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me 18 ikir tx t 1 vsvs irsheridan living father and son art exhibit the kinsmen club of bay ridges inc presents kinfest75 sheridan mall lower concourse highway no 2 liverpool road saturday march 22nd 1975 music by the pacers 800 pm to 100 am featuring polka contest chugalugcontest admission s includes free stein for ticket information 83941 32 call 8392047 sheridan mall pickering 8397830 itiv rvaw iovj- kv-s- conrad f bonk displaj s works this week sheridan mall is presenting an exhibition by two local artists who are well known to many of the residents of this area mr conrad f bonk of bay ridges paints with tempera and utilizes spray painting he paints portraits with a larger than life reality of people i with an eye- for the diversity of human existence his father konrad v bonk of pickering village r specializes in mixed memv ihainly acrylics this is perhapsthe first time an opportunity has existed to see an exhibition by father and son in recent years and to examine their varied approach to problems that create the much talked about generation gap v there are many questioning why conrad bonk has agreed to exhibit some of his paintings in the sheridan mall and between those who scorn it because it couldnt i be art and those who avoid it because it is chances are noone isgoing jo find out as a serious artist i am taking my life in my hands exhibiting in a mall which is associated with hardly anything better than the most crass and vulgar art of mass appeal slinking its way across black velvet and horribly physically aberrated landscapes t to our great shamed eyer since we claimed art frorn being the ex elusive privelege of the secular and holy wealthy we have either tried to have the cake without paying the baker or decided we dont really want it anyway there is more rigmarole and nonsense- written aiu chanted about art by its devotees and hurled against v it in self- conscious defence by the whatsitgottowithmes than just about anything else in our muddled view of life but there is a sad equaliser to those on both sides of the fence and i may as well throw in those sitting on it as well we have all forced our artists into almost un tenable positions i dont intend this to be a what is art laun ching pad its never having been fully resolved may have something to do with the total stupidity of the question art doesnt have tobe rigorously defined or usto see its relevance and value in our lives even our most basic fellows in the animal kingdom know in stinctively what con stitutes the fundamentals of their life but that doesnt mean art can be put anywhere despite the alacrity with which we are learning to abuse ourselves and our lives there are still things in life that wc still manage to value with respect and art should be one themafter all there aresomeplaces i dont everi like to see people having to be but certainly art doesnt belong- in tidy corners of- an artjsts studio or 7m mar- vellously expensive art galleries although i see nothing wrong per se with putting art in galleries itsmore reasonable than putting it between the carrots and onions in loblaws but far too many galleries seem merely to preserve the intellectual and social chic of something too many believe to be privelege for a minority the capacity of art b add to our lives is enormous and art should be where people- can see it and share it but the average man wandering about the suburbs or up and down yonge street generally feels ifhe gives it any thought at all hat it has little or nothing to do with him i think part of the reason for this is that instead of being something to be prized art has become something precious and in our zeal to preserve its- quality as something finer than our disposable diversions we have succeeded rather better in keeping it apart from our lives rather than a part one of the greatest difficulties confronting the artist is to make his work relevant and meaningful to as many people aspossible without reducing it loathe lowest common denominator of appreciation or selling out for reciprocation and often survival to the most popular bid the struggle to maintian ones integrity demands that the artist be constantly alert and one appreciates the problems constantly to be faced and resolved when the opportunity to exhibit is presented it is notgood enough for the artist art or the viewer to place on show anywhere just to liaveit displayed conrad bonk is a painter of very high ideals and integrity concerned farmore with what he is doing than for rwhat it can do for him he was one of the most active participants 1 in- the chandoo gallery oneof theesl younggalleries i have seen in toronto and onethat after two years finally acccpteddefeat from the overwhelming problems of survival against the lassitude and indifference not only of thepublic but of those supposedly dedicated to the very things for which the gallery was founded he exhibitied there several times and his work was probably among the most creative and resourceful i have seen there and for that matter in the greater part of our toronto galleries 4