Masterpieces of Canadian Art from the National Gallery of Canada

Patricia Morley is a professor of English and Canadian Studies at
Concordia University, an associate fellow of the Simone de Beauvoir
Institute, and author of Margaret Laurence: The Long Journey Home.

This beautiful book, a fitting tribute to the genius of Canadian
painters, marks the second anniversary of the new National Gallery,
where Canadian works are displayed far more effectively than before.

Burnett, a leading authority on Canadian art, was the Art Gallery of
Ontario’s curator of contemporary Canadian art from 1980 to 1984. He
has arranged numerous exhibitions and authored many publications on the
topic.

His selection of Canadian works includes 113 full-color illustrations
by almost 90 artists. They span more than 200 years, from early masters
such as Paul Kane, Cornelius Kreighoff, Frederick Verner, Lucius
O’Brien, William Brymner, Robert Harris, and George Reid to recent
multimedia artists such as Liz Magor.

Landscape painters from the first half of this century—such as
Morrice, Suzor-Coté, MacDonald, Thomson, Harris, Jackson, Varley,
Lismer, Johnston, and Carr—remind us of the vigor of this tradition in
Canada.

Portraiture and figure painting is equally strong if less well known:
witness Holgate, Heward, Clark, and Lemieux. The moderns—Riopelle,
Town, Colville, et al.—are also well represented.

Burnett’s selection is relatively balanced, despite the inevitable
omissions that will irk individual readers, and the equally inevitable
focus on male artists. Why Christopher, for example, and not Mary Pratt?
Hundreds of years of chauvinism cannot be undone in a generation, but
Burnett has made a start by including women painters such as Carr,
Heward, Goodwin, Wieland, and Gathie Falk.

The text, set opposite the paintings and sometimes continuing to a
second and even a third page, is clear, helpful, rarely dull. Burnett
gives us the original meaning of masterpiece in Dutch or
German—namely, the individual work by which a craftsman was judged
qualified to pursue his trade. Later, the term came to mean a diploma
work, the price of admission to a select group.

The book is proof positive that the Canadian tradition of painting has
come of age. Well written, beautifully produced, and skillfully
selected, it is a showcase for that tradition and for the National
Gallery of Canada.