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978-0-7735-3244-1 September 2007
Beyond Wilderness: The Group of seven, Canadian Identity and Contemporary Art.
John O'Brian and Peter White's Beyond Wilderness is a volume of essays that deconstructs the myths surrounding the famed Group of Seven and such proxy artists as Tom Thomson and Emily Carr. This book is more than a study of art history as it examines what so many galleries and museums ought to: the inseparable connections between history, the conditions of contemporary life, and the art produced as a result of the two.
The essays in Beyond Wilderness trace the Group's connections to European art schools, wealthy Toronto patrons and industries, and colonial sentiments. Under the veneer of rugged adventures into Canada's 'wilderness', The Group's most famous paintings largely ignore the un-picturesque influence of urbanity that made them possible. However, the books contributors are very insightful and thorough in examining how a white, urban upper-class nationalist vision has used the group to help popularize mainstream "Canadian-ness"– a misrepresentation of Canada that relies heavily on virgin wilderness devoid of all humanity, particularly of its original peoples. In this regard, the book is particularly timely given the recent prominence of environmental and native rights issues.
Beyond Wilderness challenges currrent museums and galleries to be aware of and to be responsible about the nature of their exhibits. Some institutions, including the National Gallery of Canada and the McMichael Collection, are portrayed as idealizing and fetishing the Group, taking its benevolent legacy for granted rather than turning a critical eye upon it.
The book, therefore, can be informative and heartening for Canadian cultural institutions: it lays out the ways in which the work of a group of artists was appropriated by jingoists without necessarily prescribing ways in which art should be handled by institutions in order to best represent diversity and creativity. The onus is on every institution to make that possible
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