Maud Lewis
to
Art Gallery of Alberta 2 Winston Churchill Square, Edmonton, Alberta T5J 2C1
Maud Lewis, "Three Black Cats," n.d.
oil on masonite, 12" x 15.75" ($36,800 - May 2017 at Consignor)
The AGA special Members’ Preview will feature remarks from Mayor Amarjeet Sohi, AGA Adjunct Curator of Indigenous Art MJ Belcourt Moses and Executive Director Catherine Crowston at 6:20pm. The public will have access to the opening from 7:30 to 9:30pm.
One of Canada’s most beloved folk artists, Maud Lewis (1903–1970) was famous in her lifetime for her brightly coloured and endearing paintings of rural Nova Scotia. Working from her cabin on the side of the highway in Marshalltown, in Digby County, she produced hundreds of small works that captured aspects of country life that were rapidly changing.
Until now, the story of her difficult life has dominated the discussion of her art: her triumph over her physical disabilities and poverty, the harsh treatment she received at the hands of her family, and her alliance by chance with her husband Everett Lewis, who enabled her successful painting career over many decades. This show, however, will stress the aesthetic aspect of Maud Lewis’s achievement, looking carefully at her serial repetition of images and motifs across her career, and the dizzying variety that she brings to the problem of picture-making. From her black cats and kittens to her cart horses and oxen hauling logs, to her quayside scenes of ships in port and the Maritime landscape in all seasons, Maud Lewis made paintings that still delight in their optimism and buoyant vitality.
The exhibition is made possible through loans from leading Nova Scotian private collections, and features many works never before seen in public museums.
This exhibition was organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada.
Ce projet est financé en partie par le gouvernement du Canada.
Curator:
Sarah Milroy is Chief Curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and a champion of the art of Canada, both historic and contemporary. She served as The Globe and Mail’s lead art critic from 2001 to 2011, having started working for The Globe as a freelancer covering visual arts in Vancouver in 1996. Before that, from 1984 to 1996 she worked with Canadian Art magazine, latterly as editor and publisher. During her years at Canadian Art, Milroy contributed regularly to the CBC as a visual arts correspondent.
More recently, Sarah co-curated four major exhibitions in collaboration with McMichael Executive Director, Ian Dejardin, which toured both nationally and internationally: From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia (2015, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Art Gallery of Ontario); Vanessa Bell (2016, Dulwich Picture Gallery); David Milne: Modern Painting (2018, Dulwich Picture Gallery, Vancouver Art Gallery and McMichael Canadian Art Collection); and Into the Light: Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald (2019, McMichael Canadian Art Collection and Winnipeg Art Gallery).