Page 27 - Studio International - November 1968

facing page Michael Snow Mixed feelings 1965
copolymer acrylic, 102 x 61 in.
The Isaac's Gallery, Toronto
right Joyce Wieland Cooling room I 1964
painted construction, 29 x 22 x 11 in.
The Isaac's Gallery, Toronto

sprung up in a pleasant, and not notably non-conformist, small
university town. Jack Chambers, Tony Urquhart and in particular
Greg Curnoe, enjoy reputations far beyond London itself. Their
regionalism, however, is not a reversion to grass-roots philosophy,
but like a more localized version of the kind of attitude one finds in
Vancouver—that a perfectly satisfactory answer to Canadian art's
problems of identity and status can be found by working right where
you are.
As one begins to get the perspectives of recent Canadian art-history,
one can see a certain inevitability about the accelerating pace at
which Canadian artists have caught up with the international main-
stream. There was no equivalent of the Armory show, so the long
pre-war haul was even slower than in the States. But after the war,
with more ground to be covered but much of it over the same tracks,
there was always American experience already ahead to lead the way
and help speed up the process. The acceleration has therefore to some
extent been artificial, and there is a noticeable concertinaing of
generations in the Canadian situation today: pioneers and pupils
arrive breathlessly at the last fence together, neither quite sure who
is leading whom. That last fence has only been in sight for a very few
years, and it is the question with which I started my first article: is
Canadian art ready now for the international scene? The grooming
for it has been increasingly intensive, and one can point to various
contributory encouragements along the final stretch—like the patron-
age of the Department of Transport, which has, and is still,
commissioning murals by Bornstein, Lochhead, Town, Bloore, qualities are, in fact, apparent in Canadian painting. In what was
Fisher, Shadbolt, Pellan and Curnoe scattered through the major probably the most perceptive review of Canada 101 at Edinburgh,
Canadian airports: or the vital activity, both as patron and forum, Robert Melville noted, in contrast to comparable American painting,
within the universities: or the ferment of Expo '67. But the vital a 'curiously feverish' and 'uneasy atmosphere. The artists are still a
factors have been the active encouragement of the major galleries, bit rigid and hard-eyed under the discipline, as if conscious of
led by the National Gallery in Ottawa and the Art Gallery of On- making sacrifices.' This lack of ease and breadth does seem to me a
tario in Toronto, in tirelessly organizing retrospectives, group-shows fairly consistent quality of Canadian painting. It has superb pro-
and competitive exhibitions on a national scale (Canadian artists '68, fessional 'address', energy and intelligence. But it rarely has depth or
opening in Toronto on 30 November, characteristically had an resonance, of the kind which comes from relaxed, rather than eager,
invited foreign jury touring Canada to select work and hunt out new confidence. I have mentioned lack of 'tradition' several times in
talent) ; and behind the galleries, subsidizing, bolstering, co- these articles, by which I don't mean merely conventional familiarity
ordinating, has been the work of the Canada Council. Founded in with Old Masters, even those of the earlier twentieth century
1957, but vitally active since 1965 when its financial backing for the (although it is not irrelevant that historical collections hardly exist
visual arts alone was almost quadrupled, the Canada Council plays in Canada: there is only one equivalent of the great millionaire col-
something of the role of a British Council and Arts Council com- lections of America, and that is locked up and invisible in a mansion
bined, handing out bursaries, subsidizing exhibitions, buying in Montreal). I mean something which stems from an uneasy
continuously and generously for its own collection. It is, however, the acclimatization to the urban basis of most current art. City-life in
least conventional of official bodies, fostering an intimate rapport, Canada is not nearly as urbanized as in the States, or has not been so
often on a personal level, with the artists themselves and imagina- for long enough. Mountain, forest and sea dominate Vancouver:
tively prompt in its attention to their needs. It waives normal official park-like canyons run from the country into the heart of Toronto.
procedure on principle, for example, in matters like application for The biggest cities have only just graduated from large towns. One of
the fare to attend an exhibition on the other side of Canada, or the results is an uncertain grasp of pop culture and its more sophisti-
expenses toward a project held up for lack of materials. Such things cated off-shoots, and this affects most Canadian 'figurative' work. It
are considered the instant necessities of subsidy. The Council is not has wit and sometimes a poignant irony, as in the montage-sequences
only trusted by artists to a remarkable degree; its policies have been of Joyce Wieland. It comes nowhere near the profundity of an artist
instrumental in fostering the solidarity of purpose for which Canadian like Rosenquist, who was recently given a major retrospective in
art had never previously had the confidence. Toronto. There is a feeling of hastily adopted attitudes, cleverly
In my last article I want to concentrate on the work of certain explored but not felt through. If `Canadianism' is to mean anything,
individual artists, but it is worth asking first whether characteristic it must not be that. q
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