Art Exhibits in
Hamilton/Burlington, Ontario  

October | November | December |
2012: January | February | March | April | May | June | July | August| September |

Ongoing in 2011
passe-partout - A Century of Canadians in France
Central Staircase

Artists have long journeyed across the Atlantic to Paris in search of training, inspiration and immersion in a culture that — in the decades surrounding the turn of the twentieth century — was at the center of the Western art world. Canadians were no exception. The soaring wall represents three generations of Canadian artists in France over the course of a century.

At ground level are paintings by the first generation of artists to board steamships bound for the continent, each of whom spent protracted periods studying, living and painting in Paris and its various and picturesque countrysides. These artists were exposed to a range of aesthetic approaches, including Academic art and Impressionism, elements of which they adapted to their own practices. Those who returned to Canada, such as Maurice Cullen and William Brymner, brought with them ideas and techniques learned abroad, thereby expanding art practice — and opening wide the eyes of the public — back home.

Cullen’s stepson Robert Pilot, together with many artists of his generation, followed in their predecessors’ footsteps. And while some of this generation also trained abroad, given the increased and more progressive teaching opportunities becoming available in Canada (in part due to the earlier generation), their experiences tended more toward informal training in the form of exploratory travel and the extensive viewing of art work.

And then there was Jean-Paul Riopelle who, at the tender age of twenty-two and working as a ship’s hand, made his first journey to Paris in 1946, settling there in December 1948 and marking his first solo show there the following year. Like those artists of the first generation in the late nineteenth century, Riopelle found himself in a progressive and exciting artistic milieu that was at the vanguard of art production. Ensuing years overseas brought him both increased success and immersion in the Parisian cultural scene.

The French experience defined, to varying degrees, the practice of these artists. Their ability to passe partout, to move freely and explore, to invest in the rich cultural and artistic environment in which they found themselves, expanded their individual visions and, correspondingly, their painting practices.

On view until 2012
From Rude to Rodin
Curated by Dr. Patrick Shaw Cable
GALLERY LEVEL TWO, Art Gallery of Hamilton

The largest and most important segment of the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s European sculpture collection is its rich selection of works by French artists of the nineteenth century, which we celebrate here within the context of our 2011 French Connection theme.

On view for most of the year in the AGH David Braley and Nancy Gordon Sculpture Atrium will be bronzes, terra cottas, and plasters by the masters of nineteenth-century French sculpting, such as François Rude and Antoine-Louis Barye; the mid-century giants Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux and Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse; and the later modernist pioneers Aristide Maillol and Auguste Rodin. Along the way visitors will discover the work of sculptors who are less well known today but achieved acclaim at the Paris Salons, including Henri Chapu, Paul Dubois, and Rodin’s contemporary Jules Dalou. In artworks whose subjects range from mythology to everyday life, viewers can appreciate the technical brilliance and dramatic panache of nineteenth-century French sculpture from Romanticism to modernism.

Ongoing in 2011
The Tanenbaum African Collection
Curated by Dr. Patrick Shaw Cable
GALLERY LEVEL TWO, Art Gallery of Hamilton

Due to the popular response garnered by the Summer exhibition Dance of Life, the Gallery will extend its presentation of striking artworks from the African collection of Joey and Toby Tanenbaum on Gallery Level Two. These dramatic examples represent only a fraction of the larger Tanenbaum Collection, which was promised earlier this year as a donation to the Art Gallery of Hamilton. Dating mostly from the late nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century and concentrating on ethnographic art from West and Central Africa, the Tanenbaum works on display include a handful of Oceanic pieces produced by the indigenous inhabitants of the island chain of Melanesia in the South Pacific. Visitors will be able to appreciate and understand these works more fully in terms of their conceptual, expressive, and formal artistry, as well as by the intimate connections they hold with the life, customs, and beliefs of the different societies that created and produced them.

