John Cullen Nugent (1921-2014) was a Canadian artist and educator known primarily for his public art works, often in the form of abstract sculpture.
Early life and education
Born and raised in Montreal on 5 January 1921, the young Nugent attended high school in St. Paul, Minnesota before returning to Canada prior to the Second World War and joining the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, training at Regina and Ottawa. Three years later, Nugent joined the Canadian Army, serving in the provost corps in the 1940s.
Following the war, Nugent was discharged and studied art at St John's University (Collegeville, Minnesota), where he was exposed to liberal ideals and the postwar Catholic renewal in the arts. There, he was apprenticed in sculpture and silversmith work with Donald Humphrey, and later obtained additional training after moving to Lumsden, Saskatchewan in 1947.
Nugent attended the Emma Lake Artist's Workshops in the 1950s and 1960s, studying with Jack Shadbolt, Joseph Plaskett, Will Barnet, and Clement Greenberg.
Career in the arts
Religious works and candle making
In Lumsden, Nugent established his first studio (formerly a barn) and bronze casting foundry on a 2.7-hectare parcel of land that forms the north slope of the Qu’Appelle Valley. He received numerous commissions in the decades following, initially producing religious sculptures in silver and bronze (liturgical commissions, including chalices and candleholders) while supporting his family as a chandler. According to Timothy Long, these works were "simplified, yet expressive": chalices and crucifixes which demonstrated Nugent's interest in modern interpretations of early Christian and Romanesque models. Candle making was a lucrative sideline, Nugent being the only maker west of Windsor, Ontario. The Shop's wick material was specially woven from beeswax bought from the beekeepers co-operative processing plant at Tisdale and treated with a solution, the ingredients of which were a trade secret taught to him by L. H. Shirley, a Roman Catholic priest in Young, Saskatchewan.
New studio
In 1960, Nugent's candle works in Lumsden burned down. Nugent commissioned Clifford Wiens to design a new studio with a novel curved, conical design that earned the architect a Massey silver medal. The studio was constructed over successive weekends by Nugent and Wiens, with help from fellow artists Kenneth Lochhead and Roy Kiyooka. The studio has been a Provincial Heritage Property since 26 May 2005, the 42nd site so designated, and listed at the online Canadian Register of Historic Places.
Turn to abstract sculpture
Resistance from the Church hierarchy and from parishioners led to Nugent abandoning his liturgical work in the 1960s. After meeting American sculptor David Smith in New York in 1961, Nugent was in any case gradually shifting to welded steel abstracts, for which he is now best known, and which exhibit what Long calls "an awkward grace" in its constructivist collage of prefabricated steel elements. He acquired some of the raw materials from the IPSCO Steel steel company in Regina, and often gave the pieces names "to eliminate distraction from the form itself". Long describes how Nugent's work differentiates itself from that of others:While often incorporating identifiable parts, such as wheels, his sculpture eludes easy metaphorical readings, instead creating meaning through unexpected combinations of forms and materials. Nugent's work represents an independent strain within Canadian abstract steel sculpture without direct ties to the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops or other western Canadian sculptors.
Public sculptural works
Nugent's best known public sculptures are found in the three Prairie Provinces of Canada, including commissions for places such as the Banff Centre in Regina, Saskatchewan and the Canadian Grain Commission building in Winnipeg. There is a piece in the galleria of the CBC Saskatchewan building in Regina. Another public commission is at the National Capital Commission in Ottawa. More of his work can be found in the collections of the MacKenzie Art Gallery, the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa), the Saskatchewan Arts Board, the University of Regina, and the Winnipeg Art Gallery.
On occasion, controversy was induced by Nugent's work, including commissions by Saskatchewan Premier Ross Thatcher and the Canadian Grain Commission.
John A. Macdonald Memorial (1967)