Celebrating half-century at McMichael Gallery

Yorkregion.com
Nov. 19, 2015
By Adam Martin-Robbins

Fifty years ago, this Wednesday, Robert and Signe McMichael finalized a major donation that transformed Kleinburg into a mecca for lovers of Canadian art, especially the works of Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven.

On Nov. 18, 1965, the couple signed the donation agreement gifting their collection of 194 paintings as well as their log home, called Tapawingo, and 10-acres of land to the Ontario government.

To mark the occasion, the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, which officially opened its doors in July 1966, has launched a new exhibition dubbed A Foundation for Fifty Years: McMichael Masterworks.

It features 26 paintings - 19 belonging to the McMichaels plus seven from fellow art collectors and the artists themselves, all of which were donated in the gallery’s founding year.

“A community really came together to create a public art collection that would celebrate Canadian art,” Chief Curator Sarah Stanners said. “It’s not just about one couple, it’s about many friends and supportive artists wanting to create a special place for Canadian art.”

Among the artworks on display are paintings by some of Canada’s pre-eminent Modernist landscape painters such as Thomson and several founding members of the Group of Seven - Lawren S. Harris, A.Y. Jackson, J.E.H. MacDonald, Arthur Lismer, and F.H. Varley - as well as A.J. Casson, Emily Carr and David Milne.

The exhibition’s centrepiece is Jackson’s gloomy First Snow, Algoma.

Created after he returned from fighting in the First World War, it depicts snow falling from a grey sky onto a desolate, rolling landscape with a half dozen charred, gnarled tree trunks in the foreground.

“It dates to 1919/1920, a very important year, the war has ended and he’s about to embark on this new Group of Seven with fellow painting friends,” Stanners said. “This is a Canadian scene, this is Algoma, but it has this kind of afterthought of the war - the notion of desolation; the notion of after destruction there can be renewal.”

Tom Thomson fans won’t be disappointed, as there are four works in the show by the influential painter, who is arguably as famous for his mysterious death in Algonquin Park as for his large, lush oil paintings.

The exhibition includes Black Spruce in Autumn; Algonquin Park, September; Algonquin, October and In Algonquin Park, from 1914, considered one of the McMichael’s “shining master works.”

“I think one of the factors that makes Tom Thomson so popular is, certainly, the story of the artist - it’s engaging,” Stanners said. “(People) have heard the story so much that they can then relate to it. My responsibility here, I believe, in working at the McMichael is to create more stories.”

The show also includes the first painting the McMichaels purchased, in 1955, Montreal River by Lawren Harris.
It’s one of five Harris paintings on display.

J.E.H MacDonald is also well represented with four paintings.

Fans of his artwork will be pleased to hear that the McMichael is planning a “major retrospective” show to take place in 2018.

“I think that his paintings ... they’re very strong in colour, his wrist, his actual application of the paint is compelling,” Stanners said. “We just need to show those strong artworks in tandem with painting the story of his life and it will draw people in.”

The McMichael gallery, which today houses 6,000 works of art, has some big plans for next year to celebrate the 50th anniversary of its official opening.

“Our tone for our 50th is to say thank you, to show gratitude and encourage gifts,” Stanners said.

Among the shows being planned is a special installation, to be unveiled June 4, called Past Future Perfect Tense.

It will explore what was happening on the Canadian art scene 100 years ago, in 1916, and 50 years ago, in 1966, Stanners said.

“I’m going to be diving into particular years like time capsules.”