Joe's Toronto: Portraiture

Julie Rekai Rickerd is a Toronto-based broadcaster and public-relations
consultant.

Although Mendelson Joe began his artistic career as a singer/songwriter
with the McKenna Mendelson Mainline group during the late 1950s and
1960s, it is painting that helped him “cope with [his] enormous rage,
angst, lust and frustration.” Always a character, Mendelson Joe ranted
and raved about issues as diverse as free trade, the GST, poverty,
smoking, and smog. His vitriolic letters to the editors of Canadian
newspapers and magazines are legendary and notorious. The creation of
art tempered his volatile emotions. According to art writer Christopher
Hume, “His work alternates between extremes; sometimes ... it is a
love offering, an unabashed display of affection and respect. In other
cases such as his portraits of former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and
Ontario Premier David Peterson, his portraits become a weapon, brutal
expressions of profound anger and contempt.”

At the suggestion of art dealer Odon Wagner, Mendelson Joe “curated
this little book exhibition of fifty portraits from my lengthy Toronto
experience.” Included in the eclectic collection are writers Margaret
Atwood and June Callwood, former Toronto mayor Barbara Hall, gallery
owners Simon Dresdnere and Avrom Isaacs, boxer George Chuvalo, and media
mogul Moses Znaimer. Each portrait is accompanied by an introduction of
the subject and a brief explanation of how his or her life intersected
with that of the artist. “Joe’s art forms a kind of diary, a running
commentary of the people who enter his life, who are important to him as
well as of the events happening to and around him.” This impressive
collection of well-crafted portraits not only serves as an excellent
survey of the artist’s portraiture, but is also an intriguing
presentation of the man behind the works.