Molly Lamb Bobak Winter evening Oil 30" x 48"

Molly Lamb Bobak (Molly Joan Lamb Bobak)

1922-

Molly Bobak was born in Vancouver, B.C. While receiving elementary education she attended Saturday morning classes at the Vancouver School of Art. In 1938 she enrolled at the Vancouver School of Art where she studied four years under Jack Shadbolt and Charles H. Scott. In 1942 she enlisted with the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and served in various locations in Canada working on a variety of jobs such as designing costumes and scenery for the Canadian Army show. In 1944, she won Third prize at the Canadian Army Art Competition and the following year, she became the first ever Canadian female war artist. In this capacity she painted the Canadian Women’s Army Corps activities in England and the Line of Communications Units in Holland and Britain. During this period, she created over 400 works, most of which are now part of the Canadian War Museum Collection.

In 1945, she met artist Bruno Bobak and following their return to British Columbia, they married and settled near Vancouver. In 1947, Molly Bobak took up a teaching position at the Vancouver School of Art, post she held until 1950. During her last year at the Vancouver School of Art, she was awarded a French Government scholarship for study in France, which she did until 1951. Back in Canada, she intermittently taught art classes again at the Vancouver School of Art from 1952 to 1960.  In 1954, she participated the Art Association of Montreal show, and did so again the following year. That same year, she started giving art classes for the Women’s Auxiliary at the Vancouver Art Gallery, which she did until 1958. In 1956, she participated in a CBC TV series on teaching drawing and art appreciation. From 1958 to 1960, she taught at the University of British Colombia.

In 1960, the Bobak family, now with two children, moved to Fredericton, New Brunswick, where Bruno Bobak became Resident Artist at the University of New Brunswick. That same year Molly Bobak received a Canada Council fellowship for study in Europe. She mainly spent her time in Norway and came back to Fredericton in 1961. On her return she became instructor at the University of New Brunswick Art Centre, position she held until the late 1977. She also gave other televised art courses for CHSJ TV in Saint John from 1964 to 1965. In 1966, she was awarded First prize by the Graphic Arts Society.

During the seventies, while teaching and pursuing her art, she served on the boards of the National Film Board of Canada. She taught summers at the Banff School of Fine Arts for a couple of years and in 1976, she was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy. In the eighties, she was part of the Stamp Design Council of the National Gallery Advisory and was also involved with the Board and the Advisory Committee of the National Capital Commission. In 1983 she received an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from Mount Allison University and the following year she received an Honorary Doctor of Law by the University of New Brunswick. In 1989, she designed the Class of ’36 stained glass window for the University of New Brunswick Chapel.

Over the years, she participated in many group exhibitions, notably the Canadian Women Artists in New York (1947), Sao Paolo Biennal (1951), Canadian painting exhibition in Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka (1954-1955), the Second, Third and Fourth Biennal Exhibitions of Canadian Painting at the National Gallery of Canada (1957, 1959, 1961) and at a number of exhibitions at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (1966, 1973, 1975-1976). She also held various solo shows, notably at the Vancouver Art Gallery (1940, 1950-1960), the Wells Gallery in Ottawa and the National Gallery of Canada (1965), the Dalhousie University Art Gallery (1966), Beaverbrook Art Gallery (1970) and the New Brunswick Museum (1977). In 1996, the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, Saskatchewan organised a retrospective show of her work. The exhibition also travelled to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, The Edmonton Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria.

Collections:

- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
- McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg, ON)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
- Canadian War Museum (Ottawa, ON)
- Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery (Owen Sound, ON)
- Museum London (London, ON)
- Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, BC)
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Nova Scotia (Halifax, NS)
- Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
- The Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)
- Edmonton Art Gallery (Edmonton, AB)
- MacKenzie Art Gallery (Regina, SK)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- Maltwood Art Museum and Gallery (Victoria, BC)
- Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Fredericton, NB)
- Mendel Art gallery (Saskatoon, SK)
- Confederation centre Art Gallery (Charlottetown, PEI)
- Art Museum (Jerusalem, Israel)
- Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
- University of British Columbia (Vancouver, BC)
- University of New Brunswick (Fredericton, NB)
- University of Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- Firestone Art Collection (Ottawa, ON)

Affiliations:

- British Columbia Society of Artists
- Canadian Painters-Etchers Society
- Canadian Society of Graphic Artists
- Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
- Canadian Group of Painters
- Royal Canadian Academy (1976)
- Order of Canada (1996)
- Order of New Brunswick (2002)