"A Story of Canadian Art": As Told by the Hart House Collection

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Hart House Art Collection, University of Toronto.

"Young Canadian"

Charles Comfort, "Young Canadian," 1932, watercolour on paper, 92 x 107.3 cm.

Kelowna audiences will have the rare opportunity to see paintings by nine members of the Group of Seven (who actually numbered ten artists before they expanded to form the Canadian Group of Painters in 1932), as well as by Tom Thomson, David Milne, and other artists active in the early to mid-twentieth century. These include an impressive number of women artists, including Prudence Heward, Lilias Torrance Newton, Paraskeva Clark, Kathleen Morris, and Bess and Yvonne Housser. Works by these women painters have never previously been exhibited in Kelowna.

As one might expect, about half of the paintings in the exhibition depict landscape subjects, but perhaps surprisingly, there are eight portraits, three still lifes, three urban scenes, and one abstract as well. In fact the time frame of the exhibition spans the period of the Great Depression, when many Canadian artists turned from wilderness landscape material to exploring social issues in their work.

Independent curator Dr Christine Boyanoski has structured the exhibition and has written the text in the beautiful catalogue that accompanies the show.

A Story of Canadian Art is organized and circulated by the Justina M Barnicke Gallery (Hart House, University of Toronto, Canada). The exhibition is financially supported by the Museums Assistance Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Opening Reception

Friday, May 8, 2015

This is a free event, open to members and guests by invitation.