Let’s Dance
National Gallery of Canada show about movement is surprisingly sedentary.
Brian Jungen, "Performance Bonnet," 2019
Nike Air Jordan athletic shoes, 34" x 30" × 26" (purchased 2021 – 49592; © Brian Jungen; photo by Rachel Topham Photography, courtesy Catriona Jeffries, Vancouver)
The National Gallery of Canada opened its current building in 1988 with an Edgar Degas exhibition that included many of the French artist’s iconic ballerinas. Since then, dance’s intersection with the visual arts has not featured prominently at the venerable Ottawa institution. But that has changed with an exhibition of 75 gallery-owned works, Movement: Expressive Bodies in Art, which explores the connections between art and dance, along with other aspects of movement.
Among the works, from the 17th century to the present, there’s only one Degas ballerina, a charcoal and pastel drawing titled Dancer at the Barre, circa 1900. That solitary piece seems lonely. The gallery owns several other drawings and prints of dancers by the Impressionist artist but, sadly, they remain in the storage vaults.
Leidy Churchman, "Disappearing Acts," 2019
oil on linen, 56" x 70" x 1" (purchased 2020 – 49086; © Leidy Churchman, courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery, New York; photo by Paul Elter, courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)
Other European Impressionists and Old Masters barely register in this exhibition, which has few paintings or sculptures. Instead, it is dominated by prints and photographs from the 20th century onwards. The exhibition’s lead curator is Andrea Kunard, the gallery’s senior photography curator.
Featured are Indigenous works, as well as many European and American pieces, although few are by non-Indigenous Canadians. One exception is Long Arms, a 2015 clay sculpture by Winnipeg’s Sarah Anne Johnson. This delightful work depicts two lovers embracing with arms so long that they circle both bodies, from head to toe. Now, that’s passion!
Lisette Model, "Pearl Primus, New York," 1943
gelatin silver print, 17" x 14" (gift of the Estate of Lisette Model, by direction of Joseph G. Blum, New York, through the American Friends of Canada, donated 1990 – 35264; © estate of Lisette Model; courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)
The exhibition begins with Manitoba-born Kent Monkman’s five-minute film, Dance to Miss Chief, a playful 2010 critique of the German fascination with pre-contact Indigenous life in North America. The artist’s drag persona, Miss Chief Eagle Testickle, leads a cast of costumed warriors in a powwow-disco number. It’s difficult for more conventional works in the ensuing rooms to compete with the energy of this mischievous film.
Since the exhibition is largely about dance, musical accompaniment in other rooms might have bolstered the viewing experience. For instance, adding recorded Inuit drumming in the room of Inuit art would be perfect.
As well, filmed performance art that includes dancing or other movement-based work would have added life to this surprisingly sedentary exhibition. Has the gallery no footage of Quebec superstar Françoise Sullivan, she of Refus global fame, dancing in the snow? Or what about one of Anishinaabe artist Rebecca Belmore’s memorable performance pieces?
Katherine Takpannie, "Our Women and Girls are Sacred #3," 2016
inkjet print, 36" x 54" (purchased 2022 – 2022.0305.3; © Katherine Takpannie; courtesy the artist)
Along with perennial scene-stealer Monkman, other Indigenous highlights include Brian Jungen’s Performance Bonnet, a 2019 construction of sliced Nike Air Jordan sneakers transformed into a life-sized Plains war bonnet, and Daphne Odjig’s 1978 painting, Pow Wow Dancer. As well, there’s Inuk artist Katherine Takpannie’s Our Women and Girls are Sacred, a series of four photographs of a woman dancing amid a red cloud. Takpannie’s piece pays tribute to missing and murdered Indigenous women.
Jacques Callot, "Fracischina and Gian Farina" from the "Balli di Sfessania" series, circa 1622
etching on laid paper, 4" x 5" cm (gift of Philip R.L. Somerville, Ottawa, 1997 – 39293.17; courtesy National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa)
The oldest work in the show is the racy Balli di Sfessania, a 1622 work by French artist Jacques Callot. Sfessania is an ancient form of dance in some parts of Italy, in which two people engage in elaborate and sometimes obscene movements, poking and prodding one another with spears and swords. Look closely at the 24 miniature prints, framed in batches of six. Much is happening.
This exhibition seems to be the gallery's main new show for the fall season. If something else is planned, staff are keeping it quiet for now. Usually, the gallery offers something more spectacular – Pablo Picasso, Emily Carr, or some other powerful magnet to attract crowds. But blockbusters are expensive and the gallery is not flush with cash as the pandemic kept paying patrons away for much of the last 30 months.
Marc Mayer, a former gallery director, used to say organizing an exhibition harvested from the institution’s own collection was the best plan for tough times. Such exhibitions cost far less than importing a Van Gogh show from Europe or organizing another Tom Thomson extravaganza. Movement: Expressive Bodies in Art is a pleasing experience, despite being rather tame. It may be all the gallery can afford right now. ■
Movement: Expressive Bodies in Art is at the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa from Sept. 2, 2022 to Feb. 26, 2023.
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