This biography from the Archives of AskART:
|  Molly Lamb Bobak (1920-)
The central theme in Bobak's work have been flowers and crowds of people. Her flower paintings, mostly rendered in watercolor and washes express the fragility of her subjects. Her crowd paintings, mainly rendered in oil, are impressions of gatherings, showing the artist's interpretation of the essence of the occasion rather than the minute details of it.
She was born in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1920, the daughter of Harold Mortimer-Lamb, a mining executive, publisher, art critic, art collector, photographer and painter and Mary Alice Price/Williams.
In 1938, she began her formal art studies at the Vancouver School of Art under Jack Shadbolt. She joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps (C.W.A.C.) in 1942 rose to lieutenant and became the first official female War Artist with the Canadian Army in Europe, 1945 to 1946, submitting over 400 works during her term.
She married fellow war artist Bruno Bobak in 1945 and after the war they settled briefly in Ottawa returning to Vancouver in 1947 where she worked as an instructor in painting at the Vancouver School of Art. She was awarded a French Government Scholarship in 1950 and studied in Paris. Upon returning, she continued painting and teaching as well as sharing her knowledge and skill in drawing and painting on CBC television.
Her first book, Wild Flowers of Canada: Impressions and Sketches of a Field Artist, exhibited her skill with watercolors. Later works include illustrations for two children’s books, Toes in My Nose and Merry-Go-Day. The diaries created by Molly reminiscent of newspaper pages were published in book form by Dundurn Press in 1992 as Double Duty: Sketches and diaries of Molly Lamb Bobak, Canadian War Artist.
In 1960 she moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick where her husband became Artist-in-Residence at the University of New Brunswick Art Centre. A Canada Council Grant allowed her to study in Norway in 1961, returning to Fredericton in 1962, where she began teaching art through Extension Programs at UNB, workshops at the Banff School of Art, the Sunbury Shores Arts and Nature Centre, and the Alberta College of Art.
Bobak has served on the Boards of the National Film Board, the Stamp Design Council, the National Capital Commission and the National Gallery Advisory Board.
She is a member of the Canada Group of Painters, the Canadian Society of Painters in Watercolour and the Royal Canadian Academy.
A major traveling retrospective exhibition by the MacKenzie Art Gallery was held in 1993 and she received honorary degrees from UNB (1983), Mount Allison University (1984) and Saint Thomas University (1994).
Awards and Honors:
Third prize, Canadian Army Art Competition, 1944
First prize, Graphic Art Society, 1966.
French Government scholarship for study in France, 1950-51
Canada Council fellowship for study in Europe, 1960-61.
Doctor of Fine Arts, Mount Allison University, 1984
Doctor of Letters, University of New Brunswick, 1983
Doctor of Laws, Saint Thomas University, 1994
Member of R.C.A. Order of Canada, 1995
Selected Solo Exhibitions:
Vancouver Art Gallery, 1940, 1950-1960
Waddington Gallery, Montreal, 1950-1960
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1962, 1964, 1967, 1971
The National Gallery of Canada (traveling show), 1965
Dalhousie University Art Gallery, 1966
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, 1970
Sir George Williams Art Galleries, Montreal, 1972
Walter Klinkhoff Gallery, Montreal, 1975, 1980, 1985, 1987, 1989, 1993
The New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, 1977
Retrospective traveling exhibition, 1993-1994:
MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan
Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.B.
Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C.
Group Exhibitions
Exhibition of Canadian Paintings, Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, Brazil, 1944
Canadian Women Artists, Riverside Museum, New York, 1947
Sao Paulo Biennial, Museu de Arte Moderna, 1951
Festival of Britain, London, 1951
German Industries Fair, Berlin, 1953
Canadian Painting Exhibition, Pakistan, India and Ceylon, 1954-55
International Print Exhibition, Lugano, Switzerland.
Second, Third and Fourth Biennial Exhibitions of Canadian Painting,
The National Gallery of Canada, 1957, 1959, and 1961
Collections
The National Art Gallery of Canada
The Art Gallery of Ontario
The Vancouver Art Gallery
The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
The Art Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
The University of New Brunswick
The University of British Columbia
The Confederation Center
The Beaverbrook Gallery
The National War Museum
The Canadian Council Art Bank
The New Brunswick Art Bank
Sources include:
Bobak art.com
www.gallery78.com/mlbobak.htm
http://modern-canadian-history.suite101.com/article.cfm
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