Why Wanda Koop, one of Canada's most renowned artists, keeps painting the moon
In a Q interview, the acclaimed painter discusses her new exhibit, Who Owns the Moon
"I have painted the moon for my entire life," says Wanda Koop.
In a recent conversation with Q's Tom Power, the Winnipeg-based painter — considered one of Canada's most renowned living artists — shared why she's long been interested in Earth's nearest neighbour.
"I see it sort of as a mirror," Koop says. "It's a constant reminder that we're on a little blue ball in the middle of nowhere."
The moon is an important symbol in the artist's new exhibit at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Who Owns the Moon (on display now until Aug. 4), which reflects on family history, intergenerational traumas and conflicts both old and ongoing.
"In this body of work — with what's going on in the world, with all the wars and all the horror that we're experiencing and all the polarization and all of that — I'm looking at the moon from another perspective: that we, as humans, have to look after this little blue planet and we have to look after each other."
The idea is reinforced with paintings of both the International Space Station and China's Tiangong space station.
"We see the exploration of space as being so — I mean, it is profound — but if you think of how vast the cosmos is, that these little tiny space stations are floating around … it just pulls us into another place of thought."
It is a counterpoint, she says, to a body of work within the exhibition that relates to the war in Ukraine.
"When the war started," she says, "here I am in my 70s, realizing what my parents and family went through."
Persecuted by the Soviets, Koop's family fled Ukraine for Canada after the Russian Revolution.
A painting that shows a long braid — an homage to her grandmother — tells some of this story.
"When my grandmother died, prior to coming to Canada, my grandfather cut my grandmother's braid off at death and brought it to Canada," Koop says. "I was absolutely fascinated by this braid, and I played with it. I would come home from school very excited — an 'odd child,' you might say — but I'd come home, open the drawer, fold back the tissue and sort of have a dream about this braid. I dreamt there was a beautiful woman floating in a boat, a kind of Ophelia-like image. And I loved it."
The second panel in this series is called Cross-Stitch.
"When my grandmother was still alive, she did beautiful crocheting and needlework," the artist explains. "She made a blanket for my mother as a baby — a beautiful, beautiful blanket. And, when my mom came to Canada, she was wrapped in it. And when my mom died at 96, we wrapped my mother in it to bury her."
The painting "looks gauzy," Koop says, "and there are little crosses making a pattern — very soft — and they almost disappear."
The third painting, titled Bloodline, is more visceral.
"It's just a very red drip going right through the centre of the painting," the artist says.
The final artwork in the series shows a variety of flowers strewn onto the canvas. This panel is inspired by a story Koop's mother told her while on a trip to visit Ukraine together in 1997.
"We were driving along," Koop recalls, "and she said, 'I remember when my mother died. I remember I had picked flowers and I was throwing them on to her as they were lowering her. And then I tried to jump in with her and I was held back.'"
The widow of a friend once told Koop something similar during the burial. "I realized it was such a universal [feeling]," Koop says. "It has to do with … this sort of loss and longing."
The full interview with Wanda Koop is available on our podcast, Q with Tom Power. Listen and subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
Interview with Wanda Koop produced by Cora Nijhawan.
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