Portraits in Time — Canada’S Cities Through the Eyes of Artistic Beholders

PORTRAITS IN TIME — CANADA’S CITIES THROUGH THE EYES OF ARTISTIC BEHOLDERS Ihor Holubizky Fifty years ago, the Cities of Canada exhibition commissioned by Seagram visited 23 Canadian cities after touring internationally to impressive crowds across Europe. The Canadian artists were commissioned by whisky baron Sam Bronfman, who believed in larger “horizons of industry,” and were selected by the eminent Canadian painters Robert Pilot and A.Y. Jackson. The resulting canvases of 22 Canadian cities constitute a unique Canadian collection, which has now been donated by Charles Bronfman to the McCord Museum of History at McGill University, where its mid- February opening coincides with the Bonfman-endowed McGill Institute for the Study of Canada’s conference on cities. Ihor Holubizky, who has curated the exhibition, looks back half a century to its corporate origins and the artists’ visions of Canada’s cities, which remain “relevant to the appreciation and understanding of Canadian art and history.” The paintings, he adds, “also underscore the complex issues of cities and urban life, then and today.” En 1954, l’exposition Villes du Canada commanditée par Seagram faisait la tournée de 23 villes du pays, un an après avoir attiré dans toute l’Europe des foules impressionnantes. Samuel Bronfman, magnat du whisky désireux d’« élargir les horizons » de son empire, avait confié aux célèbres peintres Robert Pilot et A.Y. Jackson la sélection de 22 artistes canadiens qui peindraient chacun un tableau représentant une ville différente. Charles Bronfman ayant fait don de cette collection exceptionnelle au Musée McCord d’histoire canadienne de l’Université McGill, elle y sera exposée dès la mi-février en marge d’une conférence sur le thème de la ville organisée par l’Institut d’études canadiennes de McGill, et également parrainé par le donateur. Ihor Holubizky, conservateur de l’exposition, évoque les origines de ce mécénat d’entreprise et la vision offerte par ce groupe d’artistes, restée tout aussi utile à « l’appréciation comme à la compréhension de l’histoire et de l’art canadiens ». Les tableaux, ajoute-t-il, « mettent aussi en évidence la complexité des villes et de la vie urbaine, d’hier à aujourd’hui ». n 1951, Samuel Bronfman, president of the House of St. John’s was his first time in Newfoundland, though we Seagram, commissioned 22 artists to paint the cities of might imagine that by that time he had, indeed, painted I Canada. To select the participants he relied upon the “all” of Canada. Artists were paid an average of $1,000 each expertise of artists Robert Pilot, then president of the Royal for their completed work, a significant amount of money in Canadian Academy, and A.Y. Jackson. Both had played the early 1950s. important roles in the formation of a modern vocabulary Bronfman stated on many occasions his belief that the for Canadian art in the first half of the 20th century, and “horizons of industry should not terminate at the bound- while their selection was drawn from members of the RCA, ary-lines of its plants.” This was hardly a typical view, and it also included younger artists — five of the 22 were under coming from a “captain of industry” might even be seen as the age of 40. Not all the artists painted their hometown; a self-serving platitude. Bronfman also felt that private rather, many were sent out across Canada to observe and enterprise had a responsibility to take an active part in pro- sketch firsthand. For A.Y. Jackson, the occasion of painting moting culture. An exhibition of the commissioned POLICY OPTIONS 59 FEBRUARY 2004 Ihor Holubizky paintings was organized to tour the standing of Canadian art and history. earlier. There had been a dramatic Americas and Europe in 1953-54, and, The paintings also underscore the increase in population over the 50 years in its patron’s words, brought “to the complex issues of cities and urban life, since the 1900 census, almost tripling peoples of the world...views of then and today, and should be read as to 14 million (whereas the population Canada’s cities...rising from its sea- visual-social documents. merely doubled from 1950 to 2000). coasts, in the midst of its plains, at the Sixty percent of Canadians lived in foot of its mountains.” This was fol- lthough industrial images rural areas in 1900, but by 1951 the lowed by a cross-Canada tour in 1954- A appeared in Canadian art prior to urban population was in the majority, 55. Bronfman’s vision of a new urban the First World War, the prevalent sub- almost 57 percent. This trend contin- Canada was of the land, the people, ject matter for the first half of the 20th ues, and today almost 80 percent of cities, and the will to prosper, which century remained the genres of land- Canadians live in urban areas. At the he described in a 1954 radio interview