McMichael Canadian Art Collection to host Group of Seven centennial exhibition

   One-Tank Trip for Nov. 9/19

   (c) By Jim Fox

    It will be the 100th anniversary May 7 when a group of artists calling themselves the Group of Seven mounted their first formal exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario).

   Over a three-week run about 2,000 visitors viewed more than 120 paintings of which only

six were sold.

Franklin Carmichael’s autumnal symphony calked October Gold will be part of the Group of Seven exhibition.
Photos from the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

    A.Y. Jackson wrote home that the exhibition was “attracting quite a lot of attention even if it is not understood.”

   They wouldn’t remain little-understood for long even though they had to return to their day jobs.

   In commemoration, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (10365 Islington Ave.) in Kleinburg will mount a landmark exhibition of the group’s finest pieces from its permanent collection entitled “A Like Vision:” The Group of Seven at 100.

   “The collection “remains the spiritual home” to the group and is a destination for Canadians who cherish the artistic legacy of the country, said publicist Sam Cheung.

   It grew out of the personal devotion of Robert and Signe McMichael, he added.

Artist Lawren S. Harris created his painting Montreal River in 1920.

   Opening on Jan. 25 and running through December, the exhibition of more than 280 works will span five galleries and include masterpieces by each member: Jackson, Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley.

   Today the group – later joined byA.J. Casson, Edwin Holgate and L.L. FitzGerald, and their contemporaries Tom Thomson, David Milne and Emily Carr – are recognized as the originators of a distinctly Canadian style of art.

A.Y. Jackson’s painting First Snow, Algoma will be shown at McMichael.

    “The Group of Seven not only translated what they saw into a vivid visual language of their own, but through that language they taught us to appreciate the natural beauty of Canada in all its vast scale and variety,” said Ian A.C. Dejardin, McMichael executive director.

   On exhibit will be Jackson’s haunting First Snow, Algoma; Carmichael’s autumnal symphony October Gold; and Harris’ magisterial Mount Robson.

   Alongside will be lesser-known pieces including humorous and impressionistic sketches by Lismer and Harris’s unassuming Montreal River, the first work acquired by the McMichaels in 1955.

   Coinciding from June 27 is “Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment.”

   It will gather more than 200 pieces of art by a generation of women painters, photographers, sculptors, architects and filmmakers and works by their Indigenous and immigrant female contemporaries.

  Early Morning, Sphinx Mountain,  F.H. Varley

    There will be art of the Beaver Hall Group of painters from Montreal, among them Anne Savage and Lilias Torrance Newton.

    They will be shown alongside the paintings by Carr from British Columbia and sculptures by Toronto artists Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle.

   “We are delighted to shine the spotlight at long last on this overlooked cohort of creative Canadians” said Sarah Milroy, McMichael chief curator.

   It will be accompanied by a catalogue of some 30 essays by Canadian writers, artists and art historians. mcmichael.com; 1-888-213-1121

All special exhibitions are included in the price of admission at the McMichael.

That means you can check out all the shows for one price as follows:

Members	Free
Adults	$18
Students and Seniors	$15
Children under 5	Free
Family – 1 or 2 adults and up to 4 children, 18 and younger	$36
Tuesday Pricing	Adults $15, Students and Seniors $12, Family $30
Parking	$7 (Free for Members)

 

   Prolific Canadian art

   Some of the “best of Canadian art” is at the Woodstock Art Gallery (449 Dundas St.).

   For the fall exhibition “the entire gallery has been refreshed from top to bottom,” said Mary Reid, director/curator.

This life-size sculpture Work Horse of a Clydesdale is by John McEwen at the Woodstock gallery.

    It shows “extraordinary work” by artists with an international reputation alongside those from our community, she added.

   - Walk On, sculptures by John McEwen trace nearly five decades.

   - Dancing on the Grave, explores the genre of abstraction by Dil Hildebrand and Patrick Thibert.

   Evolutionary art by ErikFlock, called CommunionMan (left) and CommunionWoman (right), is shown in Woodstock.

    - Evolutionary art by ErikFlock of Woodstock created through digital algorithms.

   - The Art of Self-Supervision, studying the link between self-reflection and self-care by Dr. Laurie Ponsford-Hill using self-portraits as a self-reflective tool for art therapists. cityofwoodstock.ca/en/live-and-play/woodstock-art-gallery.aspx; (519) 539-6761 ext. 2801.

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   Jim Fox can be reached at onetanktrips@hotmail.com

   For more One-Tank Trips: http://1tanktrips.blogspot.ca