George Wallace (1920-2009)

George Wallace (1920-2009) is probably best remembered as a teacher and artist. He was born in 1920 at Sandycove south of Dublin, Ireland, and grew up nearby in Dalkey.  Educated at St. Columba’s College, he went on to read philosophy at Trinity College, Dublin (1939-44).  On leaving Ireland after the war, with his wife Margaret Howe, he held a temporary teaching post at Radley College in England, and continued his studies at the West of England College of Art in Bristol.  For the next eight years with a growing family, he taught at the Falmouth School of Art in Cornwall.  In 1957 he emigrated to Canada, where he taught at Ryerson Polytechnic, Toronto, and Blakelock High School, Oakville, before moving to McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario.

Wallace taught at the Department of Fine Art from 1960 to 1985, at an exciting time of growth in the liberal arts.  He developed the studio arts program, having a profound influence on the young artists of that generation.  His large, public, welded steel sculptures from that time reflect Hamilton’s “Steel City” image and may be seen at McMaster University, Mohawk College, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Jewish Community Centre, the MacDonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph, the Burlington Central Library, and at the Halton County Court House.  He was also instrumental in building McMaster University’s art collection with a particular focus on the German Expressionist movement.

On retirement from the university in 1985 George and Margaret moved to Victoria, British Columbia.  Throughout this prolific period of his life he continued to make sculpture, paintings, prints and drawings, exploring a large variety of media.  He researched historical techniques, and as an acknowledged expert in the history of printmaking, curated several travelling exhibitions of prints from his personal collection. Source