Call Number: Mss 239 (A.06-44)

Title: Caroline Dukes fonds.

Dates: 1959-2006.

Extent: 0.4 m of textual records and other material.

Biographical sketch: Caroline Dukes was a Manitoba artist and painter. She was born in Ujpest, Hungary on May 19, 1929. She studied art in Hungary at the studio of sculptor Sigiesmund de Strobl and at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest (1951). After the defeat of the Hungarian uprising against Communism, her family immigrated to Toronto in 1958. She moved to Winnipeg in 1967 and resumed her studies at the School of Art, University of Manitoba. She graduated in 1972.

Caroline Dukes' paintings were influenced by her experiences as a Holocaust survivor and as a witness to Communist cruelty in Hungary. Her work was displayed in galleries across the country. She was a recipient of many grants and awards, including the Highest Quality and Most Original Painting Award (1973) and the Outstanding Prairie Interpretation Award (1976). Her paintings were admired by people around the world.

Caroline Dukes' paintings were organized into the following series: Interior, Building,Nude, Landscape, Cities and At the Focus of Forces. She created her most intense personal work in 1992. It is titled Remember...Relate...Retell and is a multimedia work including drawings, photographs, text, ready-made objects, video, audio, and constructions. This work was influenced by her childhood memories. In 1995 she became a founding member of Site Gallery and in April 2003 she completed an autobiographical work called Circus. She died in Winnipeg on June 8, 2003. In July 2003 the Manitoba Artists for Women Art established the Caroline Dukes Legacy Fund which is administered by the Winnipeg Foundation.

Custodial history: The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collections by Alfred Dukes in 2006.

Scope and content: The fonds consists of Caroline Dukes' correspondence, catalogues of her exhibitions, 144 drawings and sketches, and newspaper clippings featuring biographical information. The photograph collection consists of 43 photographs, 20 negatives, and 1 slide.

Restrictions: One folder is labeled confidential and is restricted.

Accruals: No further accruals to this fonds are expected.

Finding aid: A printed finding aid is available in the Archives reading room and an on-line finding aid is available at the link below:

MSS 239 (A.06-44).