From the archives of the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library:
On March 6, 1940, Edison Danby and Gertrude Buckley welcomed their second son, Kenneth at the General Hospital in Sault Ste. Marie. Little did they know his name would adorn a plaque on the Sault’s Walk of Fame and a city street sign, just as his realist art would adorn countless household walls, international galleries like New York’s Museum of Modern Art, and even Olympic coins.
The late Ken Danby (1940-2007) brought hundreds of moments to life- from natural landscapes to objects, people and, perhaps most iconically, Canadian sports. ‘At the Crease’ (1972), an egg tempera painting of a masked goalie- whose subject identity has caused much speculation over the years- has been referred to as ‘Canada’s Mona Lisa’. Another hockey piece, ‘Lacing Up’ (1973), is almost equally as legendary.
As popular as Danby’s hockey paintings have been, especially in Sault Ste. Marie, his works also contain a range of summer sports, including a unique stint with the Royal Canadian Mint. In June 1974, at 34 years old, Danby won a competition to design a set of special Olympic coins. The coins were part of a series intended to help finance and commemorate the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Design requirements stated that the images must “depict early Canadian sports with an emphasis on the Summer Olympics”. Danby chose rowing, cycling, canoeing and lacrosse- Canada’s only legislated national sport at the time- for his winning set. Indigenous athletes are featured on two of the four coins- canoeing and lacrosse- in honour of their origins.
Sault residents had the opportunity to see the coin designs in person at the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library during the 1975 Algoma Fall Festival. About 400 attendees arrived on opening night to view 37 Danby works, including the coins. (Sault Star, Sept 19, 1975)
When the coins were initially released, a strike had shut down the Royal Canadian Mint production facility in Hull, Quebec causing a delay in purchase availability. The coins’ timing also fell victim to world inflation, slashing production from nine to five million coins and lowering the program’s profit. As for pricing: two $10 coins depicted lacrosse and cycling, while two $5 coins donned rowing and canoeing. The custom cast set sold for $55, and the minted double-struck proof set in the deluxe case for $82.50. The coins today are being resold for upwards of $400-$700.
Around the same time, Danby was named the first recipient of the R. Tait McKenzie Chair for Sports established at the National Centre for Sport in Ottawa. He was also commissioned to complete six watercolours by the National Sport and Recreation Centre in 1976. Each piece contained an individual athlete: “The Gymnast”, “The High Jumper”, “The Diver”, “The Sprinter”, “The Sculler” and “The Cyclist”.
Danby travelled extensively across Canada to observe and sketch athletes for these paintings and even went as far as Mexico City to secure Canadian high jumper, Louise Walker, as his subject for “The High Jumper”. Arriving at the 1975 Pan American Games, Danby had to “bluff his way into the training area of the athletes’ village which was swarming with armed police. At one point he was hit with a police club”. (Toronto Star, Oct 21, 1978).
The depths to which Danby sought inspiration weren’t all for naught, though. He used the studies and sketches from these athletes in several ensuing sport pieces, many of which are available to view in the book, ‘Danby: Images of Sport’ in the Local History section in the James L. McIntyre Centennial Library. Flipping through the pages provides a sense of the intention and experimentation that went into perfecting Danby’s artistic vision.
In a CBC interview, Danby spoke of his process saying, “Everything that I paint is a result of my personal vision and experience. But that doesn’t mean that everything that I paint is as I saw it. What you will see is what I want you to see. Not what I saw. Everything that I respond to in my work is the result of a lot of analysis; a lot of restructuring; a lot of synthesizing- what to leave in, what to take out, what to diminish, what to emphasize. It’s a wrestling match. That I enjoy going through.”
It was a ‘wrestling match’ many profited from over the years, and Danby was adamant about taking only commissions he had an empathy for. When Sudbury’s Alex Baumann brought two Canadian gold medals in swimming home from the 1984 Los Angeles Summer Olympics, Danby was asked to paint a portrait of the swimmer which would help raise money for the Canadian Amateur Swimming Association. It was the first time a Canadian swimmer had ever won gold at the Olympics and one of the rare times that Danby openly revealed the subject of his painting.
As for the subject of the masked goalie in the iconic, ‘At the Crease’, several narratives have been hatched with names like Tony Esposito, Ken Dryden, a Junior B player Dennis Kemp, and even a self-portrait of Ken Danby himself being considered. Regardless of the answer, Canadian sport is fortunate to have such a large body of work through his hand. A quick glance at Danby’s art is enough to surmise it was more than a keen eye and self-taught talent. Hidden within his signature photo-realism, is most definitely a little magic, too.
Throughout the month of August, James L. McIntyre Centennial Library will feature some of Ken Danby’s Olympic sports art found in the library’s archives and book collection. It will be located in the glass case next to Reference Services.
For more information about the life of Ken Danby, visit Soo Today’s ‘Remember This’ article, titled, “Ken Danby, the beginnings of a Canadian Legend” originally published on December 18, 2016.
Each week, the Sault Ste. Marie Public Library and its Archives provide SooToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past.
Find out more of what the Public Library has to offer at www.ssmpl.ca and look for more "Remember This?" columns here.