Joan Murray discusses social and political events in combination with the movements, ideas, attitudes, styles, and important groups in Canadian art of this century.
"Kent Monkman: Life & Work" is the first comprehensive book on one of the most important and internationally celebrated contemporary artists in Canada. Subversive, bold, unapologetic, and unforgiving, the work of Kent Monkman (b.1965) has left an unmistakable mark on contemporary Canadian art. Since the early 2000s, Monkman, accompanied by his time-travelling, shape-shifting, gender-fluid alter ego, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, has redefined the Canadian cultural landscape. Riffing on techniques of the Old Masters, Monkman first found fame by recreating notable landscape paintings and populating them with Indigenous visions of resistance.
Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century is a survey of the richest, most controversial and perhaps most thoroughly confusing centuries in the whole history of the visual arts in Canada - the period from 1900 to the present. Murray shows how, beginning with Tonalism at the start of the century, new directions in art emerged - starting with our early Modernists, among them Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Today, Modernism has lost its dominance. Artists, critics, and the public alike are confronted by a scene of unprecedented variety and complexity. Murray discusses the social and political events of the century in combination with the cultural context; movements, ideas, attitudes, and styles; the important groups in Canadian art, and major and minor artists and their works. Fully documented, well researched and written with clarity and over four hundred illustrations in both black-and-white and colour, Murray’s book is essential for understanding Canadian art of this century. As an introduction, it is excellent in both its scope and intelligence.
A celebration of one hundred years of Canada's most famous group of painters, expertly blending visual artistry with evocative works of short fiction. Founded in 1920, the Group of Seven has been capturing the imaginations of Canadians for nearly a century, helping to shape our national identity with their stunning landscape paintings representing every region of the country. In honour of the one-hundred-year anniversary of the Group's formation, The Group of Seven Reimaginedtakes a fresh look at twenty-one paintings from the Group's vast oeuvre, extracting narrative from landscape and uniting Canada's most beloved works of art with some of its most distinguished names in contemporary literary fiction. This gorgeous full-colour art book includes works by the original Group of Seven--Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Frederick H. Varley--as well as later members A.J. Casson, L.L. FitzGerald, and Edwin Holgate, plus their contemporaries Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. Each painting is accompanied by a short narrative--or "flash fiction" piece--written by critically acclaimed, award-winning authors, including Carol Bruneau, Waubgeshig Rice, Tamas Dobozy, and JJ Lee. Rather than analyze or interpret the art, these literary masters look deep inside each painting, crafting new layers of plot, setting, and emotion that feel at once entirely fresh and completely at home alongside these early-twentieth-century works. With a foreword by Sue and Jim Waddington, authors of the popular In the Footsteps of the Group of Seven,this innovative take on the Group of Seven is sure to inspire and delight Canadians from coast to coast.
Published to accompany exhibition organized by Dulwich Picture Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, in collaboration with the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, and the Groninger Museum.
Emily Carr (1871--1945) is one of Canada's most beloved artists. An independent woman and a Westerner who gained prominence at a time when female painters were not recognized internationally, her life and work reflect a profound commitment to the land she knew and loved. Carr's sensitive evocations reveal an artist grappling with spiritual questions inspired by the Canadian sea, land, and people. Although more than half a century has passed since her death, any artist who engages with the West Coast must contend with her legacy. Her paintings continue to inspire generations of artists. Along with the Group of Seven, Carr became a leading figure in Canadian modern art in the early twentieth century. Emily Carr: Life & Work traces the artist's trajectory from her life in Victoria, where she struggled to receive acceptance, to her status as one of Canada's most influential painters. With insight and intelligence, author Lisa Baldissera explores how although during Carr's life she endured hardship, personal isolation, and rejection, she persevered to create an iconic vision for the nation. This book explores how Carr travelled extensively, learning from European, American, and Indigenous forms and receiving formal training at art academies as well as from private tutors. In doing so, she continued to grow in artistic power as a result of her own intense observation and of her vigorous experimentation with a variety of methods and media, reflecting the fusion of wide-ranging influences. Baldissera reveals why Carr's art remains relevant today and its legacy interests many contemporary West Coast artists.
In this witty and compelling defence of the art field itself, Joan Murray, one of the country's most outspoken art historians, discusses the great figures of Canadian art and the rise of our national are in institutions such as the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Published in conjunction with the exhibition at Dulwich Picture Gallery on November 1, 2014-March 8, 2015 and Art Gallery of Ontario on April 11-July 12, 2015.
This book celebrates the artisitic legacy of eleven artists who broke with tradition and established a new way of painting Canada. Although they called themselves the Group of Seven, the members eventually numbered ten. Tom Thompson, who died before the group was established, was always present in spirit and in the public mind--Page 4 of cover.