(Toronto) Multidisciplinary artist Michael Snow, known in Canada and abroad for his abstract painting, public sculptures and experimental film Wave length of 1967, died at the age of 94.
The Toronto-born artist died on Thursday, said Tamsen Greene, senior director of New York’s Jack Shainman Gallery, which represented Snow.
The National Gallery of Canada said in a statement that Snow was “a giant of the art world, in Canada and internationally,” and “a formidable ambassador.” It is added that “his legacy is that of an unprecedented transformation of the relationship between the work of art and the viewer”.
“His creative experiences challenged perceptions and ultimately changed the way we understand art, the world and other people. »
Michael Snow has indeed experimented for many decades with a variety of disciplines, including film, painting, sculpture, photography and music.
A biography on the Art Canada Institute website describes Snow as a self-taught musician who played piano in jazz bands. In 1974, he was part of the Canadian Creative Music Collective, an improvisational group that founded the Music Gallery in Toronto.
Snow lived for many years in New York, where he presented his experimental film Wave length in 1967. Noted for his 45-minute camera zoom, his “structural cinema” is considered avant-garde.
Snow has also distinguished himself in public art, with works such as the installation of geese flight-stopin the atrium of the Eaton Center in Toronto, created in 1979, and The Audienceat the Rogers Center in Toronto, representing enthusiastic sports fans.
In 1970 Snow represented Canada at the Venice Biennale.
He received the Order of Canada in 1981 and was made a Companion in 2007.