Philip Surrey

Philip Surrey LL. D. (October 10, 1910 – April 24, 1990) was a Canadian artist known for his figurative scenes of Montreal. A founding member of the Contemporary Arts Society, and Montreal Men's Press Club (now Montreal Press Club), Surrey was part of Montreal's cultural elite during the late 1930s and 1940s. In recognition of his artistic accomplishment he was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, awarded a Canadian Centennial Medal in 1967 and was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1982. Painting scenes of city life, his early work featured solitary figures on street corners and in cafes or taverns during the Great Depression. From the 1960s on, his work became more stylized and luminous with young women or gregarious urban dwellers as subjects. In May 1927, Surrey began to paint urban scenes in earnest, completing 300 mixed-media sketches within a year. He also continued to work at Brigdens, illustrating women's wear for the 1928 and 1929 Eaton's Western Catalogue until the autumn of 1929, when he moved to Vancouver to work as a commercial artist at Cleland-Kent Engraving. In the evening he studied with Frederick Varley and Jock Macdonald at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now Emily Carr University of Art and Design). His work was also included in the international exhibitions Contemporary Painting in Canada at the Addison Gallery of American Art (Andover MA) in 1942, and Canadian Art 1760 - 1943 at the Yale University Art Gallery in 1944. In 1965 and 1967, Surrey's solo shows at Galerie Martin sold out and, by 1970, he was represented by Galerie Gilles Corbeil.

Recognition and contribution Recognized as a "leading exponent of urban landscape painting in Canada", Surrey's Order of Canada citation read: "His Montreal street scenes convey an emotive vision of the modern city, with its anonymous crowds and individual solitudes. His expressive style and a poetic humanitarianism constitute a unique contribution to Canadian art." In his anthology of Canadian painters from 1930 to 1970, Paul Duval wrote: "No other Canadian artist has painted life in the city with such constancy and authority... with candidness and a highly original outlook." Vie des Arts reviewer Giles Daigneault wrote, that for Surrey, "painting exists to console" viewers "through difficult periods of life".

Collections Surrey's work has been collected by the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa ON), Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Ottawa Art Gallery (Firestone Art Collection), and Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Concordia University, Montreal). His work is also found in the collections of the Art Gallery of Alberta (Edmonton AB), Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto ON), Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax NS), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton NB), Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Museum London (London ON), Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba), Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Vancouver Art Gallery, Musée d'art de Joliette, Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts, Owens Art Gallery (Mount Allison University, Sackville NB), and at the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Queen's University, Kingston ON). Many of his papers are stored at Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa ON). The Red Portrait, 1939 Plaza Café, The Young Ladies of the Village (after Courbet), 1966 Every Canadian Must Fight,

Memberships Surrey was a member of the C.S.G.A., the Eastern Group, and the Contemporary Arts Society. He was also a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts.