Jack Chambers

John Richard Chambers (1931–1978) was a Canadian painter and experimental filmmaker. Born in London, Ontario, he received his first art training there at H.B. Beal Technical School. After graduation in 1949 he left to study art in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico. He returned to London in 1952 to study at the University of Western Ontario before leaving to travel in Europe the following year. During his travels in France, Jack Chambers met Picasso, who advised him to continue his studies in Spain. In 1957 he spent the summer in England where he met Henry Moore. Soon afterward he began his studies at the Escuela Central de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, graduating in 1959. His first exhibition was at the Lorca Gallery in Madrid in 1960. The following year he returned to London, Ontario.

In Spain he had met Olga Sanchez Bustos, whom he married in Canada in 1963. They had two children, John (b. 1964) and Diego (b.1965).

The first Jack Chambers retrospective opened in 1970 at the Vancouver Art Gallery and The Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, covering works on canvas and paper from 1948. Also included in this exhibition were the eight films that Chambers produced between 1964 and 1970. In 1969 he published his essay “Perceptual Realism” and received an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from the University of Western Ontario. In that year as well, he was diagnosed with leukemia. In 1967, following a dispute with the National Gallery of Canada over reproduction rights, he founded Canadian Artists’ Representation (CAR) in an attempt to establish fee scales for reproduction rights and rental fees for works in public exhibitions. He was president of CAR 1967–1975. Chambers was elected an associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (ARCA) in December 1973. From 1971 to 1977 he worked on “Red and Green,” a study of art and perception (unpublished). He died of his chronic illness in London, Ontario in 1978 in Victoria Hospital, the subject of one of his paintings.

Jack Chambers’ artworks are in the collection of the Art Gallery of Ontario, the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and numerous other Canadian galleries.