Acknowledgements
From the Art Canada Institute
The Art Canada Institute gratefully acknowledges the generosity of the Title Sponsors of this book, Liza Mauer and Andrew Scheiner, Nancy McCain and Bill Morneau, Olga Korper Gallery, and Joyce Zemans, and the Season Sponsor, Power Corporation of Canada.
We thank the Founding Sponsor of the Art Canada Institute: BMO Financial Group.
The author is indebted to Tim Whiten for his generous contributions to this book, drawn from a series of interviews and conversations held between September of 2021 and July of 2023. Appreciation is also extended to his York University colleagues Ted Bieler, Srebrenka Bogovic, and Vera Frenkel; his dealer Olga Korper; artists Sandra Brewster, Lyn Carter, June Clark, Bonnie Devine, Shabnam K.Ghazi, Shelagh Keeley, James Lahey, Francis LeBouthillier, Ron Shuebrook, and Frances Thomas; and curators Melissa Bennett, Pamela Edmonds, Virginia Eichhorn, David Liss, and Leila Timmins for their participation; as well as Ajeuro Abala, Jocelyn Anderson, Stéphanie Verge, Simone Wharton, and the entire team at ACI, most especially Sara Angel, Emma Doubt, and Tara Ng.
The author gratefully acknowledges funding support from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council, an agency of the Government of Ontario.
IMAGE SOURCES
Every effort has been made to secure permissions for all copyrighted material. The Art Canada Institute will gladly correct any errors or omissions.
The Art Canada Institute would like to thank the following for their assistance: Art Gallery of Hamilton (Andrea Howard); Art Gallery of Ontario (Alexandra Cousins); Art Gallery of York University (Michael Maranda); Art Museum at the University of Toronto (Alex King); Art Resource (John Benicewicz); Art Windsor-Essex (Nicole McCabe); Buffalo AKG Art Museum (Kelly Carpenter); Canada Council Art Bank (Saada El-Akhrass); Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery (Peter Flannery); Clara Thomas Archives and Special Collections, York University Libraries (Julia Holland and Anna St.Onge); Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University (Bryan Whitledge); City of Toronto (Jacquie Gardner); Copyright Visual Arts (Geneviève Daigneault); CU Art Museum, University of Colorado Boulder (Maggie Mazzullo); Detroit Historical Society (Brendan Roney); Dia Art Foundation (Jenn Kane); Fundação Pierre Verger (Guilherme de Aragão); John Michael Kohler Arts Center (Brian Rusch); Koffler Centre of the Arts (Matthew Jocelyn and Maria Segura); MacKenzie Art Gallery (Marie Olinik); Magnum Photos (Isabella Howard); McMaster Museum of Art (Julie Bronson); National Gallery of Canada (Laurence Breault); Olga Korper Gallery (Shelli Cassidy-McIntosh); Portland Art Museum (Lexy Hartford); The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Sonya Jones); SBC Gallery of Contemporary Art (Nuria Carton de Grammont); Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens (Kelly Crawford); stern-Fotoarchiv, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek München (Dr. Fabian Waßer and Katharina Wohlfart); Tom Thomson Art Gallery (Shannon Bingeman); Ajeuro Abala; Sarah Bay-Cheng; Michael Chambers; June Clark; Irene Haupt; Robert B. Miller; and Leo Touchet.
The ACI recognizes the additional private collectors who have given permission for their works to be published in this edition.
Credit for Cover Image
Tim Whiten, Reliquaire, 2012. (See below for details.)
Credits for Banner Images
Biography: Tim Whiten inside Morada, 1977. (See below for details.)
Key Works: Tim Whiten, Danse (detail of drummer), 1998–2000. (See below for details.)
Significance & Critical Issues: Tim Whiten, Kanopi, 2008. (See below for details.)
Style & Technique: Tim Whiten, Reliquaire, 2012. (See below for details.)
Sources & Resources: Tim Whiten, Book of Light: Containing Poetry from the Heart of God, 2016. (See below for details.)
Credits for Photographs and Works by Other Artists
Announcement for the exhibition Tim Whiten at the Olga Korper Gallery, Toronto, September 13–October 8, 1986, Artist Documentation Files, National Gallery of Canada Library and Archives, Ottawa. Courtesy of the National Gallery of Canada.
A Bottle Tree in the Oaklawn Garden room of the Gibson Garden, Dallas, date unknown. Photograph by David H. Gibson. Collection of the Smithsonian Institution, Archives of American Gardens, The Garden Club of America Collection, Washington, D.C. Courtesy of the Smithsonian Institution.
Captain Tim Whiten with his Austin Healey, outside Bachelor’s Officer’s Quarters, Fort Lewis, Washington, 1968. Photograph by William Brickey. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Central Michigan University students crossing Warriner Mall on their way to class, Mount Pleasant, 1960s. Photographer unknown. Collection of the Clarke Historical Library, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. Courtesy of the Clarke Historical Library.
