Artworks

Fred Taylor was a trained architect. This composition gave Taylor license to compose with a symphony of rooflines in a community setting of upper Westmount. In the distance to the left would be an outer building of the Samuel Bronfman mansion, a property recently renovated by a Bronfman family member. It is reputed to be one of Montreal’s finest homes.

Taylor was an artist of great accomplishment in oils as well as printmaking. Born in Ottawa, a graduate in Architecture from Montreal’s McGill University, a lifetime member of the Society of Canadian Painter-Etchers and Engravers, member of the Canadian Graphic Arts Society and Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts. Fred Taylor was meticulous in achieving his artistic objectives before releasing a work of art. His attention to detail, even of the presentation of his work, is evidenced by the “FRAMING NOTE” he often stamped on the reverse of particularly small format paintings, instructing the owner not to allow the frame to cover more than 1/16th of an inch of his panel and otherwise disturb his intended composition.

For a time Taylor was active in the Canadian labour movement, a friend of Dr. Raymond Boyer and Dr. Norman Bethune, abandoning his political affiliation and activity around the time of Geneva’s International Labour Congress in 1951. From then Taylor continued to enjoy a productive artistic career working at this stage primarily in oils and finding subject matter in the provinces of Quebec and Nova Scotia as well as in the area of San Miguel de Allende where he moved in 1959 looking for relief from the discomfort of serious arthritis.

Taylor exhibited regularly at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff in Montreal as well as other fine Canadian galleries including Toronto’s Roberts Gallery. His paintings are included in countless public collections including The National Gallery of Canada, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, and the Art Gallery of Ontario.

More than a quarter of a century ago, my father, Walter Klinkhoff, wrote in his Reminiscences of an Art Dealer that “[...] E.P., the great business tycoon, may one day only be remembered as being Fred’s brother!” With the histories of Don Mills, Northern Dancer and Argus Corporation stashed away on dusty library shelves I dare say Dad’s prognostication is already accurate for the generation of millennials.