Haesekar, Alexandra
Item
name
Haesekar, Alexandra
firstName
Alexandra
lastName
Hesekar
Biography
"Haeseker was born in Breda, Netherlands, in 1945 and moved to Calgary, Alberta, Canada with her family in 1955. She studied painting at the University of Calgary, earning bachelor's (1966) and master's (1972) degrees. She earned a diploma in fine arts from Alberta College of Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) in 1968. Haseker taught painting, drawing, and watercolor at the Alberta College of Art from 1973 to 2003. She was awarded professor emeritus status in 2004.
Haeseker was in her early years a print maker and painter in acrylic and watercolour. She also made three-dimensional painted constructions in a representational style. She used images found in family archives and her own photographs in collage. In the 1970s and 1980s, she became known for paintings of dogs, and from the mid-1980s, of behind-the-scenes at dog shows, based upon her involvement in such shows, along with other themes that evolved from her experiences with dogs.
In the 1980s, influenced by Edweard Muybridge's studies of a young amputee, she used the image of a legless boy hovering over a landscape in which dogs were tethered. The figures emerged as realistic fragments suspended in semi-abstract space. These figurative images sometimes were considered puzzling but such images developed steadily and with a personal form and content. In 1992, a retrospective titled Alexandra Haeseker: Twenty Years was held at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University.
In 2021, a detail of a work by Haeseker was included in chapter five, Specimens from Another Time, in Future Possible: an Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador, by Mireille Eagan and other authors, published by The Rooms Corporation and Goose Lane editions, New Brunswick. The work was inspired by a visiting artist residency at Memorial University by Haeseker in 1978."
Haeseker was in her early years a print maker and painter in acrylic and watercolour. She also made three-dimensional painted constructions in a representational style. She used images found in family archives and her own photographs in collage. In the 1970s and 1980s, she became known for paintings of dogs, and from the mid-1980s, of behind-the-scenes at dog shows, based upon her involvement in such shows, along with other themes that evolved from her experiences with dogs.
In the 1980s, influenced by Edweard Muybridge's studies of a young amputee, she used the image of a legless boy hovering over a landscape in which dogs were tethered. The figures emerged as realistic fragments suspended in semi-abstract space. These figurative images sometimes were considered puzzling but such images developed steadily and with a personal form and content. In 1992, a retrospective titled Alexandra Haeseker: Twenty Years was held at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Alberta University.
In 2021, a detail of a work by Haeseker was included in chapter five, Specimens from Another Time, in Future Possible: an Art History of Newfoundland and Labrador, by Mireille Eagan and other authors, published by The Rooms Corporation and Goose Lane editions, New Brunswick. The work was inspired by a visiting artist residency at Memorial University by Haeseker in 1978."
Date of Birth
1945
Studio Location
Calgary, Alberta
Education
1966 - Bachelor's from University of Calgary, studying painting
1972 - Master's from University of Calgary, studying painting
1968 - Diploma in Fine Arts from Alberta University of the Arts (was then Alberta College of Art)
1972 - Master's from University of Calgary, studying painting
1968 - Diploma in Fine Arts from Alberta University of the Arts (was then Alberta College of Art)
Title
Haesekar, Alexandra