The Harmonious Gate in Art

Gate of Harmonious Interest, Fisgard Street. Black and white screen print by Robert Amos, 1982.

The Gate of Harmonious Interest was built in 1981 as part of a community revitalization of Chinatown and a shift toward multiculturalism in Canadian society. Robert Amos began to visit artists’ studios in Chinatown in the late 1970s and soon set up his own studio on Fisgard Street, where he could see the Gate of Harmonious Interest from his balcony. Here are his renditions of the gate over three decades, from a black and white drawing of the new gate in 1982, to a watercolour painting of the gate in sunshine in 1991, to a rainy winter view of the gate in 2000.