Alistair Macready Bell  ARCA, BCSA, CGPA, CPE, CSGA  (1913 – 1997)

Alistair Macready Bell was a graphic artist and painter who was born in Darlington, England.  He emigrated to Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 1922, then to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1929; where he lived the rest of his life.  His mediums were drypoint, etchings, woodblock prints, lithographs, watercolors, pencil, crayon, pen and charcoal drawings.  His subjects were landscapes, harbor scenes, architecture and animals, especially birds.  His style is representational and expressionist; the emphasis is on the essence of the subject rather than an accurate anatomical study.

He was primarily self taught, however he attended the Vancouver School of Art (1935 - 1936) where he studied drawing and printing under B.C. Binning.  He also studied  etching and lithography at the Central School of Arts and Crafts in London, England (1959).  He worked as a draughtsman from 1942 until 1967 when he became a full time artist focusing on making prints (over a 60 year period he created more than 250).  He traveled in Britain, the Netherlands, France, and Italy (1959-60).

He was a member of the Canadian Society of Graphic Art (1947-70), the British Columbia Society of Artists (1949) (President, 1953-55), The Canadian Society of Painters Etchers and Engravers (1953), the Canadian Group of Painters (1959-61)(President, 1960-61), the Print & Drawing Council of Canada (1976) and an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy (1965).

He began to exhibit nationally in the early 1950’s.  His work has been in many international graphics exhibitions since 1957 including the First International Biennial of Graphics in Tokyo and Osaka (1957), the Pan American Graphics Biennale, Santiago, Chile (1963 and 1965) and the International Exhibition of Contemporary Xylography, Museum of Modern Art, Madrid (1972).  A major national touring retrospective exhibition of his work was organized by the Burnaby Art Gallery in 1971, and a retrospective was held at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria in 1982.  His drawings and graphics were also in solo exhibitions at the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1951, 1957 and 1961.

His work is in many private and public collections.  The public collections include the Museum of Modern Art (New York), the Victoria and Albert Museum (London), the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Royal Ontario Museum (Toronto).

As a prominent Canadian artist his work is discussed in many magazine and newspaper articles. He is also listed in A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald, published by Canadian Paperbacks Ltd. (8 volumes); in The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar, published by Westbridge Publications Ltd. (4 volumes); in Jaques Cattell Press, Who's Who in American Art 15th Edition (1982), published by R.R.Bowker Co. (1204 pgs); in Falk's Who Was Who in American Art (3 volumes); and in A Modern Life - Art and Design in British Columbia 1945-1960 (2005), edited by Ian Thom and Alan Elder, published by the Vancouver Art Gallery (176 pgs, color and B&W).

 
Prepared and contributed by M.D. Silverbrooke