The "Uninvited - Canadian Women in the Modern Moment" Exhibit |
The “Uninvited: Canadian
Women Artists in the Modern Moment” Exhibit, a major exhibition opened last June
11, 2022 at the Vancouver Art Gallery, coincides with, and offers commentary on, the centenary celebration
of the Group of Seven, a famous set of quintessential Canadian male landscape
artists who held their first show in 1920.
Although they shared the friendship, pictorial experiments and, in some
cases, the daily life of the Group of Seven members, women artists in the early
twentieth century were never formally “invited” to join their ranks despite
expressing support for artists such as Emily Carr.
Check out "Vancouver Art Gallery"
Kitwancool Totems (Emily Carr, 1928, oil on canvas) |
This gathering of nearly
three hundred works of art (including 30 works on loan from the National Gallery of Canada) by a generation of extraordinary women painters,
photographers, weavers, bead workers, sculptors, architects and filmmakers from
a century ago, pioneers who opened new frontiers for women artists in Canada. Focusing
on the interwar period (1920s, 1930s and 1940s), it is a cross-country snapshot
of female creativity in this dynamic modern moment.
Dress of Rose Runner (Mrs. George Runner, ca. 1927) |
The exhibition, running at
the Vancouver Art Gallery until January 8, 2023, was first shown, from September
10, 2021 to January 16, 2022, at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection (Kleinburg,
Ontario), then continued at the Glenbow Museum (Calgary, Alberta) from February
19 to May 8, 2022 and at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, Manitoba) from June
18, 2022 to January 3, 2023.
Northern Island (Elizabeth Wyn Wood, ca. 1927, gold-plated bronze on black marble base) |
Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinburg (Ontario), the exhibit is curated by
McMichael Chief Curator Sarah Milroy and is made possible with the generous
support of presenting sponsor BMO and the McMichael Women’s Art Council.
It foregrounds the production of women artists from across the country,
providing a broad and diverse accounting of female creativity in Canada a
century ago.
Woolies (Margaret Watkins, 1919, vintage silver print) |
In
this monumental exhibition, we saw the work of women artists, from all parts of
Canada, who responded to a period of dramatic and, sometimes traumatic change.
Rather than pursuing the calling of landscape painting prevalent among their
male peers, settler female artists in this period tackled such themes as human
psychology, urbanization, industrialized resource extraction, Indigenous
culture and displacement, environment desecration and the immigrant experience. They expanded their palette to include urban
scenes, portraits of figures marginalized by “modern” society, and natural
landscapes encroached upon by fast-developing extractive
industries.
Elise Kingman (Lilias Torrance Newton, 1930, oil on canvas) |
On display are artwork
by members of the famed Beaver Hall Group of painters of Montréal,
Québec (among them Anne Savage and Lilias Torrance Newton); paintings of legendary
artist Emily Carr (from Victoria, British
Columbia); sculptures by Toronto-based artists Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Frances Loring and Florence Wyle; works of a number of Indigenous women from this
period; contributions of women from immigrant communities such as the painters
Regina Seiden Goldberg and the Russian-born leftist Paraskeva Clark (1898-1986)
who immigrated to Toronto from St. Petersburg in 1933; and works of Canadian
expatriates such as avant-garde photographer Margaret Watkins (who left her
home in Hamilton, Ontario for the United States and Scotland).
Self-Portrait with Concert Program (Paraskeva Clark, 1942, oil with paper on canvas) |
Indigenous female artists working
in traditional media whose works are displayed include Attatsiaq (1910-c. 1955)
of Arviat, Nunavut; Sewinchelwet (Sophie Frank, 1872-1939) of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh
Úxwumixw (Squamish Nation); Mi'kmaq maker of intricately patterned quillboxes
Bridget Ann Sack (whose traditional beadwork and woven baskets were becoming
instrumental in their fight for economic survival as the colonial state
took over their ancestral territories of Shubenacadie, Nova Scotia); Elizabeth
Katt Petrant (1891?-1922) from Bear Island, Lake Temagami; Mrs. Walking Sun from the
Carry the Kettle Reserve in Southern Saskatchewan; and Rose Runner of the
Tsuut’ina First Nation (near Calgary, Alberta).
Sisters of Rural Quebec (Prudence Heward, 1930, oil on canvas) |
The watercolors of Winifred
Petchey Marsh (1905-1995) documented the customs of Inuit women, Toronto
painter Yvonne McKague Housser (1897-1996) depicted a sketch of the mining town
of Cobalt (1931), Montreal painter Prudence Heward did enigmatic portraits of
Jazz Age women, and the landscapes of Anne Savage (1896-1971), commissioned by
the Canadian government, immortalized the totem poles of the Gitxsan First
Nation.
Sea and Shore (Florence Wyle, ca. 1950, marble) |
In the very last room of the
exhibit, Emily Carr (1871-1945) portrayed trees still standing among freshly
cut stumps and totem poles. In front of
these works are an undulating series of display cases housing 18 sustainably
made Coast Salish baskets from many different communities. The work of Kathleen Munn tells the story of
Christ through a series of ink and graphite sketches that show her mastery of
Cubism and dynamic symmetry among other artistic movements.
Two of 18 Coast Salish baskets (Panier) |
An exquisitely beaded tuilik (women’s parka) panel, by Nunavut artist Attatsiaq, sits beside a watercolor depiction of the same garment by
Winifred Petchey Marsh.
Tuilik (Woman's Parka, Attatsiaq, 1910-ca. 1955) |
“Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the
Modern Moment” Exhibit: Vancouver
Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver, British Columbia V6Z 2H7, Canada. Open Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays,
Saturdays and Sundays, 10 AM – 5 PM, Tuesdays and Fridays, 12 noon to 8 PM.
Admission: $24.00 (adults), $20.00 (seniors), $18 (students), $6.50 (children,
6 – 12 years old) and free (children 5 years old and under). Tuesdays, from 5 – 9 PM are “donation nights”
(pay whatever you want or can afford). Coordinates: 49.282875°N 123.120464°W.
No comments:
Post a Comment