[Bcma-l] Media Release Kamloops Art Gallery - Canadian Masterpieces in Art and Society

[bcma-l@museumsassn.bc.ca]

MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release from
Kamloops Art Gallery

January 15, 2008
/ /
/Art and Society: /
Masterpieces of
modern Canadian art**
***
*from National Gallery of Canada

Pataskala Clark /Petroushka/, 1937

National Gallery of Canada

Photo © NGC © Clive and Benedict Clark

The Kamloops Art Gallery is once again proud to present another 
outstanding traveling exhibition organized by the National Gallery of 
Canada: */Art and Society in Canada 1913-1950/*. /Art and Society /is on 
at the Kamloops Art Gallery from January 20 to March 16, 2008. This 
exhibition includes approximately 45 works of art by many of Canada’s 
most well-known artists from the first half of the twentieth century. At 
that time, many artists, dedicated to the ideals of nationalism, 
political awareness and a liberated society, believed that art could 
powerfully affect and shape society. This exhibit explores three 
distinct artistic approaches that played important roles in shaping 
Canadian art: the Group of Seven, the Social Realists and Les Automatistes.

During the 1920s, members of the Group of Seven, such as AY Jackson, 
Lawren Harris, and Franklin Carmichael, argued that the idea of “North” 
was central to Canadian identity and that artists should explore, paint, 
and validate the northern landscape for Canadians. In their view, art 
was a means of revealing the spiritual values of nature, which they felt 
crucial to the emerging national identity.

For the generation that emerged in the 1930s, art had a more direct role 
in confronting the political, economic and social crises of their time. 
Claiming that earlier ideals were "escapist," the Social Realists sought 
to reflect the social, political, and economic issues of the day and 
resist what they felt were increasing threats to freedom. During this 
period, organizations such as the Federation of Canadian Artists and the 
Labour Arts Guild promoted the integration of art and society.

In the 1940s, the Quebec-based group Les Automatists, which included 
such renowned artists as Paul-Emile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle, 
rejected the Social Realists’ preoccupation with subject matter. 
Inspired by Surrealism, they associated the spontaneity of automatic 
painting with personal liberation and believed that their art could 
create a New World. Their goals were summarized in the 1948 manifesto 
“/Refus global”/ in which Fernand Leduc called for "works of art sister 
to the atom bomb."

Presentation of this exhibition in Kamloops is made possible in part 
through a grant from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of 
Canada Heritage and with support from the Mapping Quality of Life and 
the Cultural Future of Small Cities CURA, a community-university 
research alliance sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities 
Research Council of Canada. The media sponsor is Radio NL.

The Gallery is open seven days a week and until 9 pm on Thursdays. Their 
website, www,kag.bc.ca, has all admission time and price details.

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