Page 61 - Studio International - March 1968

the innocent dignity and gentle radiance of the that of the European bohemian in his garret, the These painters, internationalists before their time,
tradition and by some impressive works of art. roistering, inspired urban outcast. Patriotic devo- forerunners of the 'moderns', possess, without any
This limitation is some loss to Mr Harper's theme tion was accorded to the Group of Seven and trademarks of a national brand, many of those
which is throughout that of a search for artistic popular admiration for their robust personalities attributes one comes to find in Canadians as one
expression that shall be specifically Canadian. His and their crusading platform contributed, in hears them talking about their own country—a
interest seizes on the artist who goes 'beyond mere Canada, to effervescent enthusiasm for the idea of modesty of stance, an undogmatic view of what the
imitation' and creates work with a 'Canadian art in general, to an astonishingly comprehensive truth might be, a distrust of glibness, all of which
character'. He admires those artists who record victory for the thesis that there must be art. In make them so bad at advertising themselves.
some aspect of Canada for the first time, who prove Britain, unhappily, it prolonged the suspicion that Ability to survive in the woods of course, the kind
that Canada can sustain artists, who are ensuring Canadian art need not be seen outside Canada, of toughness that doesn't have to show like Super-
that art shall be a built-in part of the society in is a part of being there; at most for us an amenity man but is more like the toughness of a Morandi.
formation and that this art shall be a recognizable of adventurous tourism. Such rather cool qualities, more intelligent and
expression of ideals of nationhood. This image was partial at the best of times and is anxious perhaps than passionate, inform too the
It is in terms of subject matter rather than style now totally inapplicable. Mr Harper's apparent work of many of the current generation of painters.
that these demands are usually satisfied. The en- hankering after it would be disturbing were he Mr Harper doesn't present their merits very evenly.
thusiasm sometimes appears as a part of patriotism not as sympathetic to the few artists of merit who In his survey he includes most of those one would
but the argument is the right guide. An approach remained detached from any conscious pursuit of wish to call attention to but some are illustrated
based on stylistic development must have empha- nationalism, who were just good painters who by immature or indifferent work. He sometimes
sized unduly the derivative nature of the work in survived. He does indeed see them as heroes of misses the serious purpose behind intellectual posi-
hand. Mr Harper, by regarding them in terms of another sort whose qualities would have to be tions and is inclined to see styles of painting with
social need and almost of moral obligation fulfilled, comprised in any definition of what is Canadian in which he has little affinity as rather casually
can point to virtue in things of minimal aesthetic art. Of such only J. W. Morrice, an insider of the adopted. So they may be. But not always, and
value; but he does something more interesting circle of Whistler, Prendergast and Conder, is at that's the snag. More characteristically he is able
than that. He makes the general case for the all well known here. One of the colour plates in to discern in the work of some of the Montreal
necessity of art. For these communities from which this book illustrates the comparable distinction of Abstract Expressionists a gesture of protest, a pro-
Canadian art arose were isolated, poor, small, but David Milne; the only Canadian represented in jection of conscious social attitudes. In this he may
determined and hopeful; they could not go in the Armory Show of 1913, profoundly out of well be right. But I would suppose that nowadays
much for luxuries or art for art's sake. But very sympathy with the directions taken by leading a Canadian style should not be looked for in this
early they supported artists for some reason or Canadian artists of his time, he survived almost as or that individual work. Every painter is as free to
another. By firmly relating the individual of a recluse until 1953. Then there was Ozias Leduc, go his own way as we are here. He can take his
talent to the state of the collective in which he was even more of a hermit, the master of Borduas; and bearings from New York, Paris or Tokyo or, like
born or into which he dropped Mr Harper shows John Lyman, pupil of Matisse, thoroughly snubbed Harold Town, refuse to leave Toronto; but it will
how painting becomes part of a new nation. in Montreal in 1913, whose efforts to bring be the social and not the geographical environ-
For these reasons he is able to make a particu- Canadian art into the mainstream of Europe were ment that he will be contending with.
larly persuasive case for the Group of Seven whose mere prophecy in the academic stagnation of the What is Canadian is just this situation arrived at.
paintings of the Canadian wilderness, promoted time. A generation before that, Homer Watson Surely the artists of the 1960s reflect the state and
in England at the Wembley Exhibition of 1924-5 had objected to Oscar Wilde's well-meant descrip- the directions of the community as faithfully as any
and the main feature of the later Phaidon book, tion of him as the Canadian Constable; Lyman others, but we see this by looking at them collec-
Canadian Painters, fixed their work as the image of would not have worried at my likening him to a tively. Canada is a big bit fairly newly added to the
Canadian art for England. The artist as a foot- Canadian Marquet, would have welcomed the sprawling scheme of western culture. If painting
loose wanderer, ever traipsing to new locations in kinship rather than bridled at possible implica- in Canada is by definition the sum of what is being
the northlands, shouldering back to the city a pile tions of plagiarism or dependence. He lived long painted there, then what is 'Canadian' is, among
of small panels for the winter's work—such was the enough, until last year, to see the whole set-up the whole bundle of its qualities, the peculiar
popular trans-atlantic stereotype comparable with altered, surely in the way he wished. balance of what is shared and what is added.
Russell Harper does not claim to be establishing a
canon and for that matter makes clear that he feels
he is working in a desert. 'Unfortunately there is no
really informed opinion which is recognizably
Far left
J. W. G. MacDonald Canadian. Newspapers and magazines today carry
Slumber deep 1957 innumerable reviews of exhibitions, but as in the
oil on masonite past only a small percentage reach the level of
48 x 53+ in. critical writing. There is no authoritative Canadian
Gift from the McLean observer of the contemporary scene who commands
Foundation 1958 a truly wide national following among artists and
laymen. There has been as yet no Canadian
Left
theoretical writing on art:' That is a shade too
David Milne
pessimistic, I believe. There is, however, a small
Orchis and arum
watercolour on paper body of serious Canadian art history on which to
14 x 21 in. base this informed opinion. Mr Harper has drawn
Gift from the Fund of the together and sifted much of this for the general
T. Eaton Co. Ltd. reader, while the- results of his own indefatigable
enquiries ensure that this book is also an important
Right
James Morrice addition to the art history of Canada. It is one that
Landscape Trinidad is clearly planned and written without any affecta-
oil on canvas tions. It is well documented, has a biographical
28¾ x 36¾ in. dictionary of some three hundred artists, is hand-
somely produced and excellently illustrated.
All from the collection of
the Art Gallery of Ontario