exhibitions

The Current Show is: A.J. Casson
The Sampson-Matthews Silkscreens
Exhibition, January 13, to March 8, 2007

Alfred Joseph Casson, P-RCA. P-OSA. CSPWC. CPE. The Group of Seven. CGP. [189801992]. was born in Toronto, Ontario, to a family of grocers. He studied at the Technical School in Hamilton under John Sloan Gordon and at Central Technical School, Toronto, under Alfred Howell. Later he studied under J.W. Beatty at the Ontario College of Art and privately under Harry Britton. From 1912 onwards he worked for several printing and design companies including, Laidlaw Lithography & Commercial Engravers Company, Hamilton. Casson executed his first linocut in 1917, which according to Dennis Reid (The Group of Seven, p. 20) was the first block print produced in Toronto. Casson continued to produce linocuts up to 1920, exhibiting them with the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and the Canadian Society of Graphic Arts. In 1919, the commercial firm of Rous & Mann hired Casson as an assistant to Franklin Carmichael.

The inclusion of three of his prints at the 1924 Wembley Show gave him international exposure. In 1926, as an associate of the RCA and a member of the Group of Seven, Casson followed Carmichael to the firm of Sampson-Matthews Limited. One of

Canada

's leading graphic art companies, Sampson-Matthews was co-founded by Ernest Sampson, a pioneer of silkscreen printing, and Charles Matthews. Casson’s duties at the firm included silkscreen design, typography planning and production supervision. It was also at this time that his interests moved from linocut to silkscreen. In 1927, he produced his first serigraph for Sampson-Matthews. The print, entitled ‘Canada Geese and Pussy Willows’, was used by the firm as a presentation gift to clients. Casson also produced ‘Crocuses’, as a commission from the Laura Secord Company. In 1931, he was involved with producing silk-screened Christmas cards for the William E. Coutts Company. A total of forty-six different cards were made featuring the work of twenty-six different artists. Casson also did work for the Canadian Malting Company, whose president was interested in building nature preserves across Canada, and produced a silkscreen entitled ‘Cranes’.

In 1942, Casson won first place at a national competition for Victory Bond War posters. He was also one of a number of artists who lobbied the government to finance the reproduction, in silkscreen format, of Canadian paintings for display at armed forces bases. The purpose of the project was to strengthen morale by providing soldiers with symbols of home. Following the death of Sampson, and Carmichael’s departure to teach at OCA, Casson became the art director and vice-president of the company. Dennis Reid (The Group of Seven, p. 23) notes, “beginning in 1943 some 9,000 prints were produced in the Sampson-Matthews plant under the able supervision of A.J. Casson who, during the 1930s, had contributed greatly to the refinement of the process.” Finally in 1953, under the auspices of the National Gallery of Canada, eighty-nine silkscreens were offered in a Sampson-Matthews catalogue. Patricia Ainslie praises Casson's colour prints as "notable for the uncluttered design and fine draughtsmanship, skills undoubtedly acquired in his years as a commercial artist." (Anslie, Images of the Land: Canadian Block Prints 1919-1945, p. 47).