Sunday, February 16th, 2025

By Martha Bull

I have known Ernie Herzig for many years as an associate of valued friends and neighbours. We met at parties celebrating this or that, and I have skiied the extensive cross country trails behind the house in Mulmur he shares with his wife, Rivette. I noted his gentle relationship with his horses, which is an interest we share. Not everyone cares for their horses with the kind of reverence I like to see, so I was always fond of him for that elevated devotion.

Recently, I found another side to Ernie that had escaped me over the last 35 years. Sculpture has been a quiet preoccupation and passion that he has devoted thousands of hours to through a demanding career as a publisher, many social pursuits and a close family life. His fabulous sculptures were on display at the Station on the Green at the Creemore Festival of the Arts last fall.

Because I have known Ernie socially and not professionally, I was surprised to find he has a long list of artistic accomplishments, which is unusual in a part-time artist. Since studying at Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto in 1995, Ernie has taken part in several group exhibitions including shows at the Beau-xi and John B. Aird Galleries. He had a one-man show at the Canadian Sculpture Society in April 2002. His major work, “Two Visions,” was unveiled in Ken Williams Square in Brampton, and coincided with a major show at Brampton City Hall.

Ernie’s sculptures are mathematically precise, elegant and beguiling. They are beautiful, but also engaging. And they all speak to the balance between male and female. They are all a meditation on the theme of “different but equal.”

This preoccupation comes from his despair over the sad reality in our world of the intransigence of mysogeny. Ernie feels strongly that it is the black force that propels most of the world’s problems. Ernie was moved by Shelley Hannah’s wonderful article in the Echo (Friday, March 28 edition) on this subject. He also said that the book, Ascent of Women by Canadian Sally Armstrong (available at Curiosity House), has inspired him. Armstrong is a visionary journalist who exposes the fight for equality in every corner of the globe. The fight of our times is an equal voice for women that will also heal the planet. Ernie wants his sculptural vision to be part of the solution.

Ernie is an unlikely candidate for sculpting. He and Rivette owned a renowned printing house in Toronto called Herzig Somerville where the two-dimensional image is king. Ernie showed me reproductions of photographs with the kind of resolutions reserved for the Ed Burtynskys of the world. Their company printed many art catalogues, posters, art books and limited edition reproductions, and Ernie himself has worked side-by-side with many eminent Canadian artists to produce these reproductions

So, it seems unusual to me that Ernie would be taken hostage by sculpture rather than by photography or painting. His colour sensibilities are sophisticated and nuanced from years of working in print. Of course, the two-dimensional preoccupations of line, texture, composition, value and colour come to play in sculpture, but with the added dimension of mass being preeminent.

As a watercolour artist, I am preoccupied artistically with two-dimensional work. Sculpture falls firmly outside my expertise. So it is with these uneducated eyes that I viewed Ernie’s body of work, which spans 40 years.

Ernie, who has an elegant mind and generous spirit, took the time to answer my questions without flinching. I had such a good time with him as the hours unfolded, revelling in his skill and vision. I learned about many things I had never thought about like resins, plasters, granite, alabaster and wood, wire assemblages and reductive carving, bronze casting and mold-making. But mostly, I was deeply engaged in his vision.

I hope that Ernie’s sculptures will find a large audience soon. They deserve a place in our consciousness.

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