Artwork of the Week!

Artwork of the Week!
Week 16:

E.J. (Ted) Howorth (born 1943)
The Double Crossing
1979
Silkscreen

Originally trained as a sculptor, Ted Howorth began experimenting with silkscreen prints at the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop in 1970. Howorth’s psychedelic images of the 1970s are characterized by flat blocks of bright, solid colour bordered with heavy black outlines. By the middle of the decade he was incorporating photographic images into his prints as can be seen in The Double Crossing, which includes a black and white picture of a rural Manitoba blizzard. The Double Crossing was produced in Paris during Howorth’s apprenticeship at Atelier Arcay and the subject of the piece reflects the artist’s interest in human-powered vehicles. At the time, American aeronautical engineer Paul MacCready had designed a human-powered aircraft called The Gossamer Albatross –a simplified rendering of it is included at the left of this work – that won the Kremer prize for successfully crossing the English Channel. At the same time, Howorth was crossing the Atlantic Ocean to begin work in France. The small figure in the centre holding a camera is fellow Winnipeg artist Don Proch. Two years earlier, Howorth had travelled to France with colleagues Proch and Bill Lobchuk for an exhibition of prints from the Grand Western Canadian Screen Shop. The title Double Crossing thus comes from the idea of two separate crossings of bodies of water – MacCready’s and Howorth’s.