Peter Doig
Clair Joy
Janice Kerbal
Mark Lewis
Susan Morris
Alex Morrison
Annie Poulin
20.09.03-26.10.03
Private View: 19 September 2003, 7.00-9.00 pm
Group of Seven 1. a Canadian art movement, officially
formed in 1920 by seven artists, that found inspiration in the landscapes
of northern Ontario to represent the unique character of Canada. A gallery
dedicated to the Group was opened in Kleinberg, Ontario, in 1966. 2. the
seven leading industrial nations outside the communist bloc, i.e. the
US, Japan, Germany, France, the UK, Italy, and Canada.
(The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991)
(The Oxford Encyclopedic English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1991)
The Group of Seven was presented to me in art history lectures as the entirety of the history of Canadian art. Growing up with the (mostly British born) Group of Seven's romantic vision of the Canadian ‘wilderness’ as the pinnacle of Canadian art history I, like most Canadian (art) students developed a healthy scepticism around the contested issue of Canadian identity in which landscape plays no small role.
This show takes as it’s starting point work by contemporary artists that deal with landscape, predominantly, but not exclusively the Canadian landscape.
The title is both a tribute to the Group of Seven and a way of underlining the fact that Canadian Art (and art made about the Canadian landscape) now aims towards a more complex and political relationship to the landscape than it did at the turn of the last century.
Because of the feelings of unease I share with other Canadians in front of representations of our landscape, or more specifically, with the role these images are given in the construction of the mythology of our nation's identity. I have thought perhaps the subtitle to the show should be 'Exorcising Ghosts'. However, I do not want to be exorcised of the undoubted beauty of the work of the painters but perhaps only of the hegemony they came to represent... so the title remains just ‘Group of Seven’.
For further information please call Sheila Lawson on 020 7375 2973.
