The life drawing class remains a foundation of training in the visual arts. A naked model stands or sits on a raised platform, taking a pose that can last anywhere from a minute to a quarter of an hour, and a group of artists sketch away, practising how to depict the human anatomy. These models are not the waif-like beauties of fashion photography; they are self-composed adults with thick or thin bodies and interesting features.
James Soper’s portrait of Murray McKay, painted in 2024, Before his death last spring, McKay had posed for hundreds of Toronto artists.James Soper/Gallery 1313
One of Toronto’s favourite life models was Murray McKay, who died of cancer last spring at 79. McKay was born in Minitonas in western Manitoba in 1944. After a variety of different jobs across the country, he took up modelling full-time in Toronto in the mid-1990s, posing both naked and clothed for hundreds of local artists and art students. To celebrate his life, 46 artists have contributed more than 100 of their drawings, paintings and sculptures featuring McKay. Mounted at Gallery 1313, the artist-run centre in the city’s Parkdale neighbourhood, Murray is a surprising show, its walls stuffed with dozens of images of the same person.
There are quick anatomical sketches. Highly realistic portraits. Expressionistic paintings. McKay, who had a scrawny body, a strong, beaky nose and, for some years, a distinctive grey braid, is often depicted naked: In one session on Canada Day, 2023, painted by both Stephen Chien and Paul McCusker, McKay wrapped the flag around his shoulders but left the rest uncovered. But he also posed for clothed portraits, often wearing a distinctive pork pie hat.
“In addition to his amazing physicality, Murray displayed dignity, complexity and wisdom,” the graphic artist Dina Belaia writes in a catalogue that accompanies the show. “His qualities led me to produce not only sketches but a number of more serious art works about aging, grace and personal insight.”
Belaia contributes a 2020 watercolour portrait of McKay and his hat in a serious moment, while McCusker, a cartoonist also known for his courtroom drawings for the Toronto Star, offers Murray, The Pool Shark, a cool dude with a cue. The children’s book illustrator Robin Muller contributes a highly realistic Conté drawing tightly focused on McKay’s head. The Brooklyn-based, Toronto-trained artist Guno Park, who specializes in drawing with pen, is represented by two powerful anatomical sketches from 2008.
Evan Penny used McKay as the subject for one of his high-realist resin sculptures.Philip Anderson/Supplied
Evan Penny is the most prominent Canadian artist represented here; he worked with McKay often over the years and used him as the subject for one of his high-realist resin sculptures, Murray, of 2008, which the show’s curator, artist George Traini, has selected as a poster image. It shows a recognizable individual with that distinctive grey braid hanging down his chest.
On the other hand, an earlier piece, White Murray (1996 to 2010), which is physically present in the gallery, reduces McKay to a startling marble-like Everyman, produced using a high-grade gypsum cement reserved for casting statuary. Penny also hired McKay during his last illness for a series of quick studies in clay – rough but revealing small-scale heads.
“From the beginning, a quality that Murray possessed that most impressed me, was his self-composure,” Penny writes. “He could stand unflinching for an hour at a time. Ever present and aware of the activity around him, I was often left feeling that I was the one being observed.”
McKay possessed an unusual talent – and this is an unusual tribute.
Murray: Murray McKay 1944-2024 continues at Gallery 1313, 1313 Queen St. W., Toronto through March 16.
