Canadian Art: From Its Beginnings to 2000

Thomas M.F. Gerry is a professor of English at Laurentian University. He
is the editor of Arachne, Laurentian University’s bilingual
interdisciplinary journal of language and literature.

Featuring the work of 300 Canadian artists, this book is a joy to
experience. The photographs of the art works are superb. The brief
annotations for each artist and work illustrated are stimulating and
often insightful.

In her preface, Anne Newlands explains the process by which the 300
artists included in the book were chosen. Wishing to select from “our
finest artists,” she had to contend with thousands of years and the
multitude of Canada’s regions. She also aimed to make conscious the
continuities in artistic production over time in the various regions.
Further, she included a variety of media, although oil on canvas
predominates. Having cast such a wide net, Newlands found herself in the
predicament of having to pick one (or two, in 26 cases) of each
artist’s works. As she says, each work is a “glimpse into a lifetime
of creative expression,” not a summing up.

Newlands contends that the alphabetic arrangement of the artists (by
last name) creates possibilities for new connections among them, an
arrangement that departs from the “standard linear narrative of
traditional art histories.” Newlands’s strategy is based on her
belief that “Looking at art is an active and creative process that
demands opening oneself to new worlds and new ways of seeing.” So, for
example, amid a set of the Group of Seven’s works, the reader/viewer
is presented with the paintings and annotation of Lionel Lemoine
Fitzgerald whose work, we are told, mysteriously, was “part of the
1932 Group of Seven exhibition,” even though he was not one of the
Seven. In other words, the alphabetical arrangement really does foster
an opening of opportunities for further exploration.

This wonderful book has much to offer both those familiar with Canadian
art and newcomers to the scene. Highly recommended for home and school
libraries.