Jack Sures had a strong connection with Manitoba. Born in Brandon in 1934, he started studying painting and printmaking at the University of Manitoba’s School of Art in 1954, when it was located downtown. After transferring to the University of Michigan and travelling to Europe and the Middle East, the young artist returned to Winnipeg to set up Jack Sures’s Studio on Portage Avenue in 1962. The late Charlie Scott said that ‘Sures ushered in the modern era of pottery making in the City’. This was, as far as Scott knew, the first independent ceramics studio in the City. It attracted other talents such as Tam Irving, Anne Marie Schmidt-Eisler (later to study with Harlan House under Albert Borch in Alberta), Muriel Guest, Jason Krpan and Gerry Tillapaugh. In 1965, the University of Regina attracted the talented artist and passionate teacher to lead up their ceramics programme. Sures retired from teaching in 1989.
Timothy Long in the exhibition catalogue for Fine Form, Saskatchewan Ceramics stated: ‘In the post-war period, pottery gained substantially in status, moving from a cottage industry to a subject of academic study. Leading the way in Saskatchewan was Jack Sures (Regina), who established the ceramics program at the University of Regina in 1965. Sures advocated that ceramics be considered an art form on par with painting and sculpture.’
Sures used all of his talents when he created works of sculpture, ceramic murals, vessels and tiles. He gathered up the influences of his studies abroad to add to his personal expression onto the surface of the clay and its form. Sures exhibited his work internationally and for his talents was recognized by his being awarded the Order of Canada (Companion) in 1991, the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2003, the Commemorative Medal of the 125th Anniversary of the Confederation of Canada for his significant achievement in the Arts, as well as the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal in 2012. More recently he was the recipient of the Governor General’s Award for Excellence (2018).
For Sures clay was the most expressive artistic medium. Throughout his life, he remained fascinated with the way that the medium could reinvent itself. For this sculptor and vessel maker, throwing at the wheel was soothing for his soul. Sures often said that the richness of one’s life and spirit is reflected in their work and in turn, transferred to the viewer. Sures will be sadly missed.