Sally McKay's Top Ten highlights from a course on 20th Century Canadian Art
This fall I taught a course called 20th Century Canadian Art. Here are some of my favourite thingies from our discussions.
1) Newton MacTavish: a journalist and photographer writing right at the time of the Group of Seven. His 1925 book is one of the first ever surveys of The Fine Arts in Canada. MacTavish was dubious about nationalism in art. And he starts the book by suggesting that we must look to the aboriginal Canadians for the beginnings of Canadian art. True to the opinions of his day, he goes on to dismiss Native art and artifacts as utilitarian, rather than aesthetic, but hey, at least he thought to mention it. This was a period of history when the Canadian government was doing everything it could to squash indigenous culture.
2) Colonialism juxtaposition
 Above: Homer Watson, The Stone Road, 1881 Right: a map showing the Haldimand Tract (aka Grand River Territory), granted to the Six Nations Confederacy in 1784 (grey area), and the current Six Nations reserve (red area) from The Dominion. |  |
3) Shelley Niro, a member of the Mohawk Nation, Iroquois Confederacy, Turtle Clan, Six Nations Reserve. The Shirt (2003) is a series of six photographs. See them all here at viritualmuseum.ca.
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4) Great White North
 Lawren Harris, North Shore, Lake Superior, 1926 In the book Beyond Wilderness, an excellent anthology critiquing Canadian landscape painting, Scott Watson suggests that the overwhelming winter whiteness of Lawren Harris' work has racial implications. |  Michael Snow, Plus Tard #15, 1977 Snow made this series of blurred photographs by slowly panning the Group of Seven installation at the National Gallery with a still camera. See the rest of them here at CCCA.ca |
5) Beavers
 Joyce Wieland, The Spirit of Canada Suckles the French and English Beavers, 1970-71 |
 Wendy Coburn, The Spirit of Canada Eating Beaver, 1999-2000 |
6) 70s video art (yay! I love this stuff)
David Askevold: FILL from benedict drew on Vimeo.
Unfortunately I couldn't get my hands on a copy of this to show the class. I just kind of described it and acted it out, which seemed to go over pretty well. Laughter is a good thing, right? This video had a huge impact on me when I was a student in the 80s, and it is partly responsible for my ongoing fondness for conceptual art.
 Lisa Steele, Birthday Suit – with scars and defects, 1974. See an excerpt here at CCCA.ca One of the students pointed out how great and strange and creepy it is the way she rubs her scars. It's intimate but at the same time mechanical and a bit robotic. We did a time travel exercise to get in the mood for the slow slow pacing of 70s video before we watched this and Colin Campbell. In a sort of year end nostalgia reflecting on the past frame of mind, I can't help but marvel at just how different the techno-media landscape is now from when this was made. And yet this early 70s video feels very familiar and vital, part of the present conversation. |
 Colin Campbell, Sackville I'm Yours, 1972. See an excerpt here at CCCA.ca. The following quotes are from a wonderful eulogy, "The singing dunes: Colin Campbell, 1943-2001" that John Greyson wrote for C Magazine, no. 74, summer 2002 He's the only person I've known whose friendships (deep, profound, intimate, long-term) were truly transgendered. Which meant that he resolutely refused to let gender define anyone. Which of course made him a very queer enigma that neither Church Street (gay town) nor College street (trendy town) could fathom. (Queen Street — the art scene — did him somewhat better). |
7) Vancouver's sublime banal & engagement with small moments of daily life
N.E. Thing Co. Ltd, Territorial Claim - Urination, 1969
Jeff Wall, Mimic, 1982
Ken Lum, Melly Shum Hates Her Job, 1990 (installation view, Rotterdam)
8) Collectivity, collaboration, and suspension of disbelief
Mr. Peanut (Vincent Trasov) and the Peanettes (Kate Craig is far left), video still from The Mr. Peanut for Mayor campaign, 1974
Kate Craig, Flying Leopard 1974. Photo: Hank Bull
General Idea, The 1984 Miss General Idea Pavillion, c.1977
Fastwurms, Blood Clock (installation view), AGYU, 2007
9) Rebecca Belmore and Richard Hill
Rebecca Belmore, Ayem-ee-aawach Ooma-mowan: Speaking to the Mother, 1991-6
AGO exhibition curated by Richard Hill, Speaking about
Landscape, Speaking to the Land (installation view), 2005
In Richard Hill's 2004 essay "Getting Unpinned" he makes a solid muesological case for displaying works by First Nations and Aboriginal artists in dialogue with works by Europeans and Colonizers. In this exhibition he hung together a whole pile of landscapes from the AGO's permanent collection, from mutliple time periods and placed Rebecca Belmore's big megaphone for speaking to the land in the middle of the room. If you go to the JS McLean wing of the new AGO you will see a similar curatorial strategy (including a work by Rebecca Belmore and one by Kent Monkman), only this time its not a temporary exhibition. Good trend! Art museums don't have to suck ass.
10) First Nations contemporary art
Nadia Myre, Indian Act (detail), 1999 and 2002. Yep, she got together with groups of people and they beaded the whole darn thing. See more images here on Myre's website.
Kent Monkman, Group of Seven Inches (film still), 2005
Terrance Houle, Terrance Houle, Urban Indian, 2004
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