Western Canada's art magazine since 2002
24 April 2018 Vol 3 No 9 ISSN 2561-3316 © 2018
From the Editor
Portia Priegert
As a small digital magazine with limited resources, Galleries West rarely covers developing news. Original reporting is expensive. Contacts don’t return calls or won’t go on the record with information, meaning time must be spent tracking down other sources. Someone may break a story you’ve been working on for a week, or a day’s work can evaporate as the news takes an unexpected twist.
This issue is an exception. First came the mystery surrounding a decision by the National Gallery of Canada to sell one of its two Chagall paintings. The move to break what's essentially a sacred trust with future generations worried consulting editor, Jeffrey Spalding, who has helped build the collections of several Canadian art museums as a curator and gallery director. As he started writing an opinion column, there was speculation that the sale would generate funds to buy a neo-classical painting by Jacques-Louis David at risk of leaving Canada. After we published the column, confirmation came that the David was indeed the target.
The news raised as many questions as it answered. It became apparent that there was interest in keeping the David, owned by the Catholic church in Quebec City, in the province. And it created the impression, as Toronto art dealer Christopher Varley noted in his guest blog, that the National Gallery was trying to do an end run around Quebec. We wondered how such masterpieces could be whisked quietly out of the country and asked Ottawa arts writer Paul Gessell to look into Canada’s cultural export process. While that proved a slow nut to crack, he provided a story about the growing controversy in Quebec.
The affair is a public relations disaster for the National Gallery. One Ottawa columnist opined that Marc Mayer, who is nearing the end of his second and final term as the gallery’s director, was played by the Catholic church. Meanwhile, a Quebec columnist wrote that Mayer’s attitudes and methods were “irritating and displeasing.”
The story is still developing. Even as I was writing this on Monday, an open letter arrived from Mayer and Françoise Lyon, the chair of the National Gallery's board of trustees, that denies any attempt to usurp the David. Then, a few hours later, came news that the Quebec culture minister would block the painting from leaving Quebec.
Withdrawing the Chagall now from auction could be costly – perhaps $1 million, perhaps more, depending who you talk to. If the Chagall sale goes ahead, as Mayer and Lyon say it will, it seems the worst case scenario for the National Gallery: the Chagall has been sacrificed for nought, apart from a bundle of cash the gallery can use for future purchases.
One of the troubling aspects of this saga is the lack of transparency. Much remains murky. The National Gallery is not a private club: It operates courtesy of tax money from Canadians, who deserve accountability. Journalists are filing access to information requests. While those take time to work through the system, we should know more after the Christie’s sale in New York on May 15. In the meantime, we'll continue to relay news of any developments.
While all this unfolded, the rest of this issue of Galleries West ticked along. We have a story about Calgary-area artist Veronica Funk, who tackles U.S. President Donald Trump’s misogyny with portraits of 100 women, aptly titled Nasty Women. We also have a review by a promising new-to-us writer, Noor Bhangu, who looks at a Winnipeg show by Haassan Ashraf that reflects on the immigrant experience. Edmonton contributor Agnieszka Matjeko writes about printmaker Florin Hategan's environmental work, and Beverly Cramp takes in a Vancouver show that brings together work from First Nations’ cultural centres.
Looking ahead to the next issue, we’re working on stories about artists Erika DeFreitas, Marigold Santos, Carl White and more.
Until next time,
CONTRIBUTORS THIS ISSUE: Noor Bhangu, Beverly Cramp, Paul Gessell, Agnieszka Matejko, Jeffrey Spalding
