A public artwork set up by Douglas Coupland in Toronto was destoryed by a fireplace final week, in what native police are calling arson.
Coupland’s piece was an homage to one in every of Canada’s most well-known painters, Tom Thomson, whose landscapes seize north Ontario and have nationalist overtones. He was not formally a member of the Group of Seven artwork motion, however he was shut with its members.
The Coupland paintings, Tom Thomson’s Canoe (2008), took the type of a crimson boat and alluded to Thomson’s untimely loss of life at 39 in 1917 throughout a canoeing accident.
On April 2, round 2 a.m., law enforcement officials had been known as to a fireplace at Canoe Touchdown Park. Once they arrived on the scene, the piece had already been “engulfed in flames and, sadly, was destroyed,” in keeping with a Toronto police report that was posted on social media.
Coupland’s now-lost set up was a civic landmark. Following the hearth, solely its metal framework stays.
“For the time being, we all know it was arson, however we don’t know its motive. Artwork is all the time a lightning rod. Was it political? Who’s to say,” Coupland informed the Artwork Newspaper. “Very shut by, there’s my Monument to the Conflict of 1812, which I did in 2008. An English soldier standing above a toppled US soldier. Perhaps that’s subsequent?”
Coupland, who can also be a author and a designer, is typically credited with popularizing the phrases “Era X” and “McJob.” His paintings takes the type of work, monumental sculptures, installations, and textual content.
