Sketchbooks and Notebooks

Art Gallery of Ontario

Sketchbooks and notebooks 2000s Courtesy of the Estate of Denyse Thomasos Audio description of the work Eight open notebooks make up this table display. They range in size from a pocket notebook to slightly larger than letter paper size. In the middle of the glass encased table is a book open to a 4 colour sketch of structures. At the centre of the sketch is a low green circular structure that resembles a wheel with six spokes. It is surrounded by sketches of taller architectural structures in black brown or blue. Three other sketchbooks are open to what appear to be architectural sketches and the other books are open to pages with neat handwriting in black ink. A pad of parchment tracing paper is flipped open, it reads: My work is about cages. About enclosure. Being enveloped. I think of the “cage” as a political object. The cage is however an animal object. My idea is a visual object – it is not an idea really. It is like saying my idea is a “line“. That is not an idea – it is still visual. What is my idea. Many artists never really have an idea. When I critique them I realize they are looking or waiting for their idea. The activity in the studio is just keeping them busy until something happens. I never thought of myself as one of “those“ artist but now I am wondering. What is my idea outside or apart from a visual language. Should a minimum mural artist have an idea outside of a visual idea – is it possible. End of text. This room also displays seven similar medium sized paintings on the walls, they all show a variation on a grid pattern. End of Audio Description. Exhibition label text: WORKING PROCESS: ARCHIVES AND SKETCHBOOKS Some of Thomasos’s diaries, sketches, photo albums, slides, and other objects (including the shoes she wore while painting) are presented in display cases and on screens throughout the exhibition. These items have graciously been loaned to the AGO by members of the artist’s family, and give us an intimate view into the methods that were foundational to Thomasos’s working process. The exhibition includes a selection of photographic materials from her extensive documentation of the indigenous structures she saw during her travels and that came to inspire her approach to abstraction. Similarly, the sketches reveal how her real-world experiences were translated into her personal, painted vocabulary. These sketchbooks are more accurately described as diaries because they contain as much personal reflection on Thomasos’s life as they do artistic exploration. For Thomasos, life and art were inextricably linked. End of Exhibition label text.