Caven Atkins, Marine Activity (and Penitentiary), 1944, watercolour on paper. Gift of the Douglas M. Duncam Collection, 1970
Exhibitions
Kingston Views: The Penal Presence
Frances K. Smith Gallery
19 August 2007 - 17 February 2008
In his analysis of the development of the modern penal system, Michel Foucault identifies changes in theory and practice that occurred in the late 18th century. Central among these was a shift in emphasis from punishing the prisoner's body to punishing the soul, from torture and/or execution to incarceration, and from public spectacle to private detention.
Kingston is strongly linked to the history of incarceration. Kingston Penitentiary, opened in 1835, is the oldest prison still in use in Canada, and one of several area prisons. With its elegant Neoclassical façade detailing, it is also one of the city's architectural landmarks. This exhibition explores the response by several artists to this legacy and to the evolving ideologies behind penal practices, beginning with an 18th century print from the Carceri (Prison) series by the Italian etcher and designer Giovanni Battista Piranesi. Closer to home, a series of sketches of Kingston Penitentiary published in 1875, and 20th century drawings and watercolours by Carl Schaefer and Caven Atkins, reveal a fascination for both the building and life inside and outside its forbidding walls.
Both Schaefer and Atkins came to Kingston to teach art in the Queen's University summer school. As visitors to the city, their work provides a unique perspective on the Penitentiary, a subject that seems to have been of little interest to local artists. Schaefer also completed a series exploring Fort Henry where, though abandoned at the time of his visits in the late 1940s, enemy aliens had been incarcerated during wartime.
This exhibition has been curated by Debra Antoncic, Ph.D candidate in art history at Queen's University, as part of an Art Centre practicum.
The exhibition is presented with the support of the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.