War Art Masterpieces Make Début at the Canadian Museum of CivilizationHistoric exhibition includes works by some of Canada's best-known artistsHull, Quebec, February 10, 2000 — An exhibition featuring works by some of Canada's best-known artists opens today at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC). Canvas of War: Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum is the most significant exhibition ever mounted from the Canadian War Museum's extensive but little-known war art collection. The exhibition will be on display at the prestigious Hull museum until January 7, 2001 and will then embark on a national tour.
"We are pleased by the cooperative nature of this exhibition," states Joe Geurts, Acting President and CEO of the Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation. "Together, the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization exist to give history a human face — to share Canadian stories in the most memorable way possible."
Seventy-two works are showcased in the landmark exhibition, including paintings by Alex Colville, Charles Comfort, Molly Lamb Bobak and four members of the Group of Seven. Many of the paintings have not been exhibited in eighty years, and others have never been seen in public. From an image of a jubilant Armistice Day celebration to a stark depiction of a drowning sailor, these compelling works are a powerful testimony to the Canadian war experience.
The exhibition also includes three large sculptures created by Walter Allward as maquettes for the famous Vimy Memorial in France. They lay wasting in storage at the Canadian War Museum until their recent restoration.
The origins of Canada's war art collections can be traced to the leadership of Lord Beaverbrook, a Canadian-born entrepreneur, newspaper magnate and later British cabinet minister. During the First World War he established the Canadian War Memorials Fund, through which many prestigious artists depicted Canada's contribution to the war effort overseas and at home. However, his plan for a new building to ensure the permanent display of nearly a thousand paintings never came to fruition, and the collection was turned over to the National Gallery of Canada.
The Canadian War Memorials Fund led to the founding of the Canadian War Records programme during the Second World War. Thirty-one painters were hired to depict the activities of Canada's army, navy and air force. They depicted wartime Canada and the nation's military achievements in Italy and Northwest Europe.
In 1946, over five thousand works of art from this programme were deposited with the National Gallery of Canada, joining the First World War paintings. In 1971, both war art collections were transferred to the Canadian War Museum. Since then, only a few works have been publicly displayed because the Canadian War Museum has no permanent art gallery. The restoration and exhibition of the works in Canvas of War constitute the most resources devoted to Canada's war art collection since the works were created.
"I think Lord Beaverbrook would be pleased indeed to see his dream of exhibiting this magnificent art come true," says curator Laura Brandon. "It was he, and others like Vincent Massey and Harry McCurry of the National Gallery of Canada, who helped ensure that Canada had a meaningful painted record of the wars. They are all long since dead, but the value of their achievements lives on today and is presented in this exhibition."
"This art collection has been the country's greatest unknown collection of art for far too long. We have no doubt that visitors to this exhibition will come away with a new appreciation of how Canada's military history has helped shape the very fabric and artistic culture of this country," adds Canadian War Museum Director and CEO Jack Granatstein.
The Canadian War Museum's war art collection consists of over 13,000 works, including paintings, watercolours, drawings, prints and sculptures. It encompasses both the Canadian War Memorials of the First World War and the Canadian War Records of the Second World War. The Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program Collection, which focuses on peacekeeping by Canadian Forces, completes the collection.
Canvas of War: Masterpieces from the Canadian War Museum will be on display in The Gallery at the Canadian Museum of Civilization until January 7, 2001. It will then travel to galleries across the country, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, the Winnipeg Art Gallery, the Glenbow Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and likely the Vancouver Art Gallery.
This exhibition was made possible by the generous financial support of the Donner Canadian Foundation and a gift from the W. Garfield Weston Foundation.
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