American, Canadian 1925-

Untitled; A very good year 1969
Multi media
46 x 46
Gift of the Estate of Michael C. Williams

Jack Kidder was the kind of artist who never stood still for very long. In both location and artistic practice, he redirected his attention nearly every ten years. He arrived in Victoria in 1964 still working in the Italian tile mosaic medium he had picked up while living in New York during the 1950s. By 1966 he had moved on to large-scale plexiglass, metal, and cast resin sculptures that embodied the space age, science fiction, and pop art movement. Kidder’s sculptures shared similar traits to his previous works. Like everything else he produced, the sculptures contained a streamline cleanliness to them that he developed an affinity for during the Second World War. Kidder studied briefly at two art institutes in Los Angeles, until the war broke out and then he worked as a technical illustrator for aircraft manuals. This job required precision and fostered in him an appreciation for the beauty of simple lines.