WIDOW OFFERS KARSH PRINTS TO CITY AS ‘A GIFT FROM THE HEART’
Ottawa Citizen
July 14 2009
Canada
OTTAWA — "Please don’t use that word ‘donation’," asks Estrellita
Karsh. "It’s not a donation. It’s a gift from the heart to a heart."
Karsh, the 79-year-old widow
of world-renowned photographer Yousuf Karsh, has given prints of nine
of her husband’s photographs to the City of Ottawa.
The gift, appraised at $140,000, includes two of Karsh’s most famous
portraits, Winston Churchill (1941) and Georgia O’Keefe (1956).
The others include famous Canadians Pierre Trudeau (1968), writers
Stephen Leacock (1941) and Robertson Davies (1977), artists Jack Bush
(1974), Frederick Varley (1964) and Kenojuak Ashevak (1976), and a
self-portrait of Karsh (1946).
"Ottawa is Yousuf’s home and when I heard that his work was not part
of their art collection and and they asked me for it, it was just a
big yes, of course," Estrellita Karsh said on Tuesday.
A Boston resident, she was in Ottawa for the formal presentation.
"Darling, there are no prints that have ever been made that were not
made by Yousuf," she adds.
"So, this comes from my own collection and, of course, they are prints
made in Yousuf’s lifetime in the studio in the Château Laurier or
in 130 Sparks St."
Karsh visited the Speaker’s chambers on Parliament Hill, where she
gave "the real skinny" on how her husband captured the "Roaring Lion"
portrait of Churchill portrait in 1941 in that very room, shortly
after the British prime minister had addressed Parliament.
"Churchill finished his speech," she recounted. "He came in, one hand
out for the cigar, one hand out for brandy. Churchill looks around
and says ‘What’s this?’
"Yousuf goes up to him and says ‘I hope, sir, I can make a portrait
worthy of this occasion.’ He looked at Yousuf and said ‘You may
take one.’
"Yousuf took an ashtray and proffered it to him. Wouldn’t hear of
it. He went behind the camera again and then he reached out and said
‘Forgive me, sir’ and plucked the cigar out of Churchill’s mouth.
"Where it went, I do not know," she said. "I could sell it on eBay
for a million dollars.
"Churchill, as Yousuf said later, looked so strong and powerful,
so ferocious. He looked like a roaring lion. This became the symbol
of Britain’s defiance during the Second World War."
The black and white photographs are on display at the city’s
Karsh-Masson Gallery at 136 St. Patrick St. until July 26.
"The city’s collection now includes the most important photographer
ever to come out of Ottawa," says City of Ottawa cultural planner
Jonathan Browns. "The selection is quite wonderful, having this broad
selection focussing on Canadian writers and artists."
One of the Karsh portraits will be permanently displayed in the
Karsh-Masson Gallery.
The remaining portraits will be installed throughout City of Ottawa
facilities.
"Some libraries have asked for artworks," says Browns. "Maybe something
like the two writers might be perfect."
The gift came about as a result of a biannual award of $7,500 that
the city gives to outstanding photographers.
Estrellita Karsh attended the awards ceremony in 2007. That’s when
she learned that Karsh was absent from the city’s collection.
"I was surprised they didn’t have anything," she says. "It was a
great pleasure to give it to them."
It initially started as a single photograph, says Browns. "Mayor Larry
O’Brien wrote a letter thanking her for her generosity and asked if
anything specifically Ottawa-based could be added to that gift."
Karsh curator Jerry Fielder put together a selection of nine works.
The city proclaimed July 14 as Yousuf Karsh day. Festival Karsh,
a summer-long celebration marking the 100th anniversary of Karsh’s
birth is underway. (For more information, see festivalkarsh.ca.)
"I’m very happy that the world is honouring Yousuf, especially in
Canada, which meant so much to him," says Karsh.
"This was his home. They took him in, they encouraged him, they
nurtured him, they gloried in him. What’s lovely is that they are
discovering in his work ever more things."
Born in Armenia in 1909, Yousuf Karsh moved to Ottawa in 1931,
knowing he would have the potential to photograph public figures.
He opened his first studio at 130 Sparks St., where he remained for 40
years before moving to the sixth floor of the Château Laurier in 1972.
During Karsh’s illustrious career, he photographed more than 15,000
local, national and international individuals.
Six decades after launching his career, Karsh formally closed his
Château Laurier studio when he was 83 years old.