’s first major show in 20 years, confirmed the 97-year-old’s optimistic credo. On the gallery’s walls, the approximately 50 bright paintings by Koerner created an atmosphere of tranquility and joyfulness, counteracting the grey rainy afternoon of Saturday, June 25, when more than 80 people gathered to listen to him talk about his life and his art.

After a brief introduction about his 72 years in Vancouver, Koerner entertained listeners with a story from his happy childhood in Prague, as part of a Jewish family of free thinkers. His parents, noticing their son’s interest in the arts, sent him to Paris in the summer he turned 15, “to improve my French,” he told his audience.

With humor and affection, Koerner talked about that time: “I had heard that the best way to learn French was to have a French girlfriend. In my innocence, I acted accordingly and became quite fluent. My main passion, however, was drawing and painting. I spent weeks in the Louvre … and visiting galleries.…” He also took art classes there, and his abiding interest in the use of color germinated from that Parisian sojourn.

After completing high school, Koerner wasn’t sure what path to take. “I wanted to be an artist,” he said with a twinkle in his eyes, “but my father thought a legal profession would be safer. He was right.” So Koerner divided his time between law studies at the University of Prague and art and philosophy classes at the Sorbonne.

His fascination with philosophy and his interest in spirituality led him to discover Bo Yin Ra, a pseudonym of the German author and spiritual initiate J. A. Schneiderfranken. For the young artist, Bo Yin Ra’s teaching was a revelation; it has profoundly affected Koerner’s art.

Among other things, Bo Yin Ra taught acceptance and positivity, all the more necessary at the uncertain times that were coming, with fascism on the rise in Europe. In 1937, the entire Koerner family had to leave Prague. Koerner spent the next year in Paris, studying art and leading, what he described as, a cheerful bohemian existence, his law studies forgotten. By then, it had become apparent that none of the Koerners could return to Prague. His uncle, searching for better business opportunities, bought a sawmill in British Columbia and asked his nephew to come work for him. In 1939, Koerner arrived in Vancouver.

“What a revelation Canada was!” he said, recalling his first impressions. “When I saw Vancouver, my first comment was that it was located in the most beautiful setting of any city on the planet.”

His passion for the beauty of the West Coast has never waned. Although he worked for the family firm for the next 12 years, he didn’t stop painting. He painted the ocean and the harbor, the islands and “the glorious coastline,” all imbued with his trademark sense of serenity.

To establish ties to the artistic community, he met with many local artists but, after the vibrant ambiance of Paris, he wasn’t happy with Vancouver’s staid art scene. “There was only one gallery on Robson at that time, and it was mostly a framing shop,” he remembered. “I felt that, as far as art and culture were concerned, I had landed in the backwash of the Empire.”

In 1951, Koerner left his secure job at his uncle’s mill to dedicate himself to art. Some years later, he became a member of the Vancouver School of painters, a group that developed modernism in Canadian art. Together with such artists as Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Lawren Harris and others, many of whom were his personal friends, he played a significant role in putting Vancouver on the art map of the world.

“The current exhibition includes Koerner’s paintings from many prestigious public and private collections,” said Ted Lederer, director of the Elliot Louis Gallery. “[And] from his private collection, too; I took some paintings off the walls in his home. The show is representative of almost all of Koerner’s major series.”

Most of the paintings in the show have been inspired by the beauty of the Pacific Ocean. Their soft, pastel colors and luminous light blend the real and the abstract, inviting contemplations. “I didn’t intend to mirror the forms of nature,” said the artist, “but rather invent my own esthetics.”

In his harmonious, translucent palette, his work speaks of peace: shimmering air, flowing water, rustling sand. The images murmur a quiet song of gladness; not a symphony but a string quartet. “I hope I was able to contribute, at least a little bit, to make this world a happier place,” Koerner said.

The show ends July 2. For information, visit elliottlouis.com.

Olga Livshin is a Vancouver freelance writer. She’s available for contract work. Contact her at [email protected].

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