Robert Boyer

Robert Boyer (July 20, 1948 – August 30, 2004) was a Canadian visual artist and university professor of aboriginal heritage. He was a Métis Cree artist known for his politically charged abstract paintings.

Life and work Boyer grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan and earned a BEd from the Regina Campus of the University of Saskatchewan in 1971. He joined the Saskatchewan arts community in 1973 and worked on community programming at the Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery in Regina until the mid-1970s. He was then a professor of Indian Fine Arts at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College ("SIFC") (now First Nations University of Canada), a federated college of the University of Saskatchewan, Regina Campus, later the University of Regina, until 1997. During his time at the SIFC, Boyer acted as the Head of the Department of Indian Fine Arts.

Boyer's early paintings use material such as acrylics, paper, and canvas. The earliest paintings are realistic, but he soon embarked on an effort to incorporate an abstract style in his work. One of the earliest results of this is "Horses Can Fly, Too," a representation of a horse-figure streaking through the sky. Boyer is well known for his large-scale geometric paintings on felt blankets that he produced primarily in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This began after a trip to China and Japan. He said, "There were paintings on silk or cloth and gradually this whole thing about art not having to be made on stretched canvas really began to get through to me." The Information Sheet for the proposed re-zoning application states that "... most of the flanking on the existing site will be lost to the grocery store expansion..." The Information Sheet does not state if the Boyer mural will be preserved in some fashion, or if Canada Safeway will destroy the mural as part of the expansion of its store.

The issue of the mural attracted some attention in a column in the local newspaper, and in letters to the editor.

Selected major exhibitions (solo and group) Horses Fly Too, Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, 1984. Bob Boyer: A Blanket Statement organized by the University of British Columbia Museum of Anthropology, Vancouver, 1988. In the Shadow of the Sun, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, 1988. Shades of Difference: The Art of Bob Boyer, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, 1991. Indigena, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Ottawa, 1992.

Honours Royal Canadian Academy of Arts