Cover of Darker, ever darker; Deeper, always deeper: The Journey of Tim Whiten, by Tim Whiten, Anne Trueblood Brodzky, Robert Farris Thompson, Dale McConathy, Claire Daigle, Jarrett Earnest, and Mia Kirsi Stageberg (San Francisco: Meridian Gallery, 2010). Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Cover of Tim Whiten: Enigmata / Enigmata Rose, by Tim Whiten, Elizabeth Anthony, and Carolyn Bell Farrell (San Francisco: Meridian Gallery, 2001). Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Cover of Tim Whiten: Messages from the Light, by Carolyn Bell Farrell, David Liss, and Claire Christie (Toronto and Montreal: Koffler Gallery, Koffler Centre of the Arts and the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery, Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, 1997). Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Cover of Tim Whiten: Tools of Conveyance, by Jarrett Earnest and S. Brent Plate, edited by Sandra Firmin (Boulder: University of Colorado Art Museum, 2021), featuring Tim Whiten’s Perceval, 2013. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Dr. Oscar Oppenheimer, date unknown. Photographer unknown. Collection of the Clarke Historical Society, Central Michigan University, Mount Pleasant. Courtesy of the Clarke Historical Society.
Ford Model A Assembly Line, Rouge Plant, Dearborn, 1928. Photographer unknown. Collection of the Henry Ford Museum, Dearborn, Gift of Fort Motor Company (84.1.1660.P.833.51076). Courtesy of the Henry Ford Museum.
Inkster High School, pictured in the 1959 Inkster High School yearbook. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Classmates.com.
Installation view of the exhibition Elemental: Fire at the Art Gallery of York University, Toronto, 2023. Courtesy of Tim Whiten. Photo credit: Toni Hafkenscheid.
Installation view of the exhibition Remains to be Seen at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, 1983. Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Arts Center.
Installation view of the exhibition Tim Whiten: Messages from the Light at the Koffler Gallery, Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto, 1997. Courtesy of Tim Whiten. Photo credit: Isaac Applebaum.
Installation view of the exhibition Tim Whiten: Messages from the Light at the Koffler Gallery, Koffler Centre of the Arts, Toronto, 1997. Courtesy of Tim Whiten. Photo credit: Isaac Applebaum.
Installation view of the exhibition Tim Whiten: Messages from the Light at the Saidye Bronfman Centre for the Arts, Montreal, 1997. Courtesy of the Liane and Danny Taran Gallery, Montreal.
Mary Emma Whiten, the day she received her high school diploma, 3427 Irene Street, Inkster, Michigan, 1958. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
The Old Woman, from the series The Dance of Death, c.1526, published 1538, by Hans Holbein the Younger. Collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Rogers Fund, 1919 (19.57.25). Courtesy of The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life, c.1640, by Harmen Steenwijck. Collection of the National Gallery, London, Presented by Lord Savile, 1888 (NG1256). Courtesy of the National Gallery.
Tim Whiten, 2001. Photograph by Jaroslaw Rodycz. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten, 2022, installation view of Danse (detail of drummer), 1998–2000, Tree Museum, Gravenhurst, Ontario. Photograph by Mehraban Mehrabani. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten in his studio, Toronto, 1974. Photograph by Eberhard Otto. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten inside Morada at Artpark in Lewiston, New York, 1977. Photograph by Andrew Stout. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten inside Morada at Artpark in Lewiston, New York, 1977. Photograph by Andrew Stout. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten, school graduation photograph, 1949. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten, school graduation photograph, 1959. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten’s elder brother, Jim Whiten, a jazz musician, 1974. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten’s eldest brother Leonard Whiten receiving an award at his retirement, St. Joseph’s Hospital, Ann Arbor, Michigan, 1989. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten signing a print by Jerry Shiner’s studio, The Art Printer, Toronto, 1981. Photograph by Michael Glassbourg. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten with his own sculptures, University of Oregon, Eugene, 1966. Photograph by Jerry Dodd. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tim Whiten working on Arisearose, 2017. Photograph by Margherita Matera. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tom Whiten holding Tim at the first house built by Tom, 3502 Irene Street, Inkster, Michigan, 1941. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
Tom Whiten standing in front of the house he had built, taken in the late fall with him wearing a fine Stetson hat, a long black woolen coat, and fine leather gloves, Inkster, Michigan, 1930. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
The Whiten family, with Mary Emma Whiten standing with the old Ford Model T that Tom Whiten owned at the time, 1935. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of Tim Whiten.
York University students stroll outside Founders College, Toronto, c.1965. Photographer unknown. Courtesy of The York University Magazine.
Zuiho-in, a sub-temple of Daitoku-ji, Kyoto, 2008. Photograph by Olivier Lejade. Licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.
Since 1990, Carolyn Bell Farrell has curated more than sixty exhibitions of contemporary art and has contributed as many essays for exhibition publications. Learn More
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For over fifty years, Tim Whiten (b.1941) has drawn from his ancestral heritage, mysticism, and philosophy to produce evocative cultural objects and ritual performances. Learn More
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