Artist, philanthropist John A. Schweitzer seeks redemptive light in The Erehwön Cycle

Over fifty years ago, pluralist artist John A. Schweitzer reluctantly took a summer course in visual arts while studying English Literature at Western University. This course changed the trajectory of his life, marking the beginning of his lengthy and successful career as a mixed media artist specializing in collage. On the 50th anniversary of Schweitzer’s graduation with an Honours Bachelor of Arts in Visual Arts, Western has permanently installed his The Erehwön Cycle on campus.

This six-panel collage is currently the only one of Schweitzer’s series that remains intact. It is amongst some 100 original works that the artist has gifted to his London, Ontario alma mater since 1990, some being his own creations, others from his collection (including two Henry Moore sculptures, for example). This donation has an estimated fair market value in excess of $10 million.

The series was installed on November 20 in Western’s D.B. Weldon Library, adjacent to the John A. Schweitzer Gallery in The Archives and Research Collections Centre. The gallery, which opened in 2004, was created to honour Schweitzer’s profile as an artist and his philanthropic contributions to the university.

The artist John A. Schweitzer with The Erewhön Cycle in situ in The D.B. Weldon Library at the University of Western Ontario on November 20, 2024 
Photo: Robert Poirier

As a result of his donations, Western is internationally recognized for housing the largest collection of Schweitzer’s oeuvre. The John A. Schweitzer Fonds at McGill University has been the recipient of significant donations as well, including archival material that the artist used to research his works.

“Western represents the genesis of my career,” says Schweitzer. “Imagine a smalltown boy from Simcoe, Ontario going to Western and being so fortunate to be a student during the hegemony of the London School of artists in Canada. It’s a full circle moment—to borrow the trite contemporary parlance.”

Schweitzer’s work has been acquired by other universities across Canada, and locally, at Concordia University, Université du Québec à Montréal and Université de Montréal. His decision to donate to higher education is a deliberate one, with the hope that others will follow suit, encouraging the next generation to embrace philanthropy and education.

Now 72, Schweitzer is appreciative of the privilege that he has experienced as an internationally recognized visual artist over the span of his 45-year career. “The Rockefellers expressed the notion that if one has been given so much, one should also give back equally. It is the perfect corollary to a successful vocation,” he adds.

Kevin Goldthorp, currently president and chief executive officer of St. Michael’s Hospital Foundation in Toronto, was Vice President of External Relations at Western when Schweitzer originally donated The Erehwön Cycle in 2011—with the caveat that it would one day be permanently installed on campus. “The university enjoyed a very wonderful relationship with John,” says Goldthorp. “As the V.P. at the time, I was honoured that he would give an entire series to the university.”

Goldthorp adds that Schweitzer has also made donations of art to health care organizations “in his continued commitment to improve the patient experience by placing meaningful art in meaningful spaces.”

Schweitzer brings the whole of art history and literature to his work, drawing inspiration from authors and artists that have come before him and continue to be relevant today. A conversation with the artist is a lesson replete with references to artistic and literary influences—his teachers, artists Paterson Ewen and Vera Frankel, his “spiritual father,” artist Robert Motherwell—whose teachings he has absorbed as a sponge does water.

The city of Montreal, which has been home to Schweitzer for nearly five decades, also plays a prominent role. “Montreal is an archeological dig for me,” he says. “It represents history, layers of culture and collage. All of it speaks to me in a fundamental way as an artist.”

His process of creating complex thematic series includes the use of found objects, text, and literary and cultural references. The Erehwön Cycle, as he explains, melds ephemera such as envelopes and book covers. The use of glue provides for the “improbable juxtaposition” of objects and text and “the opportunity for engineering marvels” when sewing tin or metal onto paper.

“The envelopes of my mail inject an autobiographical element. They are always present and act as a leitmotiv in my work. Who would have thought in 1999 that the envelopes may become a rarity due to the digital era,” Schweitzer muses.

When his research is complete (which could take up to five years) and his chosen materials lie on the studio floor, Schweitzer is ready to create his self-described “landscapes.” He moves from panel to panel, engaging each in dialogue with the other. The narrative continues when the panels are complete and framed in plexiglass, inviting the viewer into the experience. “Your reflection is part of the work itself,” says Schweitzer. “I want the viewer to be engaged with my art, ‘reading’ the series from left to right.”

The Erehwön Cycle, created in 1999, was inspired by Samuel Butler’s dystopian novel of the same name, minus the umlaut. When examined, one can see that the word ‘erehwon’ is an anagram of the word ‘nowhere’ or ‘now where.’ Schweitzer describes the novel as a critical commentary on late Victorian attitudes, depicting a world where disease and sickness are deemed a crime. His visual commentary focuses on similar attitudes prevalent in the late 20th century toward AIDS (and more currently, Covid-19).

“In Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, as in many of these dystopian novels or works of art, a redemptive light always manifests,” says Schweitzer. “A repetitive image of a door-like feature appears in all the six panels of the series, and the profusion of white is greatest in the final sixth panel. White is light and light is redemption or salvation, or the promise of utopia.”

Curiosity and authenticity have guided this artist throughout his extensive career. A self-proclaimed citizen of the world, Schweitzer does not use a cell phone or computer. He subscribes to five newspapers which are delivered to his door daily. “I have a lot of ephemera to absorb!” he laughs.

Schweitzer is currently working on Nero, a series which he began five years ago prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, which explores the properties of the colour black. “This series is very prophetically haunting me. I cannot finish it because of the pervasive global darkness,” he says.

However, Schweitzer chooses to remain optimistic. With the new year and the beginning of the next quarter century, he plans to continue his search for redemptive light.

John A. Schweitzer’s work has been acquired by over 200 museums worldwide and may be found in all major Montreal institutions. The Visual Arts Collection of McGill University and the Université de Montréal collect his work in-depth. His corporate commissions may be viewed at Restaurant Toqué!, Astral-Bell Media and the Royal Victoria Hospital of the McGill University Health Centre.