Lifetime captured, but art still to come

Harbourville’s Guilhauman puts himself into retrospective book: "Painter, poet, philosopher"

BY SARA KEDDY - Kings County Register

Horst Maria Guilhauman Lifetime captured, but art still to come Harbourville’s Guilhauman puts himself into retrospective book: "Painter, poet, philosopher" Horst Maria Guilhauman puts much of himself in his art; in defining five decades of that work in a new book, it’s obvious there is as much of him captured inside the dust jacket. “After seven decades, it’s about the right time to do a book, Guilhauman, now 70, says. “This was a major undertaking, of major calibre - it took a year to select the images and create the design. The book reflects the degree of detail and perfection Guilhauman demands in his studio - “It’s the way I was brought up in Germany - we had a strict teacher, and our pencils had to be sharpened, not disorganized. I had to write lines: “Keep being organized. Being organized saves time and effort. I had to do that 100 times, maybe three times in school, and my parents had to sign it. Guilhauman searched Canada for printers, binders and people with the best skill to take his art’s colours and style to a printed page. “The technical aspect is important. My work is valuable to me, and I want it represented well - I’m not fussy, but it should please me when I look at it. When all was ready, he and partner of 15 years Ly Munk - who wrote the book’s text (“The most logical person, someone who knows me intimately - no one else could have done it, Guilhauman says.) flew to Ontario for four weeks, reading proofs and checking for errors.

“They were prepared - forewarned - that I’m particular, Guilhauman says. “The book is perfect - not one single image I’m not happy with.

There are 190 images of Guilhauman’s art, from the mid-1950s to this year. The cover is a screenprinted selfportrait done in 2006, the book is stitch-bound with his embossed family crest on the cover, and it includes a limited edition serigraph - a collector’s prize in itself.

“When they arrived, I took the first book out and Ly and I just looked at each other. Working on it all these months, it wasn’t real and we didn’t even want to open it - it’s so precious, Guilhauman says.

He made a cup of coffee a few hours later and sat down in his Harbourville home and studio hours later to read it through. Then, he invited friends and art lovers to come and see it at a book launch, where he says he was so pleased to sign copies for three hours straight.

“This is home, a house full of people who know us - it was just great.

Guilhauman acknowledges his book is a retrospective, not a biography. He read - and rewrote - along with Munk to ensure his art and his ideas were captured as he wanted them to be.

“Whatever’s said in it, there’s a high degree of truth. All the important stages in my life, my beliefs, my philosophy - that’s me.

Guilhauman starts with a story that obviously stands out for him: picking up shards of coloured glass from a vandalised synagogue in Germany during the Second World War. Moving the pieces over top of one another, he saw light, colour and more.

“I started out with pencils on the floor all the time - my parents were happy at the time; then, when I was older and my father wanted me to do what he did - it was too late.

Guilhauman finished a three-year apprenticeship in graphic design at age 18.

“I had to prove to my parents I could do it, he says, starting out working on poster art and in graphics.

He continued his own art, concentrating on light that made the dark - cemeteries, death, post-war life - darker. He even learned how to re-leaf tombstones to earn money to support himself. In 1956, he went to sea for a year on a tanker-freighter, putting in for a short time along the shores of Quebec’s wilderness - and he was hooked.

In 1967, he immigrated to Canada, finding work in Winnipeg, Ontario, retreating for five years into northern Canada on his own, and then back into civilization - and finally to Harbourville, where he started a philosophy and literature degree at Acadia University and continued his art through the Fundy Lore Gallery.

“I’m never out of ideas, I work six hours a day, standing at my easel.

“I don’t look on purpose for things; I think they look for me. There are events in life that trigger a response, and they could be the beginnings of a painting.

As for the next 20 years, “that’s another chapter, and I’m curious about that myself. I still have some large canvases, some important paintings I want to do. There’s never an end.

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