To November 13, 2011
Ruby B. McQuesten: The Jewel of Whitehern
The Jean and Ross Fischer Gallery, Art Gallery of Hamilton
Presented by the City of Hamilton, Whitehern Historic House and Garden

Artist and devoted letter writer, Ruby Baker McQuesten (1879-1911) of Whitehern Museum passed away from tuberculosis at the young age of thirty-one. The pairings of paintings, drawings and letters featured in Ruby B. McQuesten: The Jewel of Whitehern demonstrate that despite its brevity, her life was resplendent with love for her family, humour, dynamism, and an appreciation of art. From her education at the Hamilton Art School beginning in 1894, through her career as a teacher in Ottawa, to her untimely death in 1911, Ruby Baker McQuesten produced more than sixty-five paintings, drawings, and pyrography objects. Comprising studies of the surrounding landscape, floral arrangements and still-lifes, these paintings and drawings document a life inspired by the simplicity and beauty of the natural world. Accompanied by original letters sent home to Whitehern, this exhibition presents a unique cache of fine art native to Hamilton. The Hamilton Historical Board has declared 2011 to be the "Year of the McQuestens."

To January 15, 2012
Masters of French Realism
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

The Art Gallery of Hamilton is fortunate to own a large body of works by various French painters associated with the central nineteenth-century artistic movement Realism, which achieved its most coherent expression in French painting. So, what better time than the year of The French Connection to celebrate these masters of French Realism, and explore the relationships and distinctions between them?

At the centre of French Realism was Gustave Courbet (1819–1877), represented in the exhibition by two landscape paintings. After the rejection of three of his fourteen submissions to the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris, Courbet made the daring move to hold his own private exhibition opposite the official exposition grounds, calling his space the Pavillon du Réalisme. While Courbet’s Realist representations of peasants and labourers were motivated by strong political views and he always enjoyed thumbing his nose in the face of accepted taste and rules, other French Realists found both popular and critical success with their naturalistically painted humble subjects. A case in point is Philippe Rousseau (1816–1887), whose specialty in still-lifes steeped in the tradition of seventeenth-century French master Chardin made him a favourite of Princess Mathilde and other Second Empire notables. Another type of Realism is represented in the work of James Tissot (1836–1902), whose Croquet has long been one of the favourite European paintings in the collection and is a quintessential expression of Tissot’s interest in portraying contemporary fashionable ladies. Several other artists in the exhibition infused their Realism with an eye to past traditions, for example Théodule Ribot, who was inspired by the Dutch master Rembrandt and the Spanish master Ribera. The Gallery owns more than twenty works by Ribot, who is the single best represented artist in the AGH Joey and Toby Tanenbaum Collection. More generally, most of the other works on display — by associated artists such as François Bonvin and Antoine Vollon — form part of the Tanenbaum Collection; together they reveal Realism to be a primary strength of this collection.

October 1 to January 15, 2012
Becoming: Photographs from the Collection of John and Ginny Soule
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

The photographs in the collection of John and Ginny Soule span the late 19th century to the present day, illustrating the hallmark styles of photography as it progressed through the 20th century. In its beginnings, photography was not considered a fine art form, but was in the process of becoming. Likewise, the Soule’s collection is evolving, growing along with their passion for photography. The images themselves are striking, haunting and beautiful; in their own right, they are becoming pictures.

John Soule has fond memories of how his passion for photography began. He remembers, “at some point in the mid- to late 1960s Life Magazine did a spread of photographs by Jerry Uelsmann who produced images from multiple negatives which were, in my mind, bizarre and thought-provoking. I removed the various images from the magazine, crudely framed them with cardboard backing, and hung them in my bedroom. It was cheap and amateurish, but I enjoyed observing the images, and that became my first small step to the collection we have today.”

With great pleasure, John and Ginny went on to collect veritable photographs by Jerry Uelsmann (American, b. 1934), which are on display in this exhibition amongst other striking works by Edward Steichen (American, 1879-1973), Édouard Boubat (French, 1923-1999), André Kertész (Hungarian-American, 1894-1985), Heinrich Kühn (German-Austrian, 1866-1944), Frank Sutcliffe (British, 1853-1941), Horst P. Horst (German-American, 1906-1999), and contemporary Canadian pieces by Barbara Astman and Jesse Boles.

