To view image click on "Access Content Now" above "Illingworth Holey Kerr RCA (1905 – 1989) was known as Buck to his friends, a nickname from his days driving a horse and wagon. Born in Lumsden to a settler family, he spent many hours on the trapline and loved to draw. With encouragement from his mother and relatives in Ontario, Kerr traveled to Toronto and studied at the Ontario College of Art (1924 – 27), learning from Lismer, Varley, and MacDonald. In 1936, Kerr travelled to study at Westminster School of Art in London, England, returning to Canada in the early years of the Second World War. In 1947, he was hired as the Head of the art department at Calgary’s Provincial Institute of Technology (now Alberta College of Art). In 1967 Kerr retired to concentrate on painting. Kerr’s artwork has been exhibited widely, with retrospectives in 1940, 1962, 1975, and 1985. His artwork is held in public and private collections, including the Mackenzie Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada. Kerr was a member of the Alberta Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy and was awarded a Canada Council Senior Fellowship (1959), an honorary doctorate from the University of Calgary (1973), and the Order of Canada (1983)."
