Confessions of a Curator: Adventures in Canadian Art

Patricia Morley is professor emerita of English and Canadian studies at
Concordia University, and the author of Kurlek, Margaret Laurence: The
Long Journey Home, and As Though Life Mattered: Leo Kennedy’s Story.

This intimate and very personal look at Canadian art history and the
business of a curator’s life reflects a feminist principle, that the
personal is political, as well as new ideas in literary and cultural
theory. The witty introductory chapter, “Who Was Joan Murray?,”
parodies What Was Literature?, and Leslie Fiedler’s postmodernist
exploration of self and methodology.

Murray, who is Director of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, has
written 11 books on Canadian art. Confessions of a Curator is her freest
work to date. With humor and insight, she writes about her childhood in
New York, “in a home stuffed with art”; her apprenticeship in
curating at the Art Gallery of Ontario; and her career at the Robert
McLaughlin Gallery. She also writes about “empowerment” for the
Canadian woman artist, and about what makes Canadian art “Canadian.”

Confessions is an innovative exploration of Canadian art and culture,
as well as being an intriguing personal memoir that conveys both charm
and depth.