Maxwell Bates in his Victoria studio, 1964 Special Collections, University of Calgary Library view in database

Maxwell Bates was born and raised in an Anglo-Canadian family in Calgary which imbued their son with an international point of view. Mementoes from the 1906 - 1931 period give us insights to that upbringing and his later pursuit of modernism.

At 25 wanting more direct international exposure to art, exhibiting and sale opportunities, and with architectural work in Calgary scarce, Bates left on a cattle boat for London, England in 1931. Within a year he joined the Twenties Group and exhibited beside promising British artists, also in their twenties and in one-man shows at the Wertheim Galleries for the rest of the decade. He saw over 2000 art exhibitions in London and cultivated his interest in Japanese prints, astrology and horoscopes. Bates exhibited in the 1937 Artists International Association Exhibition.

Bates's World War II Prisoner of War experience in Germany from 1940 to 1945 forced him into an existence as a manual labourer, but also allowed him time to develop his ideas on art.

After the war, Bates returned to Calgary in 1946. His friendship with Jock Macdonald, then Head of the Art Department of the Tech (1946-1947), was of immense value to him.

To give complete independence for his art Bates worked as an architect. His modernist neo-Gothic St. Mary's Cathedral 1954-1957 still stands prominently on Calgary's skyline.

Bates trained with Max Beckmann for 4 months in New York. During this time, Bates also courted his first bride, May who died in Calgary in 1952, just three years after they were wed.

A massive stroke in November 1961 forced Bates to give up his architectural practise.

In 1962 Bates and his second wife Charlotte relocated to Victoria. He experimented more with technique, developed the themes of his artwork and continued to be inexorably inventive.

Bates became a beloved member of the Limners, a "convivial group of artists who meet socially and also arrange exhibitions as a group". The Limners took their name from the travelling European artists that earned their way painting portraits and illuminating signs. For his 70th birthday, Maxwell Bates attended a party in his honour at which the attendees were dressed as characters from his many paintings.

top