“No Duds”
Some people collect art. What a truly wonderful and rewarding hobby!
Don Reichert used to jokingly brag that he owned “the largest collection of Don Reicherts in the world.”
Of course he does. That’s what often happens when you are a prolific artist.
But now the joke is on the surviving family…
In the book “Don Reichert: A Life In Work”, Robert McKaskell describes visiting Don Reichert in his studio in 1992, with Jon Tupper and Shirley Madill, in order to select work for his Retrospective Solo Exhibition at Winnipeg Art Gallery. The selection process went on for months longer than anticipated, due to the sheer volume of work, and McKaskell relates that they were “…astonished by its quantity and consistent quality.” He continues: “I don’t think that among the thousand works we viewed there was one we would have had reason to reject [from inclusion in the show]. There were no “duds”…”
The family continues, ten years on from Don’s passing, to navigate the realities of being a private entity with a collection of 4,000+ pieces of art. That is a lot of art, and it includes many stretched canvases that are larger than the average house’s livingroom wall. What do the survivors do with their incredible legacy?
16 February 2024 Winnipeg Free Press article by Eva Wasney “The business end of art”
“This is really important legacy work. Our creators, our artists, they’re the ones who portray who we are, the history of our time, the sensibility of our place.”
–Pat Bovey, art historian
Don Reichert Artwork 