artists
Philip Surrey (1910-1990)
Philip Surrey, a founding member of the Contemporary Arts
Society, was a figurative painter with an enduring interest in human
subjects within urban nightscapes. For most of his career, Surrey
used Montreal as his stage, arranging lighting and figures - most
often pedestrians - in compositions that revealed both the
gregarious nature and the solitude of humanity. A friend and student
of Frederick Varley, Surrey was also closely tied to many of the
most important Montreal artists and writers of the 1930s and 1940s.
Philip Surrey began his art training in Winnipeg at age sixteen,
when he took an apprenticeship at Brigdens commercial art firm.
There, he met Fritz Brandtner. In the evenings, he took classes at
the Winnipeg School of Art under LeMoine FitzGerald and George
Overton. It was at this time that he started painting the streets
and people of Winnipeg after dark, by the light of streetlamps and
restaurants. He moved to Vancouver in 1929 and took a job as a
commercial artist at Cleland-Kent Engraving. In night classes at the
Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts, he studied with
Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald. Surrey left Vancouver in 1936
and spent three months at New York's Art Students League, studying
under Frank Vincent Dumond. The following year, he settled in
Montreal and found work at the Standard newspaper. He continued to
paint in evenings and on weekends and became immersed in the art
scene, rekindling his friendship with Brandtner and befriending John
Lyman, Goodridge Roberts, Jori Smith and Jean Palardy.
Surrey built a successful 25-year career at the Standard and its
successor, Weekend Magazine. Then, in 1964, publisher John McConnell
offered Surrey the opportunity to paint full-time under salary.
Surrey accepted, and continued to work as a salaried artist for
twelve years, mounting numerous solo shows and signing an exclusive
contract with Galerie Gilles Corbeil.
Surrey's earliest work shows the influence of Varley, with its
lyrical, sensuous form and colour, as seen in Going to Work (1935).
Later in the 1930s, his approach showed a greater concern with
society and human realities, especially the effects of the
Depression. This is evident in The Red Portrait (1939), with its
image of a solitary sitter and tense mood. The Young Ladies of the
Village (after Courbet) (1966) reveals Surrey's lifelong interest in
classical painting.
Philip Surrey was awarded the Centennial Medal (1967). He held an
honorary doctorate form Concordia University (1981), and was a
member of the Order of Canada (1982).
Source: National Galerie of Canada
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