Chambers: Tracks & Gestures

"Shot on location in Spain and Canada, this visually lyrical film

provides a carefully constructed narrative of the artist＇s complex,

inspired life. As a young art student Chambers left the provincial

town of London, Ontario in the early 1950＇s and sailed to Naples.

In Spain he broke into Picasso＇s house to ask him for advice, and

ended up enrolling at the Academy of Fine Arts in Madrid. He lived in

Spain for nine years, and when he came back to Canada he brought

with him an artistic discipline as sharp as Spanish steel,

a sophisticated Argentinean wife, and a new religion; Catholicism.

The film includes the full range of Chambers＇ work up until his death

at the age of 47 including oil paintings, drawings and experimental

films. His effort to integrate the influences of photography and to

reconcile abstract art with the conservative technical tradition that he

embraced in Spain reflects the central conflicts that have defined

artistic expression in the 20th century. For the last nine years of his

life, Chambers struggled with leukemia, traveling as far as India in

search of a cure, yet during his last years he produced much of his

most radiant work.

Tracks and Gestures includes penetrating interviews with Jungian

analyst and writer Marion Woodman, critic and scholar Ross

Woodman, multimedia artist and co-founder of Canadian Artists

Representation (CAR) Kim Ondaatje, and the great Spanish realist

painter Antonio Lopez. It also includes original footage of

masterpieces by Goya, El Greco, Velazquez, and Rembrandt from

the Prado Museum in Madrid. The film has a delightful original

musical score, and is narrated by two of Canada＇s finest actors,

Ted Johns and Cedric Smith."

Christopher Lowry