Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1930-03-09
CANADIAN ARTISTS
WORK is EXHIBITED
Youthful Painters Go Back to
Nature for Subjects in
Modern Move.

bors but with whose work up to the
present time we are comparatively little
acquainted, and it brings to attention,
through patent demonstration, the pos
sibility of works of art being modern
istic and at the same time inherently
beautiful.
There are so paintings included IN
this exhibition by 80 artists, all OF
whom, except one, are living and work
ing today. Ten of these artists are
working in Montreal, IA in Toronto, 4
in Ottawa and / each in Quebec,
Lansing, Victoria, Winnipeg and Van
couver.
OF these 80 artists only are not
Canadian by birth, having been
born in England and l in Scotland.
It is not remarkable, therefore, perhaps
that the paintings embraced in this ex-
hibition sound distinctly nationallstic
note.
Movement Began in 1910.
According to F. B. Housser, who has
written a foreword to the catalogue, the
modern art movement in Canada began
about the year 1910, up to which time
the Dutch and Barbizon schools of art
had provided the art standards OF most
Canadian painters and connoisSeurS.
The modern movement, of which these
paintings are the outcome to date. was
launched as a protest against these
standards, and had as its original mo-
tive a desire to develop a distinctly
Canadian expression.
In search of this, the young painters
went back to nature, conscripting pad
die and canoe. In the present exhibition
are found landscapes painted from
habitant Quebec to the snowflelds of
the Rocky Mountains, and from the
wildS of Northern Ontario to Northern
Labrador In practically all the source
az inspiration is Canada itself, the DOM
ibant note of which is the North.
It is interesting to know that 80 of
the 33 painters who have contributed
to this exhibition are represented in the
permanent collection of the National
Gallery of Canada at Ottawa. AS they
arc pioneers this is the more remark
able. but it should not be supposed that
because these painters have received, as
1t were, official recognition, their way
is easy.
1--WE are not very popular" writes
one of these Canadian painters, 80 we
spend a lot of time communing with
nature. and there are such large tracts
of it UP here that it keeps us busy"
Probably it Is this that has called
forth the best in these young painters
and produced work of the fine character
70 be found in this exhibition.
All Are Modern but Two.
With but two exceptions, the works
Of Horatio Walker, all of the paintings
IN this exhibition are in the modern
manner, which is interpretive rather
than literal. Certain characteristics are
shared in common. For instance that
Of extreme Simplification in composition
and elimination Of detail. The present.
day painter of the modern school does
not attempt to reproduce nature, but
rather gives a simplified impression,
which viii not only convey to the be-
holder elemental facts but presumably
will appeal to his imagination and
create emotion.
When the American landscape school
was developed more thsn half century
ago the object of the painters was to
exactly reproduce nature, setting down
not only what they saw, but what they
knew to be true. And in an effort to
be nat1onalistic they, too, sought out
subjects which were unique. Church
painted Niagara, Bierstadt the Rocky
Mountains, Moran the canyons Of the
Southwest. But the kind Of picture
prettve and the subject became Of
greater Importance than the art.
Artists today all over the world have
more or less discarded these ideals and
have come to recognize art as some
thing more than an imitation of ma
ture, but those of real wisdom are aware
that nature has always been and must
always be the source of inspiration and
that only those who drink deep at its
source will achieve great results.
Northern Nature Is Rugged.
Obviously, nature in the Northland Is
rugged and severe. Strength and en-
durance are its dominant characters
tics. and 1t is these that one finds re-
AAA d. ~ - 49,. H..
painters. Their simplif1cations empha-
size structural forms and evidence
beauty In their rhythmic lines. In
many of these pictures one comes face
to face with the immutable and real
ICES the littleness of man as measured
by the eternal.
Perhaps of all the painters exhibiting
the one who approaches in his express
sion most nearly the abstract Is Lawren
large canvases, one entitled Isolation
Peak" another Rhythm of the North, :"
another Mountain Form"-pictureS
which cannot be identified with any
one place, but that have In them an
element Of the universal-that element
found in some Of Rockwell Kent's itho-
graphs and wood cuts, as well as in an
occasional painting. But Mr.. Harris
work essentially is individualiStic; ap-
parently he has been profoundly moved
by the shapes and forms of isolated
mountain peaks, by the phenomena OF
the Northern Lights, by nature when
most gaunt and repelling, and has
found In its repulsion and gauntnesS
real beatty which, through the medium
Of his art. he makes manifest TO others.
Alexander Y. Jackson's painting
ronto; Labrador Coast" and October
Morning, Algoma," are all somewhat in
the same manner but more realistic,
more identified with particular place
and hour. Barns" is an amazing pic
ture from the standpoint of pure real
ism, wonderfully interpreting the cold
ness OF the snow, the brill1ancy OF light
coming from a partly clouded sky, with
concentration of interest on a little
group of dark colored barns resting. as
1t were, in the lap of stern Mother Ma
ture. Labrador Coast" Is interesting
both for its Interpretation of land for
nation and sense of spaciousness. "Oc-
tober Morning Agoma," Is more color
ful and less stern, but also strong and
significant.
Carmichaels Work Is Strong.
Another strong painter in this exhi-
bition is Franklin Carmichael, whose
Evening, Lake Superior; Lake Waba-
gishik" and North Shore, Lake Supe-
rior," are in somewhat similar vein
More modernistic, perhaps, in accord
ance with formula, and possibly trifle
less nationalistic in suggestion, are
Bertram Brokers Lone Tree" and
Wood Interior" and Lionel Lemoine
Fftzgerald's "Fop,sfs'' and William
sons Garage" the last Winter picture
owned and lent by the National Gallery
of Canada.
In sharp and interesting contrast IL
the coldness of many of the works in.
cluded In this exhibition is a painting
an upright panel entitled Prairie