Vancouver Art Gallery
Back in Vancouver for the weekend!
Tiff and I ventured out to spend some time and money at the Vancouver Art Gallery this afternoon. I had read that they have some nice paintings by local favorite Emily Carr, so I thought it would be fun to see what Canadian painters have been up to.
Whenever I’m in a new part of the world I love to see what’s been going on art-wise. It’s a wonderful window into how a place sees itself, and sometimes more so than guide books, it’s a great way to learn the culture and history.
Emily Carr lived and painted in British Columbia in the early 1900s and spent a lot of time among the First Nation peoples depicting scenes of village life. The museum has some large paintings of hers as well as rough pencil sketches all done in her Fauvist style (similar to Gauguin). They were great to see, but weren’t my favorite. I was more impressed with the Group of Seven – a local group of painters who worked around the same time with the goal to consciously produce a unique Canadian iconography, something distinct from Europe. Their styles are 
impressionistic and bold - the light is just different here - and the more I see of the landscape here in B.C., the more I can see what these artists saw. In the bookstore I picked up a hiker’s guide to the Canadian Rockies that uses these paintings as a guide. Now that’s a guide book I can use!
Upstairs the museum had two temporary exhibits and both were hits. Local artist Brian Jungen is a sculptor who makes traditional artifacts out of contemporary stuff. He had three life-sized whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling made entirely out of plastic lawn chairs. There was amazing care and detail in these things. He also had a huge black traditional tee-pee made from the hides of leather couches. What’s old is new, and what’s new is old again.
The centerpiece of his exhibit was 23 traditional indigenous masks made from cut-up Nike Air Jordan shoes. It was spooky how life-like these masks can be, with their eye holes and traditional red, black and white coloring. Very cool stuff.
On the top floor were paintings by Takeo Tanabe, another Canadian who paints giant panoramic landscapes of the scenery around Alberta where the land is flat and the sky is huge. His stuff was very impressive, as if you could step into the art and walk all the way to the horizon.
Our guide book pooh-poohed this museum for being over-priced and a bit lacking, but for us it was a big hit. Now we can’t wait to go back next month to see their exhibit on 200 years of indigenous Haida art.
(Art gallery quote of the day… “I’ve looked at all of them, and this one is the weirdest by far!” said by a little girl to her father.)
Tiff and I ventured out to spend some time and money at the Vancouver Art Gallery this afternoon. I had read that they have some nice paintings by local favorite Emily Carr, so I thought it would be fun to see what Canadian painters have been up to. Whenever I’m in a new part of the world I love to see what’s been going on art-wise. It’s a wonderful window into how a place sees itself, and sometimes more so than guide books, it’s a great way to learn the culture and history.
Emily Carr lived and painted in British Columbia in the early 1900s and spent a lot of time among the First Nation peoples depicting scenes of village life. The museum has some large paintings of hers as well as rough pencil sketches all done in her Fauvist style (similar to Gauguin). They were great to see, but weren’t my favorite. I was more impressed with the Group of Seven – a local group of painters who worked around the same time with the goal to consciously produce a unique Canadian iconography, something distinct from Europe. Their styles are impressionistic and bold - the light is just different here - and the more I see of the landscape here in B.C., the more I can see what these artists saw. In the bookstore I picked up a hiker’s guide to the Canadian Rockies that uses these paintings as a guide. Now that’s a guide book I can use!Upstairs the museum had two temporary exhibits and both were hits. Local artist Brian Jungen is a sculptor who makes traditional artifacts out of contemporary stuff. He had three life-sized whale skeletons suspended from the ceiling made entirely out of plastic lawn chairs. There was amazing care and detail in these things. He also had a huge black traditional tee-pee made from the hides of leather couches. What’s old is new, and what’s new is old again. The centerpiece of his exhibit was 23 traditional indigenous masks made from cut-up Nike Air Jordan shoes. It was spooky how life-like these masks can be, with their eye holes and traditional red, black and white coloring. Very cool stuff.On the top floor were paintings by Takeo Tanabe, another Canadian who paints giant panoramic landscapes of the scenery around Alberta where the land is flat and the sky is huge. His stuff was very impressive, as if you could step into the art and walk all the way to the horizon.
Our guide book pooh-poohed this museum for being over-priced and a bit lacking, but for us it was a big hit. Now we can’t wait to go back next month to see their exhibit on 200 years of indigenous Haida art.
(Art gallery quote of the day… “I’ve looked at all of them, and this one is the weirdest by far!” said by a little girl to her father.)
posted by alex | 11:59 PM
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