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“Expanding Horizons” at the Vancouver Art Gallery
One cold day last week I decided to get out of the wintery weather and treated myself to a few hours at the Vancouver Art Gallery. And it was “a treat”! “Expanding Horizons: Painting and Photography of American and Canadian Landscapes 1860 – 1918″ is a rich and varied exhibit well worth taking the time to see. The wonders of the natural world, mainly landscapes, are the subject of most of the paintings and photographs in this exhibition, exploring the relationship between painting and photography from the time of the American Civil War to the end of the First World War in both America and Canada.
The exhibit brings together painters such as Frederic Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, John Singer Sargent, Childe Hassam and Georgia O’Keeffe and their Canadian counterparts Otto Jacobi, David Milne, A.Y.Jackson, Emily Carr and Lucius O’Brien among others. Together with the photographs of Eadweard Muybridge, Carelton Watkins, Alfred Steigliz, Alexander Henderson, William Notman and Benjamin Baltzly, these artists shaped our understanding of the Norh American landscape.
After having spent a few hours out in the icy weather, just to stand in front of Tom Thomson’s vibrant autumn colours ”In Algonquin Park” (1914) and linger before Georgia O’Keeffe’s brilliant ”Anything” with its vivid red and green trees, was enough to warm me. Thomson happens to be one of my most favorite artists, and when I indulged in oils and canvases some years ago, it was his style that captured my interest most. In fact all of The Group of Seven painters are notable. You’ll see several of Lauren Harris’s works here as well as Alexander Young Jackson. Our renown West Coast artist, Emily Carr’s, ”Totem by the Ghost Rock” (1912) and “The Villages in Haida Gwaii, Indian War Canoe” (Alert Bay, 1912) are true masterpieces.
Some of the paintings are massive, and draw you right into to scene such as Frederic Edwin Church’s “Niagara Falls from the American Side” (1867). You can almost hear the Falls thundering roar and feel the spray of the water.
One of my favorites was Francis Anne Hopkins’ “Shooting the Rapids” (1879) a dramatic, action-packed painting. The artist herself sits in the centre of the canoe, beside her, in his red beard, is her husband Edward, as they paddle through the turbulent water of the Lachine Rapids.
This exhibition is presented by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and curated by Hilliard T. Goldfarb with the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art. It’s on until January 17, 2010. The Gallery is open daily 10am-9 pm. Admission: $19.50 adultes; seniors 65+, $14.; students $10, children 5 – 12 $7. (under 4, free) Family rates available and Tuesday nights is by donation (suggested $5 min.)
750 Hornby St. (or right across from Robson Square)
604-662-4700
PHOTO by Ruth Kozak
