National Gallery Celebrates Confederation
Jin-me Yoon, "Souvenirs of the Self (Lake Louise), 1991," printed 1996
chromogenic print laminated to plexiglas, 192.7 x 232.8 cm Purchased 1996 CMCP Collection, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Works by Vancouver’s Jeff Wall and Jin-me Yoon and 69 other photo-based artists will kick off nine months of exhibitions marking the 150th anniversary of Confederation at the revamped National Gallery of Canada.
Photography in Canada: 1960-2000 runs from April 7 to Sept. 4, and also includes such heavyweights as Michael Snow, Edward Burtynsky and Lynne Cohen. The show will explore topics such as sexuality, identity and community in conceptual, documentary, landscape and portrait photography.
The gallery is holding media briefings in February to flesh out its 2017 plans, but Galleries West has already obtained many details. Most attention will be focused on the June 15 opening of the new Canadian and Indigenous Galleries, a replacement for the former permanent Canadian Gallery.
Under the banner of Canada’s Masterpieces: Our Stories, this sprawling space for almost 1,000 works is being completely redesigned so indigenous art and photography from pre-contact to 1968 can be exhibited alongside other Canadian art from equivalent eras.
So, expect to see Emily Carr paintings hanging near aboriginal works from the early 20th century, just as in Carr’s National Gallery debut in 1927, when 31 of her paintings were shown as part of the Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art: Native and Modern.
Canada’s Masterpieces will flow into part of the current contemporary galleries so more than 150 works from 1968 to the present can be displayed.
The opening of the revitalized Canadian gallery and the drive to integrate indigenous art with other domestic art is meant to illustrate an official end to art apartheid at the National Gallery. Even the long-separate Inuit Gallery is being closed so Inuit art can be shown with other Canadian work.
Some exhibitions are still being finalized, including a joint, collection-based show by Calgary artist Ron Moppett and his Vancouver-based son, Damian, that’s slated to open in May.
An exhibition called the Juno Tour of Canadian Art, which runs from March 31 to April 17, features works from the collection picked by Juno-nominated artists. Nearby, a show at the Ottawa Art Gallery will display work created by Juno alumni, including Jann Arden and Randy Bachman.
The National Gallery’s fourth Canadian contemporary biennial showcasing recent purchases is expected to open in mid-October. For the first time, international works will be included to illustrate Canada’s relationship to the global art world. Themes include migration, stereotypes of identity and the impact and interpretation of history. The final line-up of artists is not yet complete.
Other highlights this year include a solo show by early modernist painter James W. Morrice.
