War Brides: Portraits of an Era pays tribute to women's courageOttawa, Ontario, May 9, 2007 — The Canadian War Museum's latest exhibition is more than just a love story. War Brides: Portraits of an Era, a collection of contemporary paintings and multimedia installations by Calgary artist Bev Tosh, represents tens of thousands of love stories. They are the stories of women who found romance amidst the chaos of the Second World War, took an enormous leap of faith, and set sail for a new life in a strange land.
War Brides: Portraits of an Era opens to the public on Saturday May 12 and runs until January 6, 2008 at the War Museum in Ottawa.
"An astounding 44,000 European women came to Canada as the wives of Canadian service personnel at the end of the Second World War," says J. (Joe) Geurts, Director and CEO of the Canadian War Museum. "Today, hundreds of thousands of Canadians are direct descendants of these war brides."
"But we don't often hear about their experiences during or after the war, or stop to think about the courage it took to leave everything behind and start over in a country where they knew no one and often didn't even speak the language. By sharing their stories of romance, adventure and also hardship, War Brides: Portraits of an Era celebrates an important chapter in Canadian history."
The exhibition also recognizes a different group of war brides: the 4,000 Canadian women — including Tosh's own mother — who married Allied service personnel and followed their husbands to countries as far away as Australia and New Zealand.
Six years ago, Tosh painted a portrait of her mother as a 25-year-old war bride from Saskatoon who married a Royal New Zealand Air Force pilot training on the Canadian Prairies. This striking work of art became the first piece of the artistic tribute that is War Brides: Portraits of an Era.
Tosh embarked on an odyssey to meet and correspond with hundreds of war brides in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and New Zealand. They let the artist paint their portraits, and shared with her their mementos and bittersweet memories of the past.
The result is an exhibition of 75 nearly life-sized paintings in six installations, including two "Bride Ships" representing the 60 vessels that transported war brides to Canada from Britain, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, France, and elsewhere. Some 700 photographs and letters, projections, parachutes, shoes, hatpins, audio recordings, and other materials complete the installations.
Tosh hopes visitors to the exhibition will appreciate and be inspired by the lives of the war brides behind her art.
"These women would tell me they had led very ordinary lives, and that their husbands, who served in the war, were heroes," Tosh says. "But I think they're heroes too. People don't realize the courage that it took for these women to follow through with the vows they had made."
War Brides: Portraits of an Era is organized by the Canadian War Museum in collaboration with Bev Tosh. It runs concurrently with Stitches in Time, an exhibition of textile art by London, Ontario artist Johnnene Maddison that pays tribute to the women who kept North American farms and factories running during the Second World War.
Information (media):
Christina Selin
Manager, Communications
Canadian War Museum
Telephone: 819 776-8607
E-mail: mailto:christina.selin@warmuseum.ca
Pierre Leduc
Media Relations Officer
Canadian War Museum
Telephone: 819 776-8608
E-mail: mailto:pierre.leduc@warmuseum.ca
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