1939-2015 → John Keith-King was an architect, developer, creator of museums, fisherman, pond-maker and poet. He decided to hyphenate his last name when he was 18 to honour both his father who died when Keith-King was 9 and his stepfather for whom he had a great affection.
As he grew up, drawing, building and collecting were a comfort to Keith-King, who in 1957 decided to study architecture at the University of Manitoba. After graduation, he moved to Vancouver and began his architectural practice, becoming well known as an expert witness on the housing needs of people with disabilities. He eventually opened the nine-building Maritime Market on Vancouver’s Granville Island. In 1997 he sold the leases on 9 of the properties but kept one to open a three-in-one museum – model trains, sport fishing and ships to house his world class collections. He closed the museums in 2007, moving with his wife, artist Sherry Grauer, to a 100-acre farm on Vancouver Island. He died there in 2015.
Keith-King was “a bit of a legend”, said family representative, David McCann. “John was a character that you either loved dearly or would cross the street to make sure you didn’t have to stop to talk to him. He was in many ways a little bit bigger than life.” Quote from: “Doaktown Museum New Home to Extensive Fly-Fishing Collection”, Jordan Gill, March 16, 2017. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/doaktown-salmon-new-collection-1.4024597
For all you deep art divers out there.
Holidy Plans – Visit Doaktown, New Brunswick to see Keith-King’s sport fishing collection in person at the Atlantic Salmon Museum. The collection includes fly plates, artwork, reels, fishing rods, fishing tackle, fish replicas and antique outboard motors. Also included in the collection are three stainless steel mesh sculptures of sockeye salmon made by John’s wife, artist Sherry Grauer. Grauer was featured in an earlier Artist Spotlight here.
The Canadian Art Preservation Foundation posts short biographies and information on artists and artwork from its collection in a not-so-subtle attempt to capture your attention and interest in our mission, but we also just want to keep this artwork in view. We are excited about the art we collect and want to share it with you. CAPF is a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving the artwork of Canada’s superstar artists for future generations to examine, study and exhibit – the ones you know and the ones you might not know so well. We accept artwork, journals, notes, letters, exhibition catalogues and anything else that might comprise a visual and/or intellectual “portrait” (ahem, please pardon the pun) of a particular artist.
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