Canadian Painters in a Modern World, 1925–1955 : Writings and Reconsiderations

A window onto the perspectives of Canadian artists during three eventful decades of local and global history. A window onto the perspectives of Canadian artists during three eventful decades of local and global history. Cover Canadian Painters in a Modern World, 1925–1955 Title Copyright Dedication Contents Illustrations List of Canadian Artists Named in This Book List of Pre-1960 Writers on Art Named in This Book Acknowledgments A Note on the Text Preface 1 Lawren Stewart Harris, Europe, and the Bodhisattva in the Next Room Lawren S. Harris, Review of Romain Rolland’s book Mahatma Gandhi and his exchange with John D. Sinclair, 1925 W.G.M., “A Subscriber Writes of the Group Show,” Canadian Bookman, June 1926 From an anonymous editorial comment on the Société Anonyme exhibition, Canadian Forum, 1927 Anonymous, from “Classifying Canadian Art,” Canadian Bookman, 1927 Lawrence Mason, from “‘Modern Art’ Displayed in International Exhibit at Toronto Art Gallery,” The Globe, 1927 Lawren S. Harris, from “Modern Art and Aesthetic Reactions: An Appreciation,” 1927 Lawren S. Harris, from “Creative Art and Canada,” Supplement to the McGill News, 1928 Lawren S. Harris, from “Theosophy and Art,” Canadian Theosophist, 1933 2 Discovering David Milne Donald W. Buchanan, from “David B. Milne,” 1935 David Milne, letters to Alice Massey, 1935 Graham McInnes on a Milne Exhibition, from his art column in Saturday Night, 1935 Graham McInnes on another Milne exhibition, from his Saturday Night art column, 1936 David Milne, from a letter to Donald Buchanan on the subject of Buchanan’s biography of Morrice, 1937 A Coda: Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau on Milne, from a letter to Maurice Hébert, 1935 3 Emily Carr and the Wordless Speech of Things Emily Carr, from the journals written during and after her 1927 trip to Ontario Emily Carr, from a talk given in Victoria, 1930 Emily Carr, from the 1930–1934 journals, with letters from Lawren S. Harris From Emily Carr’s later journals, 1935–1937 4 The Spanish Civil War and the Moral Duty of Artists Statement for the Montreal exhibition of Fritz Brandtner’s paintings, 1936 Henri Girard, from “La vie artistique – Fritz Brandtner,” 1936 Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, “Chronique des beaux-arts: Louis Muhlstock,” 1936 Charles Comfort, “Where I Stand on Spain,” 1936 Frank H. Underhill, from a review of The Yearbook of the Arts in Canada, 1936 Elizabeth Wyn Wood, from “Art and the Pre-Cambrian Shield,” 1937 Paraskeva Clark, from “Come Out From Behind the Pre-Cambrian Shield,” 1937 Walter Abell, from Representation and Form, 1936 G. Campbell (Graham) McInnes, “New Horizons in Canadian Art,” 1937 Norman Bethune, from “An Apology for Not Writing Letters,” 1936 5 Defending Art vivant in Montreal Henri Girard, from “At Scott and Sons Gallery, J.W. Morrice,” 1933 John Lyman, from “Morrice – The Shadow and the Substance,” 1937 Jean-Charles Harvey, “In Literature, in Art, to Be Free or Not to Be,” 1937 Jacques de Tonnancour, from “Views from the Promised Land,” 1940 Julien Hébert, “Pellan,” 1941 Marcel Parizeau, from “Canadian Painting Today,” 1942 Paul-Émile Borduas, from “Ways of Savouring a Work of Art,” 1943 Fernand Leduc, “Borduas,” 1943 Françoise Sullivan, from “Feminine Art,” 1943 Jacques G. de Tonnancour, from “Roberts,” 1943 6 The War and New Cultural Order Robert Ayre, from “Exhibition of ‘Art of Our Day’ by Contemporary Arts Society Found Haunting and Significant,” 1940 Walter Abell, from “Art and Democracy,” 1941 John Grierson, from “Documentary Idea, 1942” Ernst Neumann, from “Some Ideas on Painting,” 1942 Miller Brittain, “Art To-day,” 1942 Frederick B. Taylor, from “Painting War Production,” 1943 Paraskeva Clark, from “Thoughts on Canadian Painting,” 1943 Pegi Nicol MacLeod, “Recording the Women’s Services,” 1945 7 The Automatistes, True Poets Thérèse Renaud, “Poem,” 1945 Rémi-Paul Forgues, “Surrealism in Montreal,” 1945 Bruno Cormier, “For Modern Thought,” 1945 Fernand Leduc, “All New Consciousness ...” 1946 Claude Gauvreau, from “Revolution at the Contemporary Arts Society,” 1946 Madeleine Gariépy, “Riopelle,” 1947 Josephine Hambleton, from “A Canadian Painter of Vision,” 1948 Paul-Émile Borduas, letter to Josephine Hambleton, 1948 Paul-Émile Borduas, from Refus global, 1948 8 Cold War Culture Miller Brittain, “A Note by the Artist,” 1949 Alex Colville, Statement, 1951 Agnès Lefort, from “Reflections of a Picture Seller,” 1951 Jack Shadbolt, from “Recent British Columbia Paintings and the Contemporary Tradition,” 1951 Alexandra Luke and Jock Macdonald, statements from Canadian Abstract Exhibition, 1952 Manifesto of the Plasticiens, 1955 Guido Molinari, from “The Tachiste Space or the Automatist Situation,” 1955 James A. Houston, from “In Search of Contemporary Eskimo Art,” 1952 Marshall McLuhan, from “Notes on the Media as Art Forms,” 1954 