October 1 to January 15, 2012
Quilts! A Gift from Carole and Howard Tanenbaum to the Textile Museum of Canada
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

Quilts! celebrates the donation of Carole and Howard Tanenbaum’s impressive collection of quilts to the Textile Museum of Canada in 2011. As serious collectors of material ranging from photography to paintings and sculpture, their quilt collection began when they happened upon one in a Stratford antique store and decided they had to have it. The collection grew from there. As longstanding collectors, the Tanenbaums have developed a keen and sensitive eye, and while the quilts originally served a functional purpose, it is evident that they entered the collection on artistic and aesthetic merits alone.

Dating primarily to the latter part of the nineteenth century, these quilts were made in the United States, Canada and England. Originally used as bedding, furnishings, as well as markers of family and community celebration, most of the quilts’ makers are unknown and their ancestry obscure. While their meaning and social messages have evolved, they continue to offer exquisite articulations of history, tradition and craftsmanship.

October 8 to December 31, 2011
Attila Richard Lukacs from the Collection of Salah J. Bachir
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

Alah J. Bachir’s collection of Attila Richard Lukacs’ work is unparalleled in its scope, representing the various series for which Lukacs has become well-known.

More than thirty works are on display, including grand portraits of decadent male nudes, poetic and mythological scenes, works from the artist’s military series, Polaroid photographs used as studies for paintings, as well as a new abstract painting that has drawn a lot of attention for its departure from the figurative. Consistent throughout the works is a highly engaging, mystical, allegorical component — images of fabled lovers and animalistic characters.

Over the years, Bachir’s astute selections have come to form a comprehensive collection of works by one of Canada’s greatest contemporary painters.

October 8 to December 31, 2011
Kristin Bjornerud: Safe Harbour
Curated by Melissa Bennett
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

Kristin Bjornerud’s lyrical watercolours convey myths and legends, dreams and superstitions. This exhibition features her recent works made during a residency on the island of Gotland, Sweden, in 2010, as winner of the Brucebo Fine Art Foundation scholarship, which is juried in part by the Art Gallery of Hamilton. The Foundation represents William Blair Bruce, a celebrated Hamilton painter of the turn of the 20th century.

During her summer residency, Bjornerud’s immersion in Gotland’s fabled history and mythological atmosphere had great influence on her works, and she incorporated her usual set of female characters drawn from life experiences. The paintings show scenes of women in tableaux, often in a mode of creation or peculiar activity–whether in Making the Land which shows a woman knitting a large textile piece that flows out like a landscape from her lap; or in A Long View, where a woman gazes out at sea through a pair of binoculars. In a surrealistic manner, the woman’s view is presented to us within a circle on the page. Bjornerud’s scenes are playful, laden with references to women as producers, and to fables intertwined with historic events.

• Eastern (Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI, Newfoundland and Labrador)
• Central (Ontario)
• Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut)

The combined jury then selects one national winner and two honourable mentions from the fifteen semi-finalists. The national winner will receive a purchase prize of $25,000 and the two honourable mentions will each receive $15,000.

For more information or to enter the 2011 RBC Canadian Painting Competition, go to www.rbc.com/paintingcompetition. The competition closes May 11, 2011.

January 14 to May 21, 2012
Mark Lewis: Forte!
Organized by the Art Gallery of Hamilton
GALLERY LEVEL ONE, Art Gallery of Hamilton

click image to enlarge Rush Hour, Morning and Evening, Cheapside will be shown in the AGH’s Southam Gallery. Our adjoining Steiner Gallery provides the opportunity to show a second film curated by AGH Curator of Contemporary Art, Melissa Bennett. Forte! (2010) was filmed by Lewis as he flew in a helicopter over the Italian Alps. The scenery is mountainous and leads to an overhead view of an old Napoleonic fort which was recently restored. On cue, cars and people exit the building, streaming out from the fortress – this theatrical element in combination with the majestic mountains evokes a sense of grandeur.