A More Inclusive History
Canadian and Indigenous Art: From Time Immemorial to 1967, installation view, June 2017
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, photo courtesy NGC
Winnipeg’s Katherine Boyer is one of three artists picked by the Canada Council for the Arts for a 60th anniversary project about “the future of art.” Boyer, a Métis, will spend a few weeks in December beading in the council’s downtown Ottawa gallery, Âjagemô. Yes, the council calls beading “the future of art.” Indeed, young Indigenous artists increasingly find it “cool” to bead, says independent Aboriginal curator Alexandra Nahwegahbow.
Beadwork, like other Indigenous art, is playing an increasingly important role in Canadian art history. The National Gallery of Canada opened its new Canadian and Indigenous galleries this summer, placing scores of pre-contact to contemporary Indigenous works, including beading, alongside “settler” art to offer a more inclusive historical account.
Marc Mayer, former director of the National Gallery of Canada (photo courtesy National Gallery of Canada)
In conjunction with this recasting, gallery director Marc Mayer produced a coffee table book, Art in Canada, to introduce various genres and eras and to talk of things to come. This being the country’s sesquicentennial, the book contains large colour images of 150 iconic works, including William Kurelek’s Manitoba Party and Joyce Wieland’s Reason Over Passion. But also included is a 2013 beadwork by Aboriginal artist Nadia Myre titled For those who cannot speak: The land, the water, the animals and the future generations. There is also a late 19th-century bag beaded by an unknown Métis or Cree artist from the West.
“The conventional art history of Canada is an optimistic adventure that should fill us with satisfaction,” Mayer writes. “Unfortunately, it has problems.”
Those problems include the under-representation of work by Indigenous artists as well as work by women, non-Europeans and artists outside Central Canada.
Canadian and Indigenous Art: From Time Immemorial to 1967, installation view, June 2017
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, photo courtesy NGC
Thus, Emily Carr now has her own room in the reconstituted gallery. A display case of beaded Aboriginal footware from the same period stands in the centre of the room. Some other Westerners, including the Regina Five, are also given more prominence.
Emily Carr, "Blunden Harbour," circa 1930
oil on canvas, 51" x 36" purchased 1937, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, photo courtesy NGC
In a different room, an Algonquin-made canoe is placed in front of Group of Seven paintings. Greg Hill, the gallery’s chief Aboriginal curator, says the canoe is as much an artwork as the centuries-old silver goblets in the gallery’s collection.
Canadian and Indigenous Art: From Time Immemorial to 1967, installation view, June 2017
National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, photo courtesy NGC
Perhaps more than his predecessors, Mayer champions Western Canadian art. His book praises the Vancouver photo-conceptualists, whom he describes as “easily the most successful artist cohort in the history of Canadian art.” He also pays tribute to the Winnipeg group, Royal Art Lodge, including Marcel Dzama. Other contemporary Western artists showcased in the book include Geoffrey Farmer, Rebecca Belmore, Wanda Koop, Brian Jungen, Jeff Wall, Joe Fafard and Ken Lum.
Mayer calls the national collection “a marvel” despite its gaps. Most historical Indigenous pieces now on display were borrowed, but Mayer says the gallery will begin acquiring historical works. This must be done “to tell our whole story,” he says.
Expect to see that story increasingly told with beads, both historical and contemporary.
