May 7 - The Group of Seven Show

nPosted on May 7, 2017

nOf course, as long as there have been people living in the northern territories we now call Canada, there has been Canadian art.

nHowever, the first major Canadian art movement is considered to be started by a group of landscape painters known as the Group of Seven.

If you guessed that this really means Canadians of European descent, you’d be right; centuries of indigenous art is left out of the description of the “the first major Canadian art movement”….

nOn this date in 1920, The Art Gallery of Ontario, in Toronto, opened their first exhibition.

nThe group was made up originally of seven men from Toronto; later, they added another Toronto (male) artist and two more painters (also male) from outside of Toronto. Two additional painters are often associated with the Group of Seven, including a woman! (Hooray for artist Emily Carr!)

Unworthy?
Ummm….
In what universe is THIS unworthy???

nApparently, before the Group of Seven, many artists thought Canadian landscapes unworthy as a subject for art – but the Group of Seven took inspiration from the enormous stretches of wilderness to be found in Canada, and even from lonely Arctic landscapes.

nSome art critics point out that the works of the Group of Seven tend to reinforce terra nullius, which is the practice of depicting an area as untouched by humans, with no roads or cities or other indications of human existence. The critics point out that many of the areas depicted in this way have in fact been inhabited by people for centuries!

But I enjoy seeing wild spots, places that are undeveloped and seemingly unused…Enjoy: