Decades: Part II Cold War / Hot Abstractions The Art of the 50s

The second exhibition of our four part series profiling works from our permanent collection produced in each decade and demonstrating a relationship between art, its time and history. Watch for related events with each decade that delve into other art disciplines, like music, film, literature and dance, to investigate the interrelationships in the arts during these eras.

Emily Carr: Drawing the Forest

Drawing the Forest offers a rare insight into the creative process of Emily Carr through 39 charcoal drawings of the West Coast Forest. This exhibition marks the first time this collection of Carr’s charcoal drawings from the Vancouver Art Gallery has been shown in its entirety and the works themselves are seldom seen due to their fragility.

The drawings, executed from 1929 – 1931, reveal Carr’s skilled draughtsmanship and show the role of drawing in her work as well as a growing influence of modernism. They offer a wonderful glimpse into Carr’s creative process, her exploration of the BC landscape and the artistic contributions of the First Nations. This exhibition is curated by Ian Thom and organized and circulated by the Vancouver Art Gallery.

This exhibition coincides with Emily Carr: Eccentric Artist, Author, Genius, an exhibition that partners the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Royal BC Museum and the BC Archives and includes several important works from the Art Gallery.

Joe Norris: Painted Visions of Nova Scotia

by Bernard Riordon, Curator of the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia from Art Gallery of Nova Scotia Journal

Joe Norris found joy in simple pleasures. He never questioned the hand that life dealt him. Having to recreate his life at age forty-nine after a devas-tating heart attack, Joe translated his energy into paintings. His cove scenes and seagull paintings have become icons for the Nova Scotian experi-ence over the past quarter century, and many people consider Joe Norris to be a national treasure.

His paintings conjure up an ideal and better world, one in which peace and happiness are predomi-nant and the problems of everyday reality should not exist. Joe?s fishing villages and cove scenes transport us into a world of blue skies, calm waters, and endless summer. A half-forgotten world of winter sleigh rides through shimmering fields of snow becomes a vivid, tangible here-and-now in Joe?s magical ?starry night? paintings.

Myfanwy Pavelic: Images

In honour of Myfanwy Pavelic being announced as a recipient of the Order of BC, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria will be presenting an exhibition of her work from our permanent collection. Myfanwy Pavelic’s portraits and paintings document succeeding generations of artists, musicians, composers and statesmen, from Yehudi Menuhin to Pierre Trudeau.

Her work has been exhibited from Victoria to the National Gallery in London, England; and her philanthropy has helped many people and organizations in Victoria and beyond.

Decades: Part I Swing and Strife – The Art of the 1940s

Join us for the first of a four part series Decades on the art of the 40s, 50s, 60s and 70s. Over the next two years, the Gallery will profile works from our permanent collection produced in each decade and demonstrating relationships between art, its time and history.

earthly gestures

Guest Curator, Cathi Charles Wherry

Whenever I go to a new place it’s important
to get away from the city
and feel the land, as a way of locating myself.
Even as a girl it amazed me,
the way that certain places held and spoke to me, offered
what I needed when I needed it most.
Now those places recognize me and
she…

George Wallace: Sculpture and Graphics

This exhibition consists of etchings, monotypes, prints, and figurative sculptures. Almost all of the prints are satirical in intention and in this respect continue a long established tradition of printmaking, much as prints by Daumier and Dix and many others who deplore and mock the vices and follies of society. They, like drawings, reveal the distinctive “hand writing” of the artist.

The sculptures are of two kinds: the large figures are made of welded steel, while the group of heads “Ten Characters from a Spanish Comedy” are made in wax and cast in bronze and also have a satiric intention.

While prints may show us the gestures that went into their making, sculptures often invite us to touch them. But just as prints are more than a record of hand gesture, sculpture can be more than an invitation to touch.

Exotic Objets d’Art: Chinese Amber and Ivory Carvings

The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is extremely fortunate to have been gifted a large and impres-sive collection of Chinese amber and ivory carvings from the late Francis and Kay Reif of Vancouver that are among the finest in the world. With the addi-tion of ivory carvings from other donations, this exhibition will display approximately 150 carvings of this remarkable and exotic material.

The Chinese were probably the first civilization to work ivory and they rank the material second only to jade. A precious commodity for carving since Neolithic times, ivory did not reach its greatest flowering until the Ming (1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. Although the Chinese had some local sources of amber, most of this fossilized tree resin was imported from Burma and later from Europe via the Silk Road. Early Chinese pieces are usually of beads or amulets but by the Qing dynasty large pieces of amber were being carved into decorative objects like vases, figurative sculptures and fruit.

Vic High 125th Anniversary Exhibition

This spring marks the 125th anniversary of Victoria High School and a celebration of the many great artists that got their start at “good old Vic High”. The exhibition features works by artists such as Emily Carr, Carol Sabiston, Jack Shadbolt, Fenwick Lansdowne, Bill Reid, Richard Hunt, Miles Lowry, and Max Maynard in recognition of this important milestone for the High School and for the city of Victoria.