David Thauberger
Saskatchewan Artist

David was born in Holdfast, Saskatchewan, in 1948. He received his bachelor of fine arts (B.F.A.) from the University of Saskatchewan in 1971, his master of arts (MA) from the University of California in 1972, and his master of fine arts (MFA) from the University of Montana) in 1973. David started as a ceramics artist as a junior member of the Regina Clay Movement, which had strong artistic ties to the California Funk movement in ceramics of the 1960s. David drifted from ceramics to painting. First, he specialized in repeated images, producing a wallpaper effect. Then he started applying the pop art aesthetics to iconic scenes of Saskatchewan, waving the flag of Prairie regionalism.

David is an avid collector of prairie folk art. He has also collected contemporary art from the living masters to the tackiest objects. David shares, encourages and constantly supports the arts.

Gallery

Ceramics

Repeated Image

Post Cards

Recognition

2012 Saskatchewan Order of Merit

2012 Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal

2009 Lieutenant Governor's Saskatchewan Artist Award

2008 Named to the Order of Canada

1997 Member Royal Canadian Academy of Arts

1973 Master of Fine Arts, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana

1972 Master of Arts, California State University, Sacramento, California

1971 Bachelor of Fine Arts, University of Saskatchewan, Regina, SK

Collection

It is tempting to see the artworks that David Thauberger has collected over the years as a kind of how-to manual for his own work. Indeed, Thauberger is fascinated by popular efforts during the 1950s to teach the public how to make art, whether through Jon Gnagy's television show You Are an Artist or paint-by-number kits. But a look at what he has collected points to a purpose beyond that of a catalogue of techniques. In the funk work of David Gilhooly, Jim Nutt, Roy de Forest, and William Wiley—artists he met during his student days in Regina and California—Thauberger was learning important lessons about how personal experience, no matter how strange or off the beaten track, could be brought into art. Later, while working at the Saskatchewan Arts Board, he made similar discoveries through his first-hand encounters with folk artists such as Wesley Dennis, Ann Harbuz, Molly Lenhardt, and W.C. McCargar. Other works engage popular culture, whether through the surrealist lens of the Chicago Imagists, such as Ed Paschke and Roger Brown, or through the filter of pop graphic design, as seen in works by Patrick Caulfield, Roy Lichtenstein and Jim Dine.

In a sense, his collection can be seen as a record of his apprenticeship in alternative ways of looking at the world. On a broader level, Thauberger's collection registers the intricate web of transactions between himself and an extended circle of artists, including Saskatchewan colleagues Joe Fafard and Victor Cicansky. His collection offers a persuasive reading of an entire community as they discovered the extraordinary possibilities concealed in the ‘back 40’ of art and experience.

From left to right: David Thauberger, Heather Smith(Moose Jaw Art Gallery), Folmer Hansen (Hansen-Ross Pottery), Julia Krueger