“Their small-toothed interlock”: Biomorphism and Mystical Quest in the Visual Art of P.K. Page and John Vanderpant

Abstract

Even though Canadian artists John Vanderpant and P.K. Page were working more than three decades apart and in different media, biomorphic modernism is observable in their visual art. (Biomorphic art is visual abstraction based on organic forms.) Vanderpant, an early twentieth-century photographer, and P.K. Page, a mid-century poet and painter, both exhibit in their visual art the intricacies of lineation that signify a belief in the transcendent powers of forms in nature. The works of both artists attest to their belief in the transforming power of art in society. Page’s poetry echoes the modernist undercurrents of her visual art. The ecological themes of her late-century poems resonate with the vitalist impulses of early twentieth-century modernism.