U.K. art show recalls pivotal moment in Canadian culture
A landmark British exhibition of Canadian art, which opens Wednesday at a London gallery that has spent years working to showcase the iconic landscapes of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, is recalling a pivotal moment 87 years ago when it took gushing praise from British critics to kick-start a new era in Canadian cultural nationalism.
More than 120 paintings, including Thomsons 1917 masterpiece The Jack Pine and Lawren Harriss epic 1930 canvas Mt. Lefroy, have been gathered from the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and various private sources for the show titled Painting Canada: Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven, at Londons historic Dulwich Picture Gallery.
The exhibition, which moves to a museum in Norway in January and then to the Netherlands in June, is being described as the most significant showing of Canadas signature paintings since the so-called Wembley Controversy in 1924, when a fierce battle between Canadas artistic establishment and the then-upstart Group of Seven rocked the countrys cultural landscape and even reached the House of Commons.
Its rather nice that at least one part of the story of the Group of Seven started here, so it feels like a return to London, Ian Dejardin, director of the Dulwich and curator of the exhibition, told Postmedia News. But amazingly, this is the very, very first show in Britain thats devoted to these particular artists — including Wembley, when they were a small part of a bigger display.
Thomson had been dead for six years and the Group of Seven painters he inspired were still struggling for recognition in Canada in 1923 when it was announced the UK would be hosting an unprecedented exhibition the following year to celebrate the technological and cultural achievements of the British Empire.
A struggle over which Canadian artworks would be displayed at Wembley soon broke out between the Royal Canadian Academy — whose conservative officials deemed crude the Group of Sevens impressionistic, riotously colourful depictions of the Canadian wilderness — and the National Gallery of Canada, whose director Eric Brown was the chief champion of the Harris-led group of painters, including future Canadian-art superstars AY Jackson and Frederick Varley.
The Group of Seven painters werent universally panned in Canada, said Dejardin, but they were up against a quite vociferous minority of critics, who made comments about (their landscapes) being like the contents of a drunkards stomach and that kind of stuff. The Group of Seven certainly felt they were unappreciated and up against a hostile press.
Brown managed to secure just 20 spots for paintings by the Group of Seven and Thomson, including The Jack Pine. And while a leading Canadian critic of the Group of Seven, Hector Charlesworth, attacked their inclusion in the exhibition in a Saturday Night magazine article headlined Freak Pictures at Wembley, British critics heaped praise on Thomson, Harris and Jackson when they saw their works on display.
The Times of London remarked on the emphatic design and bold brushwork of the rebellious Canadian painters. C. Lewis Hind, an influential critic with the Daily Chronicle, described the Thomson and Group of Seven canvases as the most vital group of paintings produced since the (First World War) — indeed, this century.
Another critic argued effusively that Canada, above all other countries, has reason to be proud of her contribution at Wembley. Her canvases are real triumphs . . . Canada has arrived. She has a real national style.
Brown, giddy with delight at the overseas success of the artists hed chosen to elevate, quickly published a pamphlet in which he reproduced the glowing reviews of British critics for widespread consumption across Canada.
The National Gallerys director was particularly keen to substantiate the correctness of his decision, as art historian Russell Harper put it in his 1966 book Painting in Canada: A History, because Brown had been abused and dragged verbally in the most humiliating fashion across the floor of the House of Commons in Ottawa for championing the new movement. Members of Parliament were bitterly critical of the strong representation of Group of Seven paintings which he had sent to Wembley.
Generations of scholars have viewed the Wembley Controversy as a turning point in Canadian art history and, more broadly, in the quest for a uniquely Canadian artistic identity distinct from the powerhouse British and American cultural industries.
Dejardin said he shares the view held by British critics in the 1920s that Thomson and the Group of Seven symbolized a strong, new landscape form bestowed to the world by Canadian art.
These artists produced some of the most vibrant and beautiful landscapes of the 20th century, Dejardin said last month in announcing the Dulwich exhibition. The Canadians have kept this particular light under a bushel for far too long.
And Marc Mayer, a successor to Brown as director of the National Gallery of Canada, noted at the time that — shades of 1924 — the latest British exhibition of Canadas most famous landscape paintings could well spark a renewed and even worldwide appreciation of Thomson and the Group of Seven.
Although contemporary Canadian art is now quite prominent in the world, our historical art deserves a much larger international audience, he said. I am confident that this fine show will turn the tide.