Audain Art Museum Acquires Emily Carr Masterpiece

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Curtis Collins, director, and curator Kiriko Watanabe, Gail with Emily Carr's "Street, Alert Bay," 1912

oil on canvas, 32" x 23" (Audain Art Museum Collection; purchased with funds from the Audain Foundation)

A 1912 Emily Carr painting, Street, Alert Bay, has been acquired by the Audain Art Museum,  courtesy of the Audain Foundation.

The painting, with its brilliant colours and expressive details, will be placed on public display on Dec. 18. It underlines a radical shift in Emily Carr’s practice following her trip to France from 1910 to 1911,

“It is an iconic piece that reveals the artist’s dramatic use of bold colour following her return from France, which was a formative moment in Carr’s brilliant career, and we are thrilled to share this remarkable painting with the world,”  said Curtis Collins, the museum's director.

The painting depicts a compelling Kwakwaka’wakw community scene and is based on a 1909 watercolour by Carr, Alert Bay, Street Scene with Mother in Foreground.

It reveals an expression of aesthetic purpose beyond pictorial accuracy. This same dynamism is fully explored in the Audain’s exhibition, Emily Carr: Fresh Seeing - French Modernism and the West Coast, on view until Jan. 19.

The new painting will then be featured in the museum's permanent Emily Carr display.

Source: Audain Art Museum