Western Voices In Canadian Art

The story of artists in Western Canada, and how they changed the face of Canadian art “Listen to the visual voices of artists. They tell us so poignantly who we are, what we must cherish, and what we must address as a society.” Patricia Bovey Throughout her remarkable career as a gallery director, curator, and author, Patricia Bovey has tirelessly championed the work of Western Canadian artists. Western Voices in Canadian Art brings this lifelong passion to a crescendo, delivering the most ambitious survey of Western Canadian Art to date. Beginning with the earliest European-trained artists in Western Canada, and moving up to present day, Bovey amplifies the depth, scope, and importance of the diverse artists (both settler and Indigenous) whose distinct voices have contributed to the Western Canadian artistic tradition. Bovey then adopts a thematic approach, richly informed by her knowledge and experience, connecting art and artists through time and across provincial boundaries. Insights from Bovey’s studio visits and conversations with artists enhance our understandings of the history and trajectory of, and impetus for Canadian artistic creation. Lavishly illustrated with over 250 works reproduced in full colour, Western Voices in Canadian Art is a book that needs to be seen, and its artists and art celebrated.

Against a backdrop of the sexual revolution, the Vietnam War, and the American media influence, Greg Curnoe: Life & Work reveals how Curnoe created many of this country's most iconic artworks, while bolstering his hometown of London, Ontario as a powerful creative centre for art, activism, and the new Regional art movement.

Bringing together fifteen scholars of art and culture, Unsettling Canadian Art History addresses the visual and material culture of settler colonialism, enslavement, and racialized diasporas in the contested white settler state of Canada. This collection offers new avenues for scholarship on art, archives, and creative practice by rethinking histories of Canadian colonialisms from Black, Indigenous, racialized, feminist, queer, trans, and Two-Spirit perspectives. Writing across many positionalities, contributors offer chapters that disrupt colonial archives of art and culture, excavating and reconstructing radical Black, Indigenous, and racialized diasporic creation and experience. Exploring the racist frameworks that continue to erase histories of violence and resistance, this book imagines the expansive possibilities of a decolonial future. Unsettling Canadian Art History affirms the importance of collaborative conversations and work in the effort to unsettle scholarship in Canadian art and culture.

In the first part of the twentieth century few women in western Canada had careers as artists—Pauline Boutal had three: 23 years as a fashion illustrator for the Eaton’s catalogue for the graphic design company, Brigden’s of Winnipeg, 27 years as the Artistic Director at the Cercle Molière Theatre and 70 years as a visual artist. Born in Brittany in 1894, Boutal painted in a traditional style and trained at the Winnipeg School of Art, the Cape Cod School of Art, and at l'Academie de la Grande Chaumiere in Paris, France. She left an important legacy of portraits, landscapes, still lifes, and illustrations as well as theatre sets and costume designs. This English translation of Louise Duguay’s award-winning "Pauline Boutal: Destin d'artiste 1894–1992" shares the story of an important artist who lived an exceptional life. Today a great number of Boutal’s works can be found in major private and corporate collections across Canada. For her contribution to the French culture and theatre in Canada, Boutal was awarded numerous prestigious prizes, including the Order of Canada. In addition to thousands of sketches, illustrations, and paintings, Boutal also left a rich legacy of letters, speeches and interviews at the Centre du Patrimoine Canadien. Drawing on these sources, Louise Duguay has created a work that honours the best of biography and autobiography.

For more than 80 years, The Group of Seven has been Canada`s best-known art collective. Founded in 1920, the Group--Franklin Carmichael, Lawren S. Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank H. Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, Frederick H. Varley, A.J. Casson, Edwin Holgate, and Lionel LeMoine Fitzgerald-was recognized for their strikingly bold, modernist and colourful images of the Canadian landscape. In creating their art, the Group also contributed greatly to Canada`s emerging sense of identity. In their inaugural exhibition catalogue, the Group poignantly wrote: `An art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people.` In The Group of Seven in Western Canada, Catharine Mastin, curator of the Glenbow exhibition, along with five other Canadian scholars and curators explore the inspiration and influence of the west on both the Group`s artwork and their sense of national identity. The book focuses on the significant themes and works produced by the Group from artistic, political, geographical, social and cultural perspectives in order to create the first, and most comprehensive, study of the Group`s western muse. With 130 images and photographs to accompany the fascinating and insightful text, The Group of Seven in Western Canada is a unique and outstanding contribution to the history and legacy of Canadian art. The Glenbow Museum is a world-class multi-disciplinary institution that includes a permanent art collection, western Canada`s largest museum, Canada`s largest non-government archives, and an unparalleled western Canada reference library. Located in Calgary, it is world-renowned for its innovative programming and exhibitions.

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the visual arts were considered central to the formation of a distinct national identity, and the Group of Seven's landscapes became part of a larger program to unify the nation and assert its uniqueness. This book traces the development of this program and illuminates its conflicted history. Leslie Dawn problematizes conventional perceptions of the Group as a national school and underscores the contradictions inherent in international exhibitions showing unpeopled landscapes alongside Northwest Coast Native arts and the "Indian" paintings of Langdon Kihn and Emily Carr. Dawn examines how this dichotomy forced a re-evaluation of the place of First Nations in both Canadian art and nationalism.

A monument to the talent of Canadian women artists in the interwar period. this book provides a full and diverse cross-country survey of the art made by women during this pivotal time, incorporating the work of both settler and Indigenous visual artists in a stirring affirmation of the female creative voice. Residence: Ontario. Print run 2,500.