scape, portrait and still life, with beginning of the 1950s, after 20 contin- as “the sum of the nation.” abstraction just on the horizon (clear- uous years of hardship with the Great The Cities of Canada works toured ly, a different horizon than the one Depression and the global conflict of again in 1964 and made their final Samuel Bronfman saw). Cities of the Second World War, there was a major public appearance during Canada marks a shift in the depiction sense of a new social purpose, well- Centennial Year in 1967. Although an of Canada, now an emerging urban being and optimism; this despite new global tensions arising from Cities of Canada marks a shift in the depiction of Canada, now the Cold War and the war in an emerging urban nation. Industry was very much a part of Korea. Many of the artists included in Cities of Canada the Canadian landscape after the Second World War, with the had served in the military, growth of cities and suburbs, new prosperity and a general and, to state the obvious, sense of optimism. Yet the Canadian wilderness was still being had also been affected by heavily promoted as the new growth industry. That wild, the Depression. In the immediate after- rugged image endures, even though the majority of math of the war in 1946, Canadians live in cities today. the Central Mortgage and Housing Corporation held a immensely popular exhibition, it had nation. Industry was very much a part competition for the design of a small its critics. Some felt the corporate asso- of the Canadian landscape after the house that could be built for $6,000. ciation compromised the integrity of Second World War, with the growth of The three regional winning designs the work, and art historian Rosemary cities and suburbs, new prosperity and illustrated how the new post-war fam- Donegan suggested that Seagram had a general sense of optimism. Yet the ily would live and how its needs would undertaken the project as part of a pro- Canadian wilderness was still being be met with open concept living/din- motional program designed to circum- heavily promoted as the new growth ing areas, floor to ceiling windows, vent legal and moral restrictions on the industry, a destination for tourists basements with a recreation room, and advertising of liquor. She singled out from abroad but also for the modern even a fanciful helicopter landing pad one work as a “rather saccharine, Canadian family in search of leisure incorporated into the design by John abstract treatment...symbolizing the and recreation. That wild, rugged C. Parkin. A reviewing journalist wrote power and beauty of modern industry.” image endures, even though the that the post-war Canadian family was The studied disregard for these majority of Canadians live in cities different “from every other kind of paintings, which assumes they are today. A 2003 poll by the Centre for family that has ever existed,” and that tainted by a corporate vision, is a dou- Research and Information on Canada the housing designs offered “the future ble-edged problem. The art world indicated that “the vastness and beau- opportunity for the development of a often assigns merit by a formalist crite- ty of the land” is what most citizens lively Canadian vernacular art.” rion that looks beyond content, or think of as the essence of the country. In 1953, the first Canadian urban- privileges content-driven art that The 1951 census is pivotal to social engineering experiment was forms (some say, must form) a social understanding the dynamics that were launched, the suburb of Don Mills, critique. The middle ground is often changing, and continue to change, Ontario. There was no turning back. regarded as anecdotal or irrelevant pic- Canadian life and society. It was a por- In addition to the boom in resource ture-making. The Cities of Canada trait of the modern nation, the first industries and manufacturing, there was paintings have fallen into the latter conducted with 10 provinces and two unprecedented research undertaken in category. Nevertheless they remain rel- territories, as Newfoundland had the sciences and engineering — aero- evant to the appreciation and under- entered Confederation just two years nautics, for example. Consumer 60 OPTIONS POLITIQUES FÉVRIER 2004 Portraits in time — Canada’s cities through the eyes of artistic beholders The Seagram Collection, McCord Museum Montreal, looking north on McGill College to the Roddick Gates and the Arts building of McGill University. Albert Cloutier’s oil painting includes the train tunnel’s south portal, later covered up by the Montreal building boom. Many paintings in the Seagram Collection, writes Ihor Holubizky, “now serve as important historical documents of urban development, as some prominent landmarks no longer exist.” products began to re-enter the market- Victoria, BC, a distance of 7,314 km.

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