Josef Drenters: Images of the Madonna

Patricia Vervoort is an assistant professor of art history at Lakehead
University.

Josef Drenters’ career as a sculptor has spanned almost 25 years, but before now, no “fully-documented catalogue” has appeared. The exhibition “Images of the Madonna” was organized by Ingrid Jenkner for the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre in Guelph, 22 December 1982 to 6 February 1983, with 19 works. Eight black-and-white photographs illustrate complete works on details, and another shows the artist at work. A note at the end of the catalogue mentions drawings on the mother and child theme included in the exhibition; these do not occur in the catalogue because they are independent works rather than preliminary studies for the sculptures.

The catalogue text is divided into two parts: “Images of the Madonna” and “Josef Gertrudis Drenters R.C.A.” Although Drenters’ subject matter is more varied than this exhibition would suggest, the mother and child theme (Drenters’ “acts of reverence”) relates to traditional figurative sculpture imbued with a devotional spirit. A sense of history is maintained by the sculptor’s recycling of building materials. Small and portable, the majority of works have been loaned by private collectors.

Born 1929 in Poppel, Belgium, the artist began training for the priesthood before he emigrated to Canada in 1951. Briefly a painter, Drenters is essentially a self-taught artist; he was named R.C.A. in 1974. The catalogue closes with a listing of Exhibitions, Commissions, Selected Public Collections, a Brief Bibliography and Works in the Exhibition.

Various quotes and comments found in the bibliography are presented again here. But with the photographs of the work and the biographical material, this catalogue is valuable for bringing all the information together in one place.