Renowned visual artist John Will, who 'challenged, entertained and delighted,' dies

He was known for his self-deprecating sense of humour and a painting, printmaking and performance career that spanned more than six decades

Renowned printmaker, painter and educator John Will died in Calgary on July 15. He was 87. A legendary part of the province’s visual arts scene for decades, Will was known for his self-deprecating sense of humour and a painting, printmaking and performance career that spanned more than six decades.

Instantly recognizable because of a gold J on one front tooth and his shaggy grey beard, he was still drawing just days before he died. The largest exhibition of his work, John Will: Born in the U.F.O. (Some Truth, More Lies, All Legend), is on view now at the Art Gallery of Alberta in Edmonton until Aug. 9. Will taught art at the University of Calgary for more than 25 years and his work is held in major collections across North America, including the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Art Institute of Chicago.

His exhibition, John Will: Photography R.I.P., was on view at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary in 2018 and he is represented in Calgary by Norberg Hall. “The truth is, you can’t really write about John. He was honestly best experienced.

That was the fun about him,” says Shannon Norberg, co-owner of Norberg Hall. “To have known John was to be challenged, entertained, confused, delighted, occasionally exasperated and always left with a story, possibly of the two of you wrote together in that very moment.” She recalls one of Will’s shows where he showed up during the installation and introduced himself as someone else.

No one realized who he was — until much later, when he was still hanging around at the opening. Former Calgary Herald entertainment editor and visual arts writer Nancy Tousley met Will in the 1970s when Tousley and her husband, former Glenbow director Duncan Cameron, moved to Calgary. Will and his wife, the late painter Mary Will, phoned to invite them to a party.

It was the start of a lifelong friendship. “They were the first artists in the community to reach out to us, and they were both unforgettable people,” Tousley says. “John was a spinner of tall tales and had that American penchant for personal myth-making,” says Tousley, who last saw Will two weeks ago.

“He was always very interested in people and what makes us tick as human beings. “He liked people, and he had an irrepressible sense of humour, right up to the end. He’d pull your leg and grin while he was doing it.”

And he brought his artistic training to Calgary and beyond, mentoring generations of artists across Canada. “John was a masterful printmaker who had the best training anyone could have at that time in North America, and he brought those skills to Canada,” says Tousley, who has a story on Will in an upcoming issue of Border Crossing magazine. Montreal curator Peter White and Will became friends when White was working at the Glenbow.

White later curated a touring retrospective of Will’s work, John Will: Triple Threat Artist, which was shown first at the Dunlop Art Gallery in Regina in 1988. White recalls the time Calgary’s Stride Gallery threw a “dress like John Will” party. Everyone showed up in versions of Will’s trademark uniform: plaid flannel shirts, jeans, boots and shaggy beards.

Will, on the other hand, shaved off the beard and showed up at the party in an Armani suit. While White moved away from Calgary in 1982, the two stayed in close contact and saw each other frequently. White spoke to him just hours before he died.

“It’s a cliche to say there was no one else like him, but there really wasn’t,” White says. “His ability to translate his personality into his art was really extraordinary. He was an astute observer of life.”

Born in 1939 in Waterloo, Iowa, Will held a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Iowa. He moved to Calgary in 1971 to teach printmaking at the University of Calgary. He also taught briefly at the Emily Carr School of Art (now Emily Carr University) in Vancouver and the Nova Scotia School of Art and Design (now NSCAD University) in Halifax.

Will died comfortably, surrounded by loved ones and his sketchbooks and pencils. He is survived by a sister and two brothers who live in the U.S. He was preceded in death by his wife, painter and ceramic artist Mary Shannon Will, who died in 2024.

Information on his memorial service will be announced soon. Looking for things to see and do in Calgary? We’ve got the best of the city lined up for you.

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