Painted Past: a History of Canadian Painting from the Collection

Painted Past: A History of Canadian Painting from the Collection Paul Peel Reading the Future, 1883 oil on canvas Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery Gift of Mr. F. M. Southam TEACHER’S STUDY GUIDE FALL 2014 1 Contents Page Program Information and Goals ................................................................................................................. 3 Background to the Exhibition Painted Past ............................................................................................... 4 Artists’ Background ..................................................................................................................................... 6 Pre- and Post-Visit Activities 1. About the Artists ..................................................................................................................... 10 Artist Information Sheet ........................................................................................................ 11 Student Worksheet ................................................................................................................ 13 2. Working in the Open Air ......................................................................................................... 14 3. Partner Portraits ..................................................................................................................... 16 4. Idealized Landscapes............................................................................................................. 18 Vocabulary ................................................................................................................................................. 19 Resources .................................................................................................................................................. 21 2 Vancouver Art Gallery Teacher’s Guide for School Programs Composed of works from the Gallery's permanent collection, the exhibition Painted Past: A History of Canadian Painting from the Collection traces the history of traditional Western painting in Canada from the mid-nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries, through three sections: Landscape, Portraiture and Cityscape. The exhibition is the first survey of historical Canadian painting selected from the Gallery’s collection in more than four decades, and features works by prominent artists such as B.C. Binning, Emily Carr and members of the Group of Seven, among other historical and contemporary artists. DEAR TEACHER: This guide will assist you in preparing for your tour of the exhibition Painted Past: A History of Canadian Painting. It also provides follow-up activities to facilitate discussion after your Gallery visit. Engaging in the suggested activities before and after your visit will reinforce ideas generated by the tour and build continuity between the Gallery experience and your ongoing work in the classroom. Most activities require few materials and can be adapted easily to the age, grade level and needs of your students. Underlined words in this guide are defined in the Vocabulary section. The tour of Painted Past has three main goals: • to introduce students to the work of historical and contemporary Canadian artists, • to consider diverse artistic traditions and disciplines, • to explore individual artworks within historical, social and cultural contexts. 3 THE EXHIBITION: Painted Past: A History of Canadian Painting from the Collection The Vancouver Art Gallery has the most important collection of Canadian art in British Columbia. Featuring works from the Gallery’s permanent collection, Painted Past traces the history of traditional Western painting in Canada over the past century and a half and includes both historical and contemporary Canadian artists. Although this period of painting in Canada initially responded to international artistic trends, its evolution throughout history has included the development of a style distinct to this country. This exhibition demonstrates the enormous range of unique painterly expressions that have, over decades, come to represent our landscape, people and cities. The exhibition is divided into three sections: Landscape, Portraiture and Cityscape. Section 1: The Canadian Landscape At the end of the nineteenth century, Canadian artists of European descent looked to England and continental Europe for inspiration, early painters having either immigrated to Canada or sought training abroad. As a result, their landscape paintings were rendered in a traditional academic style and were romantic, picturesque depictions that were variations on popular traditions of English, French and Dutch works. Consequently, landscapes of dark colour palettes, atmospheric qualities and Dutch themes dominated Canadian painting. The assertion of a distinct Canadian style became more important in the early twentieth century. After World War I, artists began to oppose European themes and influence; they sought to create art that would be particular to this nation and its people. In 1920 the Group of Seven exhibited their bold, colourful paintings for the first time, in work that captured the unique character of Canada’s wilderness through a direct expression of the spirit of the landscape. By the late 1920s the Group had come to define Canadian art through their paintings, and subsequent generations of landscape artists continued to develop their Modernist directions through their own unique interpretations. By the 1930s, individual artists such as Lawren Harris were experimenting with abstract forms and indirectly influenced and encouraged the following generation of artists, who went on to explore abstract themes. Following World War II, the Canadian landscape continued to be a subject of interest for many Canadian painters, as they developed a wide range of styles. Section 2: Portraiture Portraiture has been central to Western art for centuries, and was historically popular among the upper echelons of society to show social prestige. This genre first became fashionable in Canada in the 1780s as a growing wealthy class began to show a new interest in collecting paintings. By 1890, almost every Canadian artist aspired to study in Paris, and as a result many produced portraiture in a traditional academic style, creating highly finished naturalistic works that had enormous popular appeal. 4 Eventually, with the development of a distinctly Canadian style of painting asserted by the Group of Seven and other artists who sought independence from the authority of European painting in the early twentieth century, there would be a clear shift in painterly techniques as portraits were made in a more interpretive style. By the mid-twentieth century, the status of the naturalistic portrait had been undermined as artists challenged the belief that a realistic resemblance to a living model was an appropriate representation of identity, and works moved further toward abstraction. However, portraiture has never disappeared; figurative images of individuals throughout the twentieth century provided an effective way to explore personal identity. Section 3: The Cityscape The subject matter of the cityscape has played a less important role in the history of Canadian art than scenes of the natural environment. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, artists did not distinguish between landscape and cityscape, as both were seen as part of the same artistic tradition. By the turn of the twentieth century, Canada was dramatically expanding in urban development as millions migrated to cities, and settlements flourished along railway routes. Urban scenes were among the earliest scenes painted by Canadian artists at this time. Painters recorded their new physical surroundings in a straightforward way that sometimes seemed idealized to those outside Canada. Despite their focus on nature, members of the Group of Seven and their contemporaries occasionally produced works based on urban environments in which they lived, adapting their Modernist forms of expression to this subject. The city was of particular interest to Lawren Harris, for example, who produced a number of paintings of Toronto’s residential row houses, ordinary subjects that at the time were considered distasteful as art. Vancouver’s abstract painters in the 1950s were particularly interested in the pervasive nature of the surroundings that they lived in and experienced. Jack Shadbolt, whose works were surrealist in style, focused on his responses to colours and points of view derived from memory. Gordon Smith’s cityscapes were similarly concerned with re-creating an experience and mood of the environment as he stylized forms into abstract cityscapes. 5 ARTISTS’ BACKGROUND The following background information highlights some of the artists whose may be explored in the school tour. B.C. Binning (1909–1976) B.C. Binning was born in Alberta but lived in Vancouver for most of his life. He had planned on becoming an architect, but during an extended period of illness he began to draw and turned his attention to the study of art instead. After attending the Vancouver School of Art, he travelled with his wife to England and America to pursue his studies in art. Binning’s subject matter was clearly influenced by his passions. He returned to the subject of the sea and marine life repeatedly over the years, even as his work became increasingly abstract. His lyrical compositions, informed by his love of architecture, always retained balance, harmony and order. He used pattern, colour, texture and

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