Great Hall Windows Replacement // Learn More
The Death of General Wolfe

Benjamin West
The Death of General Wolfe (Detail), 1770
oil on canvas
152.6 x 214.5 cm
Transfer from the Canadian War Memorials, 1921 (Gift of the 2nd Duke of Westminster, England, 1918)
National Gallery of Canada (no. 8007)

Print this page

Collections

Will Gorlitz

1952 -

“Art is an extension of living in the world” 2001

Will Gorlitz has been a prominent presence in the Canadian contemporary painting scene for nearly three decades. 

Gorlitz was born in Buenos Aires. He immigrated to Winnipeg, Manitoba at the age of six with his Paraguayan father and Mennonite mother.  After graduating from the University of Manitoba he went on to earn his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design (NSCAD), Halifax, NS, in 1977.  Gorlitz notes artist Paterson Ewen, one of his sessional instructors at NSCAD, as key influence stating “He was a direct inspirational link in my transition from an abstract to a representational artist”. 
Following his studies, Gorlitz worked as a graphic artist/illustrator for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. Later he would become a sessional instructor at the University of Waterloo, Waterloo ON where he was awarded a Distinguished Teacher Award, 2001. That same year he began a new position as Professor of Studio Art at the University of Guelph, Guelph, ON. 

Late Spring, 2011 is a two panel painting.  The diptych relates to Gorlitz’s Arboretum Series of painterly snapshots of trees he has observed in the Arboretum at the University of Guelph.  In displaying this dyptic in a corner, as opposed to a standard side by side presentation, Gorlitz envelops the viewer in his subject matter. The slight disjuncture between the two panels emphasizes that the image is not intended to be only a delight for the eye but one that is a comment on the tradition of painting itself. 

Will Gorlitz was elected as a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Art in 2005. 

image not available

Birth name

Will Gorlitz

Born

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1952

Nationality

Canadian

Audioguide

No Audio

Media

No Media

Library and Archives

Search for catalogue entries

Extras

No Extras