Carl Beam

Carl Beam (May 24, 1943 – July 30, 2005), born Carl Edward Migwans, made Canadian art history as the first artist of Native Ancestry (Ojibwe), to have his work purchased by the National Gallery of Canada as Contemporary Art.

Carl Beam was born Carl Edward Migwans on May 24, 1943, in M'Chigeeng First Nation, to father Edward Cooper and mother Barbara Migwans.

His mother is the daughter of Dominic Migwans, who was the Chief of the Ojibways of West Bay (later renamed M'Chigeeng First Nation) when Beam was born.

"The Beam family's true name derives from miigwaans which means little feather or bird."

His exceptional qualities were observed by his elders, and he was given the name "Ahkideh", derived from the Ojibwe language word for "one who is brave"." He was sent to Garnier Residential School, in Spanish, Ontario, from the age of ten until eighteen. Beam married his first wife in the early 1960s. They had five children, Clinton, Veronica, Laila, Carl Jr., and Jennifer. The marriage was later annulled. Beam married Ann Elena Weatherby, and they had a daughter Anong.

After working at a variety of jobs, from construction work on the Toronto subway, to working as a millwright in Wawa, Ontario, Beam entered the Kootenay School of Art (1971).

He went on to earn a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria in 1974, and entered into post-graduate studies at the University of Alberta, (1975–76).

He left the University of Alberta over a dispute about his thesis on native art, and returned to Ontario.

The direction of Carl Beam's visual style was firmly established by the late seventies.

His father was an American soldier from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in the 77th Armor Regiment during World War II; he died as a prisoner-of-war in Bad Soden, Nazi Germany.

He recounted to his daughter, artist Anong Migwans Beam, that he mainly was raised by his grandparents.

In 1979 Beam met and married his wife, Ann Beam.

"In developing his work over the years, Beam has been accompanied by his wife, Ann, herself an artist and a former teacher at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Often they have worked as collaborators".

At this time he incorporated multiple photographic images onto a single picture plane.

"He disregarded the illusory deep space of Renaissance depiction, in favour of a flat tableau, where a dialogue of multiple images could take place".

At this time his photographic imagery was achieved primarily via screen process, photo-etching, Polaroid instant prints, and a solvent transfer technique also used by Robert Rauschenberg.

In 1980, Beam and his wife, Ann, and daughter, Anong, moved to Arroyo Seco, New Mexico to live and work.

"We developed a dialogue together in everyday living, politics, world events, ceramic technique, painting, and all things art, that would continue for the next 26 years".

Said Beam of the time,

"'It was in the southwest years later with Ann and Anong, who was a baby, that I saw my first Mimbres bowl, or rather a cupboard full of Mimbres bowls in a gallery on the square in downtown Santa Fe, New Mexico. Some were completely intact, some had been restored, but all shared a bold adventurous design. When I discovered they were done 1,000 years ago, I was completely surprised.'"

Beam and his wife Ann exhibited their ceramic work together in The Painted Pottery of Ann and Carl Beam at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM.

Beam minored in ceramic pottery at the Kootenay School of Art.

Despite having received an excellent training, he found he lacked the ability to express himself as compared to his ability with canvas or paper.

Beam abandoned pottery as an art form but only temporarily.

Years later in 1980 while living in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Beam again became interested in handmade pottery via his exposure to Santa Clara pottery and Mimbres bowls that were made by the Anasazi who lived in the area centuries before.

In the words of Ann Beam, "It was the Santa Clara blackwares that got us first" Beam became excited with the adventurous and bold designs he observed in these works.

Eventually he met Rose Montaya who further exposed him to her techniques and those passed down from her mother.

Having learned much from Rose, Beam was able to find his own clay and paint stones, fire outside with dried dung or wood, and experiment extensively – about 70% of the early works were lost due to trial and error – all works were handmade without a wheel, often unglazed and polished with a stone.

His Mimbres bowls were fabricated as a modern version of the ancient Anasazi ones - on the interior they were generally cream colored and quite smooth whereas the exterior appeared almost disregarded and less important (see Figures 1 and 2).

Having studied all available exemplars found in museums, art galleries, shops, books, and otherwise, Beam's contemporary versions were largely influenced by the materials and sophisticated art dialogue present in the Anasazi works he saw.

Also in the Anasazi tradition, Beam's bowls typically featured a bold design around the rim with his own unique images placed in the center.

The result of his and Ann's early work was an exhibition in 1982 entitled "The Painted Pottery of Ann and Carl Beam" at the Maxwell Museum of Anthropology of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, with other shows to follow later.

Beam preferred the Mimbres bowl because it was a form conducive to his creative expression: "Finally, one form I could use to be absolutely creative in … the hemispherical quality of a large bowl still excites me like no cup, tea pot, plate or other clay shape can do…it is a universe unto itself where anything can happen – the designs are limitless."

Beam continued to work on and off in pottery, creating bowls, snake pots and other handmade creations almost always decorated with his designs and images.

The raven is featured prominently in many of his works – "Migwans", Beam's family name, means "feather" or "bird".

His works also feature news events (such as the Anwar Sadat assassination) or self-portraits or the shaman figure and family, a theme often returned to (seen in Figure 1) Beam also shared the techniques learned and developed with others including his cousin David Migwans, now an accomplished artist living in M'Chigeeng First Nation, Manitoulin Island.

Although he had achieved a level of success in the United States, with art dealers in both Taos, and Santa Fe, Beam returned to Canada, where he felt his work had an important contribution to make.

Beam died on July 30, 2005, in his home on M'chigeeng Reserve on Manitoulin Island, Ontario from complications due to diabetes.

A major retrospective of his work was organized by the National Gallery of Canada in 2010.

He worked in various photographic mediums, mixed media, oil, acrylic, spontaneously scripted text on canvas, works on paper, Plexiglas, stone, cement, wood, handmade ceramic pottery, and found objects, in addition to etching, lithography, and screen process.