[Bcma-l] Media Release Kamloops Art Gallery - Cities of Canada in Kamloops

[bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	Media Release Kamloops Art Gallery - Cities of Canada in Kamloops
Date: 	Fri, 5 Jan 2007 13:07:53 -0800



*MEDIA RELEASE*

For immediate release from

Kamloops Art Gallery


January 5, 2007

* *

*Cities of Canada in Kamloops*

Charles Fraser Comfort /Edmonton//, skyline of the north/

1951, McCord Museum, Montreal

The Kamloops Art Gallery is delighted to host */Cities of Canada: The 
Seagram Collection/*, a touring exhibition from Montreal’s prestigious 
McCord Museum, from January 21 to March 18, 2007. A fascinating journey 
into our nation’s past, /Cities of Canada /is drawn from an original 
exhibition of paintings from the 1950s, commissioned by the legendary 
Canadian businessman Samuel Bronfman, head of the Seagram whiskey 
empire. The exhibition at the Kamloops Art Gallery features 39 striking 
historical paintings of Canadian cities, guaranteed to inspire both 
nostalgia and pride in our nation’s progress.

*/ /*

The paintings in /Cities of Canada/ were made by a variety of well-known 
and emerging Canadian artists in the 1950s, and were commissioned by 
Bronfman as part of the whisky baron’s attempt to dispel what he 
regarded as the false stereotype of Canada as a vast, untamed 
wilderness. His touring show of 90 commissioned paintings of urban 
centres traveled to London, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Stockholm, The Hague, 
Madrid, Loest (West Germany), San Juan, Havana, Mexico City, Caracas, 
Rio de Janiero, Sao Paolo, Buenos Aires, Montevideo, as well as across 
Canada. The itinerary for this Canadian exhibition was unprecedented in 
its time. Many of the remarkable paintings selected for the current 
exhibition had not been displayed in public since 1967 until last year, 
when /Cities of Canada: The Seagram Collection/ opened at the McCord 
Museum.

Curated by Ihor Holubizky for the McCord Museum, this incarnation of 
/Cities of Canada/ revisits key works from its namesake exhibition, 
examines the unique moment of their creation, and links them to Canada’s 
emerging presence on the post-war global scene. A new Canadian identity 
was emerging in the 1950s, with a booming population and unprecedented 
growth of cities, and the paintings in /Cities of Canada/ reflect this 
shifting character. Among the works in this collection are paintings by 
such recognizable artists as A.Y. Jackson, Robert Pilot, Goodridge 
Roberts, and Frederick B. Taylor.

The Kamloops Art Gallery’s presentation of /Cities of Canada: The 
Seagram Collection/ provides residents of the Interior and visitors to 
the region with a rare opportunity to view these special works and to 
revisit, some 50 years later, the extraordinary circumstances that first 
brought them into being.

/Cities of Canada: The Seagram Collection/ is made possible through the 
generosity of The Seagram Company Ltd. Presentation of this exhibition 
in Kamloops is made possible with assistance from the Museums Assistance 
Program Department of Canadian Heritage.

Sponsored by Simmons, Black and Emsland Insurance Services

Media Sponsors: Kamloops Daily News, and Radio NL & 97.5 The River

-30-

Please direct all media inquiries to James Gordon, Marketing and 
Communications Coordinator, Kamloops Art Gallery, (250) 377-2403, or 
jgordon@kag.bc.ca <mailto:jgordon@kag.bc.ca>