Vancouver Art Gallery Permanent Collection Expands by More than 150 Works in 2011

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Photo: Rachel Topham, Vancouver Art Gallery.

Ken Lum, "Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression", 2002-2011

Ken Lum, "Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression", 2002-2011, installation with mirrors and text. Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Key acquisitions of historical and contemporary art expanded the Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection by 156 works in 2011, with 113 works received through private donation. Works by artists Robert Davidson, Gathie Falk, Rodney Graham, Angela Grossman, Lawren Harris, Brian Jungen, Ken Lum, Liz Magor, Takao Tanabe, John Vanderpant, Frederick Varley and Ian Wallace, among many others, have been added to the Gallery’s collection, enhancing its status as the most significant public art collection in Western Canada. The Gallery’s permanent collection now numbers 10, 262 works of art.

“The Vancouver Art Gallery’s permanent collection is the core of our program and its sustained growth is essential,” said Gallery director Kathleen Bartels, “We are grateful for the generosity of our many donors of art and, with their support, we will continue to build this important legacy for this city and province.”

Following a successful mid-career survey exhibition at the Gallery in 2011, several important works by Ken Lum were added to the Gallery’s collection of this internationally renowned BC artist. These include Mirror Maze with 12 Signs of Depression, an ambitious installation first produced for Documenta 11 in 2002, as well as two video works that document Lum’s early performances  Entertainment for Surrey and Walk Piece, both from 1978.

With funds from Arts Partners in Creative Development, the Gallery was pleased to commission two new photo-based works by Ian Wallace, At the Crosswalk VII and VIII, which will be presented in a forthcoming career retrospective of Wallace’s work.

Through the generosity of Michael Audain and the Audain Foundation, the Gallery is now home to several significant First Nations works, including an argillite model totem pole dating back to the 1860s now on view in Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection, Fire Rangers Lookout by Frederick Varley and Etienne Zack’s Inner Works. The Audain Emerging Artist Fund enabled the Gallery to acquire works by award-winning Vancouver artists Jeremy Hof, Isabelle Pauwels, and Jeremy Shaw.

The contemporary collection was also expanded in 2011 by corporations and individuals. BMO Financial Group donated a significant new lightbox by renowned Vancouver artist Rodney Graham. Artist’s Model Posing for ‘The Old Bugler, Among the Fallen, Battle of Beaune-Roland, 1870 ’in the Studio of an Unknown Military Painter, 1885 adds to the Gallery’s significant collection of work by this artist. In honour of Kathleen Bartels’ 10^th anniversary as director of the Gallery, Dr. Rodrigo Restrepo donated a major canvas by noted contemporary Canadian artist Kent Monkman, and Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft celebrated the occasion with the gift of Scott McFarland’s Reshoeing, Ferrier James Findel with Assistant on Southlands. The estate of Letia Richardson added a number of works to the permanent collection, including Gathie Falk’s Cement with Poppies #5.

The Gallery also received generous donations from several contemporary artists. Among the gifts in 2011:

• Five photographs by artist Reece Terris from his Interior Views series;
• Twelve unique photographs by William Vazan from the 1960s and 70s;
• Michael Drebert’s To Cumshewa, which was created for and presented in the 2010 exhibition Everything Everyday;
• Four new works by Lawrence Weiner, adding to the Gallery’s archive of posters by this acclaimed New York artist.

Funds from the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance Program enabled the Gallery to acquire The Old Future by Elizabeth McIntosh.

The Gallery continues to receive support from the Anne Eliza Winn Trust for the expansion of its Group of Seven collection. In 2011, funds from the Winn Trust provided for the acquisition of Lawren Harris’ work titled Sketch Painted in Santa Fe for the Gallery’s collection. The artist was influential in the development of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Photography is increasingly recognized as a major strength of the collection. In the past year, the Gallery was pleased to be able to acquire 10 photographs by early 20^th century photographer John Vanderpant. Purchased with the assistance of the Jean Macmillan Southam Art Acquisition Endowment Fund, these photographs add to the Gallery’s already significant holding of Vanderpant’s work, which now numbers more than 100 photographs, by far the largest collection of his work in the world. The collection also benefitted from Aaron Milrad’s donation of six photographs by esteemed American photographer Larry Fink.

Other notable works were contributed by Monty Cooper, Peter Macnair and Jay Stewart, and Carol Jutte, among many other generous donors