Insatallation of "Magnetic North: Imagining Canada in Painting 1910–1940" at the Schirn Kunsthalle, Frankfurt
A landmark show by the Group of Seven and other Canadian artists opens Thursday at the Schirn Kunsthalle in Frankfurt.
Sasha Suda, the director of the National Gallery, says the show offers "incredible exposure" for masterpieces from some of Canada’s key collections.
"This is a historic moment, as these prodigious works will be brought together for the very first time in Europe," she says.
Magnetic North: Imagining Canada in Painting 1910-1940 includes work by Group members Lawren Harris, J. E. H. MacDonald, A. Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, F. H. Varley, Franklin Carmichael and Franz Johnston.
The show, which comprises 87 paintings and five films, also features works by Emily Carr, Tom Thomson and others. It was organized by the National Gallery, along with Schirn Kunsthalle and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Included are two films by contemporary Indigenous artists: How a People Live, 2013, a documentary by filmmaker Lisa Jackson, and Mobilize, 2015, a short film by artist Caroline Monnet.
Stephan Jost, the director of the Art Gallery of Ontario, said he is excited to share works by the Group with a European audience.
“In paintings of sublime mountains and unspoiled nature, these artists created a romantic fiction of uninhabited wilderness," he says. "This exhibition boldly infuses these works with contemporary relevance, offering visitors the opportunity to see these modern paintings through the eyes of contemporary Indigenous artists.”
The show will subsequently be hosted by the Kunsthal in Rotterdam in the fall.
Last year marked the 100th anniversary of the Group’s first exhibition in Canada.
Works in the show are drawn primarily from the collections of the National Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario, with 23 and 38 paintings respectively. Other works come from the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Library and Archives Canada, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Ottawa Art Gallery, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and elsewhere.
An illustrated catalogue is available in English, French and German.
Source: National Gallery of Canada