Ted Godwin

Edwin (Ted) Godwin was born in Calgary, Alberta, on August 13, 1933, the youngest of three children in a postal clerk's family. Raised in a strict Baptist home, he enrolled at the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and Art at age fourteen, graduating in 1955. After graduation, he worked as an advertising artist at a television station in Lethbridge and later as a neon sign designer, winning second prize at an international neon design competition in 1958. His friendship with Ronald Bloore, who had been hired to open the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, led Godwin to move to the provincial capital where he shared a studio with Bloore and befriended three other painters: Ken Lochhead, Art McKay, and Douglas Morton.

Godwin first gained public attention in 1960 as a collaborator on a satirical exhibition at the Mackenzie Gallery featuring sculptures made from automobile crankshafts and discarded machinery. The show was billed as an exhibition by the fictional artist "Win Hedore," with Godwin contributing "Win," Lochhead "Hed," and Bloore "ore." This publicity stunt became an international sensation and helped establish Regina on the arts map. A significant influence came from his encounter with New York abstract expressionist Barnett Newman, who lectured at the Emma Lake Artists' Workshop in 1959. Godwin attended several Emma Lake workshops between 1959 and 1965, studying under Newman, John Ferren, Jules Olitski, and Lawrence Alloway.

In May 1961, an exhibition at the Mackenzie Gallery featuring works by Godwin and his four colleagues impressed Richard Simmins, director of exhibitions at the National Gallery of Canada, who brought the show to Ottawa. This led to the formation of "the Regina Five" and established the group as leaders of contemporary western Canadian art. From 1964 to 1985, Godwin taught at the University of Saskatchewan's Regina campus, which later became the University of Regina. He was known for his abstract expressionist work during the Regina Five years, followed by his grid-like Tartan series of interwoven bands of paint in the late 1960s and 1970s. After suffering a heart attack in 1974, he created the Dying Orchids series before returning to representational landscapes in his later years.

Godwin was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1974 and received numerous honors throughout his career. He was awarded the Queen's Silver Jubilee Medal in 1978 and an honorary doctorate from the University of Regina in 2001. In 2004, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Canada, and in 2012, he received the Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal. His work is held in major collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank, and the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Godwin authored "Messages from the Real World: A Professional Handbook for the Emerging Artist," which won a Saskatchewan Book Award in 1999. He died in his sleep on January 3, 2013, at age seventy-nine in Calgary.