As if the subject of the biography Keep in Touch: The Serendipitous Life of Canadian Arts Icon David Silcox wasn’t compelling enough to keep the reader fully-engaged over the telling of the tale, then the luminous personages who surrounded David Silcox most surely are.
From Sir Anthony Blunt, Queen Elizabeth’s art curator, and convicted British spy; to a young Margaret Atwood; from wilderness canoe-buddy, Canadian Prime Minister, Pierre Trudeau; to the death of artist Tom Thomson, tales of Canada, as broad as the landscape are revealed in this biography.
Deeply-researched and crafted by this author and told with the assistance of over 70 of David’s friends, associates, admirers, colleagues and family members, Keep in Touch: The Serendipitous Life of Canadian Arts Icon David Silcox is a much-deserved literary tribute to a legendary Canadian.
Born to a prairie preacher Dust-Bowl Saskatchewan in the midst of the Great Depression, young David’s eyes were opened to the wild world after being chosen to participate as a Canadian Boy Schout in the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth. His sensitivities to the world of art blossomed after enrolling in Britain’s Courtland Institute of Art. Then it was up the hierarchy of art and culture as First Officer of the Canada Council; Culture Chair of Metro Toronto (Mel Lastman days!); on to York University as the fledgling institution’s first Associate Dean of Fine Arts; on to Pierre Trudeau’s Ottawa as federal Assistant Deputy Minister of Communications and later as Deputy Minister of Culture for Ontario.
Ontario’s first NDP government under Bob Rae turned David’s direction away from public service to Sotheby’s Canada where as President he engineering the return “home” of lost Canadian masterpieces by Paul Kane, Tom Thomson , Emily Carr and members of the Group of Seven.
And as if political acumen, a fine eye for lost treasure and the fine honing of the time-honoured skill of “Keeping in Touch” served this preacher’s son insufficiently, David Silcox dazzled with words. His best-selling book, Tom Thomson; The Silence and the Storm: co-written with artist Harold Town was followed by Christopher Pratt, co-written with Merike Weiler. Silcox’s magnum opus, Painting Place, The Life and Work of David B. Milne was almost thirty years in the making and won for Silcox a revered place as one of Canada’s most respected art authors.
A Canadian hero? An arts administrator superman? A misunderstood bureaucrat whose love for the “finer things in life” eventually spelled his political doom.
You’ll like this book. Insightful, humorous, revealing and so very, very Canadian. This author (and sister-in-law of the subject) invites you to open the first page and enjoy…