Betty Roodish Goodwin, CMRCA (March 19, 1923 – December 1, 2008) was a multidisciplinary Canadian artist who expressed the complexity of human experience through her work.
Early life
Goodwin was born in Montreal, the only child of Romanian immigrants Clare Edith and Abraham Roodish.[1] She enjoyed painting and drawing as a child, and was encouraged by her mother to pursue art. Goodwin's parents first settled in the United States, but when her father Abraham, who was a tailor, struggled to find work. They moved to Montreal, where Abraham established Rochester Vest Manufacturing Company Ltd. in 1928. Still, they struggled financially. When Goodwin was nine years old, her father suffered a heart attack and passed away. This traumatic experience impacted Goodwin throughout her life, and went on to influence her art.[2] After graduating from high school, Goodwin studied design at Valentine's Commercial School of Art in Montreal.[1]
Career
In her work, Goodwin used a variety of media, including collage, sculpture, printmaking, painting and drawing, assemblage and etchings. Her art often involved themes of humanity, loss, and emotion.[3] Many of her ideas came from clusters of photographs, objects, or drawings on the walls in her studio. She also used the "germ" of ideas that are left after being erased from a work.[3] Goodwin launched her career as a painter and printmaker in the late 1940s. During the 1950s and 60s Goodwin created still life paintings. She also depicted scenes of Montreal's Jewish Community.[1]
In 1968, she enrolled in an etching class with Yves Gaucher at Sir George Williams University in Montreal.[3] It was there where she began working with found objects and clothing and how they held traces of life, in her prints, which brought her international attention.[4] Goodwin revolutionized the medium of printmaking when, in 1968, she began putting pieces of clothing through a printing press. From this experiment, she developed innovative prints, including her iconic Vest series.[2]
Dissatisfied with her work, Betty destroyed most of it and in 1968 she limited herself to drawing.[3] From 1972 to 1974, she created a series of wall hangings entitled Tarpaulin , which she reworked to shape into sculptures and collages.
Over a period of six years beginning in 1982, Goodwin explored the human form in her drawing series Swimmers, a project which used graphite, oil pastels and charcoal on translucent Mylar. The large-scale drawings depict solitary floating or sinking bodies, suspended in space. In 1986, to show the interaction of human figures she created her series Carbon using charcoal and wax for her drawings.[5] Two more series followed: La mémoire du corps (1990–1995) and Nerves (1993–1995).[5]
She died in December 2008 in Montreal.
Personal
In 1945, Betty Goodwin married Martin Goodwin, a civil engineer (d. 2008). They had their son Paul in 1946.[2] Goodwin experienced immense loss when her son Paul died of a drug overdose at age 30.[3]
^"Collection". ago.ca. Art Gallery of Ontario. Retrieved 2021-06-21.
^ abc"Artefacts Canada". Canadian Heritage Information Network. Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 11 March 2015.
^Cane, Jennifer; van Eijnsbergen, Ellen (2017). The Ornament of a House: 50 Years of Collecting. Burnaby: Burnaby Art Gallery. pp. 64–65. ISBN9781927364239.
Bogardi, Georges. "The Studio: In her reconfigurations of ideas and found materials, Betty Goodwin transforms life into art." Canadian Art Vol. 11, no. 3 (Fall 1994): 86–93.
Bradley, Jessica. Betty Goodwin: Life & Work. Toronto: Art Canada Institute, 2024. ISBN 9781487103439
Bradley, Jessica and Matthew Teitelbaum, eds. The Art of Betty Goodwin. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1998. ISBN1-55054-650-3
Kirshner, Sheldon. "Betty Goodwin: Canada's Grande Dame of Art." The Canadian Jewish News Vol. 29, no. 2 (Jan. 14, 1999): 11.
Morin, France and Sanford Kwinter. Steel Notes, Betty Goodwin. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1989. ISBN0-88884-602-9
Betty Goodwin. Musee d'art Contemporain, Montreal, 1976. 32 pp. 28 x 22 cm. In French. Artist(s):Goodwin, Betty[1]
Betty Goodwin: Oeuvres De 1971 A 1987/Works from 1971 TO 1987. Yolande Racine. Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, 1987. Organized and published by Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. 252 pp. (2 foldout) with 129 ills. (56 col.). 27 x 23 cm. ISBN2891920821 Bilingual in French and English.[1]
Betty Goodwin: Parcours De L'oeuvre A Tracers La Collection Du Musee D'art Contemporain De Montreal (Betty Goodwin: Survey of the Oeuvre through the Collection of the Musee d'art contemporain, Montreal). Josee Belisle. Musee d'art contemporain, Montreal, 2009. 116 pp. with 54 col. ills. 25 x 20 cm. ISBN9782551237838 Bilingual in French and English (biographical notes and brief entries in French only).[1]
Betty Goodwin: Steel Notes. France Morin et al. Canadian Section, 20a. Bienal Internacional de São Paulo, 1989. Organized and published by National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Distributed by University of Toronto Press. 152 pp. with 55 ills. (29 col.). 25 x 20 cm. ISBN0888846029 Trilingual in Portuguese, English and French.[1]
The Prints of Betty Goodwin. Rosemarie L. Tovell et al. National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 2002. Published in association with Douglas & McIntyre, Vancouver. 248 pp. with 251 ills. (36 col.). 28 x 23 cm. LC 2002-483164 ISBN1550549251 In English.[1]
Goodwin, Betty; Cindy Richmond, Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, Winnipeg Art Gallery (1996). Betty Goodwin: icons. Regina: Mackenzie Art Gallery. ISBN1896470017.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Scott, Kitty; Edmonton Art Gallery (1990). Betty Goodwin. Edmonton: Art Gallery. ISBN0889500657.
Goodwin, Betty; New York Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art (1988). Betty Goodwin. New York?: 49th Parallel, Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art?.
