Known and Once-Known
National Gallery of Canada brings more Indigenous artists to “Uninvited.”
Attatsiaq, “Tuilik (woman’s parka) panel,” 1926-37
wool flannel cloth (stroud), glass beads, tooth (musk ox and caribou incisor), cotton thread, sinew thread and caribou skin, 26" x 15" (Manitoba Museum, Winnipeg; collection of Winnifred Petchey Marsh and Bishop Donald Marsh; photo by Craig Boyko)
The purpose of the National Gallery of Canada’s new department of Indigenous ways and decolonization has perplexed many in the Canadian art world, including some employees at the Ottawa institution.
Well, the gallery’s latest exhibition, Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment, on view until Aug. 20, offers a concrete action taken by the department, created as part of the gallery’s radical shifts in staff and policy direction in recent years.
- Read our earlier story about Uninvited here.
Indigenous bureaucrats took a careful look at the nationally touring exhibition, which originated at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection near Toronto, before it arrived in Ottawa, its fourth and final stop.
The show is a mix of work by Indigenous and settler women artists active during a period bracketed by the two world wars, when the all-male Group of Seven ruled the Canadian art world.
Elizabeth Katt Petrant, “Cradleboard and Moss Bag,” 1919-38
wood, cotton cloth, glass beads and metal, 26" x 11" (Royal Ontario Museum Collection, Toronto; gift of Madeline Katt Theriault; photo by Craig Boyko, ROM)
The bureaucrats decided changes were needed to the Indigenous art that had been shown at other venues, including the Glenbow in Calgary and the Vancouver Art Gallery, says Sarah Milroy, chief curator of the McMichael.
“The one thing that is different (from earlier iterations) is the department of Indigenous ways and decolonization looked at the show and were very enthusiastic about it because, obviously, the show brings settler and Indigenous viewpoints into contact with each other and acknowledges the importance of Indigenous women in the interwar period,” says Milroy.
“But they were concerned about the works of unknown makers. They challenged us to try to find replacement loans where we do know the name of the maker. This triggered a lot of additional research, but it was a very worthy pursuit.”
Prudence Heward, “Rollande,” 1929
oil on canvas, 55" x 40" (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; purchased 1930; photo courtesy NGC)
Objects by known makers replaced original ones selected by Milroy where the maker was no longer known. She sees this as an improvement. She is also enthusiastic about paintings by settler artists the National Gallery added, including such iconic works as Paraskeva Clark’s Myself, 1933, and Emily Carr’s Fir Tree and Sky, 1935-36. In all, the show features nearly 200 works, including 30 from the National Gallery’s own collection.
The Indigenous department also decided to add “a show within a show” to the exhibition by creating a small Ancestors’ Gallery containing seven Indigenous works held by the gallery that were made by “once-known” artists from a century or more ago. That means their names are no longer known, although they certainly would have been known in their respective communities when they made the works. The mini-exhibition is designed to raise awareness of the challenges in identifying historical artists.
Once-known Mi'kmaq artist, “Woman’s Peaked Cap,” circa 1830
wool, silk, glass beads and thread (National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; purchased 2022; photo courtesy NGC)
The changes to Uninvited are far less radical than those at the gallery’s 2021 Rembrandt exhibition, where Black and Indigenous artists and historians added artworks and text panels that were harshly critical of entrepreneurs in the Dutch Golden Age for engaging in slavery and other racist acts. Many in the art community felt the National Gallery went overboard with its Rembrandt redo.
This time, there was speculation Uninvited would be “Rembrandted.” But, in the end, it was only Rembrandt-Lite.
“It’s already Rembrandted,” says Milroy, “because it’s built out of a gaze both ways across the cultural divide. The centrality of the Indigenous narrative in the show and the presence of that in dialogue with settler art were always at the core of our idea. So, it didn’t need a doing-over.”
Anne Savage, “Temlaham, Upper Skeena River,” 1927
oil on canvas, 23" x 28" (private collection, © estate of Anne D. Savage, photo courtesy NGC)
There is, indeed, a dialogue in the exhibition between Indigenous and settler artists. Indigenous works are placed side-by-side with those by settler artists, including Emily Carr, who painted scenes at Indigenous villages.
In one large room, a beaded doeskin dress made by an artist known as Mrs. Walking Sun, of Carry the Kettle Nation, east of Regina, has been placed near landscapes by settler artist Anne Savage. Across the room are works by a settler artist, Winifred Petchey Marsh, who created spectacular paintings of beaded parkas and other Arctic wear.
The term Uninvited refers to the fact that the Group of Seven invited no women to join the organization, although some were asked to exhibit alongside the Group. But Indigenous artists were not invited to exhibit as their work was not even seen as art.
These days, the definition of art is expanding. More and more women, both Indigenous and settler, are being invited into art galleries. It’s a trend Milroy says will continue. ■
Uninvited: Canadian Women Artists in the Modern Moment at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from March 3 to Aug. 20, 2023.
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