If you head into a bookstore this holiday season, you’ll likely notice some fresh takes on old favourites like Emily Carr and the Group of Seven, as well as books by or about contemporary Indigenous artists.
There are also a range of books on other artists, including Michael Snow, Sybil Andrews, Maud Lewis, Don Proch, John Hartman, E.J. Hughes, and Mary and Christopher Pratt.
Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing – French Modernism and the West Coast looks at the impact of Carr’s formative experiences in France. It's published by Vancouver’s Figure 1 in conjunction with a show on view until Jan. 19 at the Audain Art Museum in Whistler, B.C
A second book about Carr, this one published by Vancouver’s Douglas and McIntyre, focuses on her love for animals. Woo, the Monkey Who Inspired Emily Carr: A Biography is the latest book by Victoria-based writer Grant Hayter-Menzies.
Victoria publisher Heritage House gives stalwarts from Canadian art history a new spin with contemporary flash fiction in The Group of Seven Re-Imagined: Contemporary Stories Inspired by Historic Canadian Paintings.
Meanwhile, Manitoba artist Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald, the last member to join the Group of Seven, is the focus of two new books. Figure 1’s, Into the Light, was co-published with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection near Toronto for an exhibition on view until Feb. 17. And Toronto's Art Canada Institute, which is now bringing some of its digital books in print, has released its version by Toronto art historian Michael Parke-Taylor.
Fans of Brian Jungen, who famously transformed white plastic lawn chairs into a massive whale skeleton, may want to check out Friendship Centre, published for his recent solo show at the Art Gallery of Ontario. A 224-page hardcover from Prestel, an international art book publisher, it features more than 80 of Jungen’s sculptures, drawings and film stills, along with fascinating images of the artist at work.
People Among the People: The Public Art of Susan Point offers a closer look at the work of the renowned Musqueam artist, who has played a pivotal role in the resurrection of Coast Salish culture. Written by Robert D. Watt, former head of the Museum of Vancouver, it is co-published by Figure 1 and the UBC Museum of Anthropology. It won this year's City of Vancouver Book Award.
Carpe Fin: A Haida Manga (Douglas and McIntyre) is a prequel by the prolific Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas to his earlier award-winning Red: A Haida Manga. The artist’s hand-painted images blend a near-future tale of environmental crisis on the West Coast with Haida oral traditions.
Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism is the late Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw artist’s critique of the damages wrought by consumerism on both Indigenous people and the natural environment. It was published by Figure 1 and the Fazakas Gallery in Vancouver for his final exhibition.
There are two new books by independent curator Nancy Campbell, one about Shuvinai Ashoona, published by the Art Canada Institute, and the other, Hymns to the Silence, about Itee Pootoogook. It is published by Goose Lane in Fredericton, N.B., in conjunction with a McMichael show by the late artist, known for his meticulous landscapes.
Meanwhile, Victoria-based artist Carey Newman tells the stories behind his tribute to survivors of the residential school system. Picking Up the Pieces: Residential School Memories and the Making of the Witness Blanket (Orca Book Publishers), is co-written with Kirstie Hudson.
UBC Press has released The Way Home by David Neel, a West Coast artist descended from a family of traditional Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw artists, including Ellen Neel and Mungo Martin. He draws on memories, legends and his own art as he recounts his struggle to reconnect with his culture.
Understanding Northwest Coast Indigenous Jewelry, by Alexander Dawkins, is a useful illustrated guide published by Greystone Books in Vancouver.
Other books published this year:
- A biography of Toronto artist Michael Snow by Governor General's Award nominee James King, a Hamilton author, has been released by Dundurn Press in Toronto.
- Toronto author Carol Bishop-Gwyn provides a vivid account of a complex union in Art and Rivalry: The Marriage of Mary and Christopher Pratt (Penguin Random House Canada).
- Canada and Impressionism: New Horizons, co-published by the National Gallery of Art and Arnoldsche Art Publishers in Stuttgart, Germany, includes a new look at the role of Canadian women in this international movement.
- Many Lives Mark This Place (Figure 1) pairs leading Canadian authors with engagingly gooey landscape paintings by Ontario’s John Hartman.
- Maud Lewis: Paintings for Sale (Goose Lane) features more than 130 cheerful works by the Nova Scotia folk artist shown at the McMichael earlier this year.
- Victoria’s Robert Amos has followed E.J. Hughes Paints Vancouver Island, a finalist for the B.C. Book Prize, with a second book, E.J. Hughes Paints British Columbia. Both are published by Touchwood Editions in Victoria.
- Lisa Christensen, a Calgary curator, has written her fourth guide to art of the Rockies. Truth and Beauty in the Canadian Rockies: An Explorer’s Guide to the Art of Walter J. Phillips, is an engaging handbook for hikers published by Fifth House Publishers in Markham, Ont.
- The Life and Art of Sybil Andrews (Caitlin Press) by Janet Nicol gives a good overview of the British-born Vancouver Island printmaker's life. An exhibition of her work is on view at the Glenbow Museum in Calgary until Jan. 12.
- Before I Was a Critic I Was a Human Being, published by Toronto's Book*hug Press, is an engaging memoir by Amy Fung.
- Don Proch: Masking and Mapping (University of Manitoba Press) by Patricia Bovey, a former director of the Winnipeg Art Gallery, looks at the Manitoba artist's semi-mythical work about the Prairies.
If you're itching to start reading the very latest, a book of longtime Vancouver artist Ken Lum's collected writings, is due for release Jan. 1. Titled Everything is Relevant: Writings on Art and Life, 1991-2018, it is published by UBC Press. Lum, who is now at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Design, is an influential artist who works across painting, sculpture and photography. ■
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