Doris Shadbolt


Doris Shadbolt,, née Meisel, was a Canadian art curator, writer and coordinator of exhibitions.

Early life

Born in Preston, Ontario, Shadbolt attended the University of Toronto where she studied Fine Arts as an undergraduate under painter Charles Comfort. After graduating, she worked as a research assistant at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. She moved to Vancouver, British Columbia with her husband, painter Jack Shadbolt, in 1945.

Career

In Vancouver, Shadbolt started a long career with the Vancouver Art Gallery, starting first as a volunteer, then serving as a docent, curator, and director. She curated several groundbreaking exhibitions, including "Art of the Raven", which showcased the work of First Nations artists. Her 1970 exhibition "New York 13" introduced Vancouverites to Robert Morris, Jasper Johns and Andy Warhol.
Shadbolt was also an active art historian and biographer. Her biographies of Bill Reid and Emily Carr remain the authoritative books on the artists. She won several awards for her non-fiction; her Bill Reid won the 1987 Hubert Evans Non-Fiction Prize. She was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from Simon Fraser University, the University of British Columbia, and Emily Carr College of Art and Design. She was made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1976, and in 2000 received a Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts for her contributions to literature and the arts.
The Shadbolt Centre for the Arts in Burnaby, British Columbia, is named for the Shadbolts, and the couple also started the Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts.
Longtime residents on Capitol Hill in Burnaby, the Shadbolts also maintained a summer home on Hornby Island where they were active in the artists colony there. A passionate collector of B.C. ceramics, she bequeathed her 170 piece collection of pottery by Wayne Ngan, Glenn Lewis, Tam Irving, and others to the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Beginning in the 1950s, Shadbolt designed silver jewelry, exhibiting at the New Design Gallery in 1961. Her sculptural abstract forms were inspired by natural forms and African art.

Selected works