Tom Thomson: North Star

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Tom Thomson, “Petawawa Gorges,” 1916

oil on wood panel, 21.4 × 26.5 cm (McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Purchased with funds donated by Major F.A. Tilston, V.C.)

Tom Thomson’s catalytic achievement changed the face of Canadian painting forever. The subject of many catalogues, books, plays, musical compositions, films and exhibitions, Thomson has a canonical place in Canadian culture, and each generation must reckon with his legacy anew, bringing to bear the fresh perspectives of their time. Gathering selected works from the leading collections of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection and the National Gallery of Canada, as well as a host of other Canadian museums and private collections, Tom Thomson: North Star, organized and circulated by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, will provide a fresh view of one of Canada’s most incandescent talents for audiences across the country.

This will be an account of Thomson fit for the 21st century, offering a close look at Thomson’s legacy, focusing on the small en plein air oil sketch, of which he is the supreme master.

“With Thomson, because the career is so brief—really less than four years—it is less of an arc and more of an explosion,” says Ian A.C. Dejardin, co-curator of the exhibition. “What will be key is to learn more about the sparks that set it off.” Co-curators Ian Dejardin and Sarah Milroy, Executive Director and Chief Curator of the McMichael, will organize Thomson’s oil sketches both by chronology and by theme, paring away the inessential to get at the essence of his vision, and isolating moments of artistic experimentation.

The major, fully illustrated colour catalogue will include essays by Ian A.C. Dejardin, Sarah Milroy, Algonquin historian Christine McRae Luckasavitch, and cultural historian Douglas Hunter, as well as appreciations of Thomson’s paintings by contemporary Canadian artists Ben Reeves, Sandra Meigs, and Zachari Logan, all of whom are engaged with Thomson’s artistic legacy.