Notes Bibliography Index "A window onto the perspectives of Canadian artists during three eventful decades of local and global history. From the Roaring Twenties and the Group of Seven to the Automatistes and the early Cold War, Canadian artists lived through and embodied an era of global tumult and change. With an interweaving of historical narrative, lavish illustrations, and writings by many of Canada's most revered cultural figures, Lora Senechal Carney illuminates the lives, perspectives, and works of the era's painters and provides glimpses of the sculptors, poets, dancers, critics, and filmmakers with whom they associated. Canadian Painters in a Modern World gives readers direct access to a carefully curated selection of writings, artwork, photos, and other documents that help to reconstruct the public spheres in which artists including Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Alex Colville, Lawren Harris, David Milne, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod circulated. Each of the book's eight chapters consists of a narrative about a key issue or debate, consistently focusing on the relationship of art to politics and society, and on how these are negotiated in an individual's life. Relating artistic engagement with and responses to the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and the Cold War, Senechal Carney discovers a common desire for new connections between art and life before the atomic era. Revealing continuities, ruptures, and watershed moments, Canadian Painters in a Modern World showcases artistic production within specific socio-political contexts to shed new light on Canadian art during three decades of conflict and crisis."--Résumé de l'éditeur "A window onto the perspectives of Canadian artists during three eventful decades of local and global history. From the Roaring Twenties and the Group of Seven to the Automatistes and the early Cold War, Canadian artists lived through and embodied an era of global tumult and change. With an interweaving of historical narrative, lavish illustrations, and writings by many of Canada's most revered cultural figures, Lora Senechal Carney illuminates the lives, perspectives, and works of the era's painters and provides glimpses of the sculptors, poets, dancers, critics, and filmmakers with whom they associated. Canadian Painters in a Modern World gives readers direct access to a carefully curated selection of writings, artwork, photos, and other documents that help to reconstruct the public spheres in which artists including Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Alex Colville, Lawren Harris, David Milne, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod circulated. Each of the book's eight chapters consists of a narrative about a key issue or debate, consistently focusing on the relationship of art to politics and society, and on how these are negotiated in an individual's life. Relating artistic engagement with and responses to the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and the Cold War, Senechal Carney discovers a common desire for new connections between art and life before the atomic era. Revealing continuities, ruptures, and watershed moments, Canadian Painters in a Modern World showcases artistic production within specific socio-political contexts to shed new light on Canadian art during three decades of conflict and crisis."-- Provided by publisher From the Roaring Twenties and the Group of Seven to the Automatistes and the early Cold War, Canadian artists lived through and embodied an era of global tumult and change. With an interweaving of historical narrative, lavish illustrations, and writings by many of Canada's most revered cultural figures, Lora Senechal Carney illuminates the lives, perspectives, and works of the era's painters and provides glimpses of the sculptors, poets, dancers, critics, and filmmakers with whom they associated. Canadian Painters in a Modern World gives readers direct access to a carefully curated selection of writings, artworks, photos, and other documents that help to reconstruct the public spheres in which artists including Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Alex Colville, Lawren Harris, David Milne, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod circulated. Each of the book's eight chapters consists of a narrative about a key issue or debate, focusing on the relationship of art to politics and society, and on how these are negotiated in an individual's life. Relating artistic engagement with and responses to the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and the Cold War, Senechal Carney discovers a common desire for new connections between art and life. Revealing continuities, ruptures, and watershed moments, Canadian Painters in a Modern World showcases artistic production within specific socio-political contexts to shed new light on Canadian art during three decades of conflict and crisis.