Despite the many work-related challenges that have arisen during the Covid-19 pandemic, the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives has continued to expand its impressive holdings. Among the most notable archival collection currently wending its way through the acquisitions process is the personal archive of Angela Grauerholz, one of Canada’s most accomplished contemporary photographers. Comprising textual records and photographs spanning more than four decades, the collection is an indispensable resource for researchers interested in Grauerholz’s multifaceted career as a photographer, graphic designer, and teacher. As the person responsible for private archival collections at the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, it has been my task to prepare the Angela Grauerholz fonds for appraisal and its eventual submission to the Canadian Cultural Property Export Review Board (CCPERB). This process, carried over the past several months, has demanded extensive research on the artist and her outstanding achievement.
Born in Hamburg, West Germany in 1952, Grauerholz studied graphic design at the Kunstschule Alsterdamm in Hamburg from 1972 until 1976, and literature and linguistics at the University of Hamburg from 1974 to 1976. After moving to Montreal in 1976, she completed a Master of Fine Arts degree in photography at Concordia University. In 1980, in partnership with artist Anne Ramsden and art historian Francine Périnet, Grauerholz co-founded Artexte, a non-profit contemporary art information centre in Montreal that continues to flourish. Starting in 1984, Grauerholz additionally worked as graphic designer specializing in catalogue and book design. In 1988, she became a full professor at the École de design, Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), where she taught typography and photography.
Grauerholz is best known for her photographic work, which from the beginning of her career has challenged and redefined methods of image making. In her first solo exhibition at Centre Vu in Québec City in 1984, and again the following year at Art 45 in Montreal, Grauerholz presented a series of portraits of young women. The blurred, grainy, out-of-focus quality of these photographs would become a hallmark of her work. In the 1990s, Grauerholz transitioned from making singular photographs to installation projects that incorporated multiple images and explored ideas relating to archival and collective memory. The earliest of these projects was Eclogue or Filling the Landscape (1995), which consists of a file cabinet designed by Grauerholz housing 216 gelatin silver prints of various dimensions in twenty-eight portfolios, and Sententia I – LXII (1998), which features a monumental cherrywood cabinet containing sixty-two photographs arranged back-to-back in thirty-one frames that can be pulled out like drawers for viewing. Grauerholz’s most ambitious work, Reading Room for the Working Artist (2003-2004), now part of the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, is an ensemble comprising twelve artist books, a sixteen-minute film, and furniture designed by the artist that was inspired by and partially modeled on the Reading Room of the USSR Workers’ Club, a work produced by Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956) for the Exposition internationale des Arts décoratif et industriels modernes in Paris in 1925.
Other notable photographic projects by Grauerholz include The Alison Pictures (1997), a series of twenty-eight portraits of photographer Alison Rossiter that were taken over a period of more than ten years and first exhibited at the Galerie Françoise Paviot, Paris, in 1997, and Privation (2001), a series of Giclée prints on Arches watercolour paper depicting books from Grauerholz’s personal library that had been damaged in a fire in her home in 1999. Grauerholz produced the images for Privation by laying the front and back covers of the damaged books directly onto the bed of a flatbed scanner, in effect using the digital instrument as a camera. The resulting series of highly detailed images were exhibited as part of the Biennale de Montreal in 2002 and the same year at the Contemporary Art Gallery in Vancouver.
Grauerholz has participated in several important international exhibitions during her career, including the Biennale of Sydney, Australia in 1990; Documenta IX in Kassel, Germany, in 1992; and the Carnegie International in Pittsburgh in 19995) A major touring exhibition of her work, organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, traveled throughout Canada and Europe in 1995-1996, followed by solo exhibitions at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto in 1999; the Albright-Knox Museum, Buffalo, in 1999; the Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG), Vancouver in 2002; and the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, in 2010. In recognition of her contribution as a photographer, Grauerholz has also received several prestigious prizes, including the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas in 2006; the Canada Council’s Governor General Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2014; and the Scotiabank Photography Award in 2015. In 2018 she was awarded an Honourary Doctorate of Letters from the Emily Carr University of Art + Design.
The largest portion of the Angela Grauerholz fonds relates to Grauerholz’s photographic career. Included are photographs from Grauerholz’s time as a student at Concordia University and a large number of photographic proofs and inkjet prints for her major projects. Textual records in the fonds include a broad range of material that Grauerholz assembled while developing The Reading Room, and correspondence, ephemera, and other documentation relating to the numerous exhibitions in which Grauerholz participated. There are also records relating to her graphic design and teaching careers. Grauerholz worked as a designer in Montreal for twelve years beginning in 1984, initially under the name Grauerholz & Delson and later as Grauerholz Design. Her clients included several distinguished artists and art institutions, Artexte, Concordia Art Gallery, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts among them. She received numerous awards for her design work, including the Award of Excellence (Best of Best) from the American Federation of Arts, New York, for the catalogue Lisette Model, published by the National Gallery of Canada in 1990. Documentation in the fonds relating to Grauerholz’s teaching career at UQAM from 1988 to 2017 include records pertaining to courses taught by Grauerholz, commemorative projects with students, and exhibitions.
The rehousing, cataloguing and appraisal of the Angela Grauerholz fonds has been completed and its acquisition is now awaiting final approval by the Gallery’s Board of Directors. Once this last step is finalized, a finding aid for the collection will be available upon request (erefel@gallery.ca) and on the National Gallery of Canada website. Although reviews of Grauerholz’s photographic work have generally been positive throughout her career, the fonds will permit art historians to more fully assess and contextualize her achievement not only as a photographer but also as a graphic designer and teacher.
CONTRIBUTOR
Philip Dombowsky
Archivist, National Gallery of Canada
IMAGES
Angela Grauerholz, La bibliothèque, 1993. Azo dye print, 122 x 183 cm. Collection: National Gallery of Canada.
Grauerholz + Delson, Poster, Aurora Borealis, Centre international d’art contemporain de Montréal, 15 juin-3 septembre 1985. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.
Brochure cover, Angela Grauerholz: Sententia I to LXII, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, July 10-September 12, 1999. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives.