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Beyond Wilderness, Second EditionThe Group of Seven, Canadian Identity, and Contemporary Art |
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The legacy of the Group of Seven and the reinvention of Canadian landscape art since the 1960s.
"The great purpose of landscape art is to make us at home in our own country" was the nationalist maxim motivating the Group of Seven's artistic project. The empty landscape paintings of the Group played a significant role in the nationalization of nature in Canada, particularly in the development of ideas about northernness, wilderness, and identity. In Beyond Wilderness contributors pick up where the Group of Seven left off. They demonstrate that since the 1960s a growing body of both art and critical writing has looked "beyond wilderness" to re-imagine landscape in a world of vastly altered political, technological, and environmental circumstances. By emphasizing social relationships, changing identity politics, and issues of colonial power and dispossession, contemporary artists have produced landscape art that explores what was absent in the work of their predecessors.
Beyond Wilderness expands the public understanding of Canadian landscape representation, tracing debates about the place of landscape in Canadian art and the national imagination through the twentieth century to the present. Critical writings from both contemporary and historically significant curators, historians, feminists, media theorists, and cultural critics and exactingly reproduced artworks by contemporary and historical artists are brought together in productive dialogue. Beyond Wilderness explains why landscape art in Canada had to be reinvented, and what forms the reinvention took.
Contributors include Benedict Anderson (Cornell), Grant Arnold (Vancouver Art Gallery). Rebecca Belmore, Jody Berland (York), Eleanor Bond (Concordia), Jonathan Bordo (Trent), Douglas Cole, Marlene Creates, Marcia Crosby (Malaspina), Greg Curnoe, Ann Davis (Nickle Arts Museum), Leslie Dawn (Lethbridge), Shawna Dempsey, Christos Dikeakos, Peter Doig, Rosemary Donegan (OCAD), Stan Douglas, Paterson Ewen, Robert Fones, Northrop Frye, Robert Fulford, General Idea, Rodney Graham, Reesa Greenberg, Gu Xiong (British Columbia), Cole Harris (British Columbia), Richard William Hill (Middlesex), Robert Houle, Andrew Hunter (Waterloo), Lynda Jessup (Queen's), Zacharias Kunuk (Igloolik Isuma Productions), Johanne Lamoureux (Montréal), Robert Linsley (Waterloo), Barry Lord (Lord Cultural Resources), Marshall McLuhan, Mike MacDonald, Liz Magor (ECIAD), Lorri Millan, Gerta Moray (Guelph), Roald Nasgaard (Florida State), N.E. Thing Company, Carol Payne (Carleton), Edward Poitras, Dennis Reid (Art Gallery of Ontario), Michel Saulnier, Nancy Shaw (Simon Fraser), Johanne Sloan (Concordia), Michael Snow, Robert Stacey, David Thauberger, Loretta Todd, Esther Trépanier (Québec), Dot Tuer (OCAD), Christopher Varley, Jeff Wall, Paul H. Walton (McMaster), Mel Watkins (Toronto), Scott Watson (British Columbia), Anne Whitelaw (Alberta), Joyce Wieland, Jin-me Yoon (Simon Fraser), Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Joyce Zemans (York).
Beyond Wilderness expands the public understanding of Canadian landscape representation, tracing debates about the place of landscape in Canadian art and the national imagination through the twentieth century to the present. Critical writings from both contemporary and historically significant curators, historians, feminists, media theorists, and cultural critics and exactingly reproduced artworks by contemporary and historical artists are brought together in productive dialogue. Beyond Wilderness explains why landscape art in Canada had to be reinvented, and what forms the reinvention took.
Contributors include Benedict Anderson (Cornell), Grant Arnold (Vancouver Art Gallery). Rebecca Belmore, Jody Berland (York), Eleanor Bond (Concordia), Jonathan Bordo (Trent), Douglas Cole, Marlene Creates, Marcia Crosby (Malaspina), Greg Curnoe, Ann Davis (Nickle Arts Museum), Leslie Dawn (Lethbridge), Shawna Dempsey, Christos Dikeakos, Peter Doig, Rosemary Donegan (OCAD), Stan Douglas, Paterson Ewen, Robert Fones, Northrop Frye, Robert Fulford, General Idea, Rodney Graham, Reesa Greenberg, Gu Xiong (British Columbia), Cole Harris (British Columbia), Richard William Hill (Middlesex), Robert Houle, Andrew Hunter (Waterloo), Lynda Jessup (Queen's), Zacharias Kunuk (Igloolik Isuma Productions), Johanne Lamoureux (Montréal), Robert Linsley (Waterloo), Barry Lord (Lord Cultural Resources), Marshall McLuhan, Mike MacDonald, Liz Magor (ECIAD), Lorri Millan, Gerta Moray (Guelph), Roald Nasgaard (Florida State), N.E. Thing Company, Carol Payne (Carleton), Edward Poitras, Dennis Reid (Art Gallery of Ontario), Michel Saulnier, Nancy Shaw (Simon Fraser), Johanne Sloan (Concordia), Michael Snow, Robert Stacey, David Thauberger, Loretta Todd, Esther Trépanier (Québec), Dot Tuer (OCAD), Christopher Varley, Jeff Wall, Paul H. Walton (McMaster), Mel Watkins (Toronto), Scott Watson (British Columbia), Anne Whitelaw (Alberta), Joyce Wieland, Jin-me Yoon (Simon Fraser), Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun, and Joyce Zemans (York).
Details
Part of the Arts Insights Series (number 7 in series)
408 Pages, 10 x 8.25
130 colour illustrations
ISBN 9780773551442
January 2018
Formats: Paperback, eBook
"A substantive, generation-bridging collection … [that] masterfully configures the foundations of a highly compelling revisionist Canadian art history." Jennifer Fisher, contemporary art history and curatorial studies, York University
John O’Brian, professor emeritus at the University of British Columbia, is an art historian, writer, and curator. His books include Camera Atomica and Ruthless Hedonism.
Peter White is an independent curator and writer in Montreal. He has organized many exhibitions of contemporary and historical art, including It Pays to Play: British Columbia in Postcards, 1950s-1980s.
Peter White is an independent curator and writer in Montreal. He has organized many exhibitions of contemporary and historical art, including It Pays to Play: British Columbia in Postcards, 1950s-1980s.
PREFACE
John O’Brian & Peter White - Beyond Beyond Wilderness: A Preface for the Second Edition | xi
INTRODUCTION
John O’Brian & Peter White | 3
CHAPTER 1 - WILDERNESS MYTHS
Peter White - Out of the Woods | 11
John O’Brian - Wild Art History | 21
CHAPTER 2 - EXTENSIONS OF TECHNOLOGY
Introduction | 40
Jeff Wall - Landscape Manual | 42
Marshall McLuhan - Technology and Environment | 47
Michael Snow - La Région Centrale | 51
Michael Snow - Plus Tard | 52
Greg Curnoe - Amendments to Continental Refusal/Refus Continental | 57
Greg Curnoe - View of Victoria Hospital, First Series: Nos. 1-6 | 59
Nancy Shaw - Siting the Banal: The Expanded Landscapes of the N.E. Thing Company | 63
Iain Baxter - Landscape with Tree and 3 Cirrus Clouds | 69
N.E. Thing Company - Simulated Photo of the Moon’s “Sea of Tranquility …” Filled with Water and the N.E. Thing Company’s Sign Placed Beside It, August 1969 | 69
Johanne Sloan - Conceptual Landscape Art: Joyce Wieland and Michael Snow | 73
Joyce Wieland - True Patriot Love| 85
Jody Berland - Space at the Margins: Colonial Spatiality and Critical Theory after Innis | 89
Rodney Graham - Illuminated Ravine | 93
CHAPTER 3 - POST-CENTENNIAL HISTORIES
Introduction | 98
Dennis Reid - Introduction to The Group of Seven | 101
Northrop Frye - Preface to The Bush Garden | 109
Paterson Ewen - Night Storm and Iceberg| 111
Barry Lord - The Group of Seven: A National Landscape Art | 115
Ann Davis - The Wembley Controversy in Canadian Art | 123
Douglas Cole - Artists, Patrons, and Public: An Enquiry into the Success of the Group of Seven | 129
CHAPTER 4 - NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT
Introduction | 136
General Idea - Pharm@cology | 138
Paul H. Walton - The Group of Seven and Northern Development | 141
Rosemary Donegan - Modernism and The Industrial Imagination: Copper Cliff and the Sudbury Basin | 145
Carol Payne - “How Shall We Use These Gifts?” Imaging the Land in the National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division | 153
Mel Watkins - Reflections on Being Born in a Group of Seven Canvas That Is Magically Transformed into a Sensuous Eleanor Bond Painting | 161
Eleanor Bond - Later, Some Industrial Refugees from Communal Settlements in a Logged Valley in B.C. and The Women’s Park at Fish Lake Provides Hostels, Hotels and Housing | 166
CHAPTER 5 - CONTEST AND CONTROVERSY
Introduction | 172
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
Anne Whitelaw - “Whiffs of Balsam, Pine, and Spruce”: Art Museums and the Production of a Canadian Aesthetic | 175
Joyce Zemans - Establishing the Canon: Nationhood, Identity, and the National Gallery’s First Reproduction Programme of Canadian Art | 181
Lynda Jessup - Art for a Nation? | 187
Leslie Dawn - The Britishness of Canadian Art | 193
THE MCMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION
Joyce Zemans - What Would the Group of Seven Say? | 202
Christopher Varley - Letter to the Editor | 206
Gu Xiong and Andrew Hunter - Ding Ho/Group of 7 | 207
Richard William Hill - Graveyard and Giftshop: Fighting over the McMichael Canadian Art Collection | 211
EMILY CARR
Scott Watson - Disfigured Nature: The Origins of the Modern Canadian Landscape | 217
Marcia Crosby - Construction of the Imaginary Indian | 219
Robert Fulford - The Trouble with Emily | 223
Gerta Moray - Emily Carr and the Traffic in Native Images | 229
CHAPTER 6 - WHAT IS CANADIAN IN CANADIAN LANDSCAPE?
Introduction - 236
Cole Harris - The Myth of the Land in Canadian Nationalism | 239
Robert Fones - Natural Range of Bur Oak, Natural Range of Canada Plum, Natural Range of Shagbark Hickory, Natural Range of White Oak | 241
Benedict Anderson - Staging Antimodernism in the Age of High Capitalist Nationalism | 245
Peter Doig - Canoe-Lake and Figure in a Mountain Landscape | 247
Roald Nasgaard - The Mystic North | 251
Liz Magor - Cabin in the Snow | 254
Robert Stacey - The Myth - and Truth - of the True North | 258
Michel Saulnier - Le Groupe des Sept | 258
Grant Arnold - The Terminal City and the Rhetoric of Utopia | 269
Stan Douglas - Nu·ka· | 272
Scott Watson - Race, Wilderness, Territory, and the Origins of Modern Canadian Landscape Painting | 277
Robert Houle - Premises for Self-Rule | 283
Reesa Greenberg - Defining Canada | 286
Jin-me Yoon - A Group of Sixty-Seven | 290
CHAPTER 7 - THE EXPRESSION OF A DIFFERENCE
Introduction | 296
Edward Poitras - Offensive/Defensive | 299
Esther Trépanier - The Expression of a Difference: The Milieu of Quebec Art and the Group of Seven | 303
Johanne Lamoureux - Interview with John O’Brian and Peter White | 307
David Thauberger - Slough and Lake Reflecting Mountains | 313
Robert Linsley - Painting and the Social History of British Columbia | 317
Marlene Creates - Entering and Leaving St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1995 | 321
Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan - Lesbian National Parks and Services | 324
Christos Dikeakos - ch’e chée lmun and Wanuskewin Park, Mike Vitkowski’s Farm, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | 327
Jonathan Bordo - Jack Pine: Wilderness Sublime or the Erasure of the Aboriginal Presence from the Landscape | 331
Zacharias Kunuk - Video and Location Stills | 335
Dot Tuer - Performing Memory: The Art of Storytelling in the Work of Rebecca Belmore | 335
Rebecca Belmore - Ayumee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to their Mother | 341
Loretta Todd - Yuxweluptun: A Philosophy of History | 348
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun - Scorched Earth, Clear-Cut Logging on Native Sovereign Lands, Shaman Coming to Fix and Red Man Watching White Man Trying to Fix Hole in Sky | 348
Mike MacDonald - Butterfly Garden | 352
Notes | 355
Bibliography | 371
Contributors | 375
Contemporary Art Pages | 379
Acknowledgments | 380
Image Credits | 381
Index | 383
John O’Brian & Peter White - Beyond Beyond Wilderness: A Preface for the Second Edition | xi
INTRODUCTION
John O’Brian & Peter White | 3
CHAPTER 1 - WILDERNESS MYTHS
Peter White - Out of the Woods | 11
John O’Brian - Wild Art History | 21
CHAPTER 2 - EXTENSIONS OF TECHNOLOGY
Introduction | 40
Jeff Wall - Landscape Manual | 42
Marshall McLuhan - Technology and Environment | 47
Michael Snow - La Région Centrale | 51
Michael Snow - Plus Tard | 52
Greg Curnoe - Amendments to Continental Refusal/Refus Continental | 57
Greg Curnoe - View of Victoria Hospital, First Series: Nos. 1-6 | 59
Nancy Shaw - Siting the Banal: The Expanded Landscapes of the N.E. Thing Company | 63
Iain Baxter - Landscape with Tree and 3 Cirrus Clouds | 69
N.E. Thing Company - Simulated Photo of the Moon’s “Sea of Tranquility …” Filled with Water and the N.E. Thing Company’s Sign Placed Beside It, August 1969 | 69
Johanne Sloan - Conceptual Landscape Art: Joyce Wieland and Michael Snow | 73
Joyce Wieland - True Patriot Love| 85
Jody Berland - Space at the Margins: Colonial Spatiality and Critical Theory after Innis | 89
Rodney Graham - Illuminated Ravine | 93
CHAPTER 3 - POST-CENTENNIAL HISTORIES
Introduction | 98
Dennis Reid - Introduction to The Group of Seven | 101
Northrop Frye - Preface to The Bush Garden | 109
Paterson Ewen - Night Storm and Iceberg| 111
Barry Lord - The Group of Seven: A National Landscape Art | 115
Ann Davis - The Wembley Controversy in Canadian Art | 123
Douglas Cole - Artists, Patrons, and Public: An Enquiry into the Success of the Group of Seven | 129
CHAPTER 4 - NORTHERN DEVELOPMENT
Introduction | 136
General Idea - Pharm@cology | 138
Paul H. Walton - The Group of Seven and Northern Development | 141
Rosemary Donegan - Modernism and The Industrial Imagination: Copper Cliff and the Sudbury Basin | 145
Carol Payne - “How Shall We Use These Gifts?” Imaging the Land in the National Film Board of Canada’s Still Photography Division | 153
Mel Watkins - Reflections on Being Born in a Group of Seven Canvas That Is Magically Transformed into a Sensuous Eleanor Bond Painting | 161
Eleanor Bond - Later, Some Industrial Refugees from Communal Settlements in a Logged Valley in B.C. and The Women’s Park at Fish Lake Provides Hostels, Hotels and Housing | 166
CHAPTER 5 - CONTEST AND CONTROVERSY
Introduction | 172
NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA
Anne Whitelaw - “Whiffs of Balsam, Pine, and Spruce”: Art Museums and the Production of a Canadian Aesthetic | 175
Joyce Zemans - Establishing the Canon: Nationhood, Identity, and the National Gallery’s First Reproduction Programme of Canadian Art | 181
Lynda Jessup - Art for a Nation? | 187
Leslie Dawn - The Britishness of Canadian Art | 193
THE MCMICHAEL CANADIAN ART COLLECTION
Joyce Zemans - What Would the Group of Seven Say? | 202
Christopher Varley - Letter to the Editor | 206
Gu Xiong and Andrew Hunter - Ding Ho/Group of 7 | 207
Richard William Hill - Graveyard and Giftshop: Fighting over the McMichael Canadian Art Collection | 211
EMILY CARR
Scott Watson - Disfigured Nature: The Origins of the Modern Canadian Landscape | 217
Marcia Crosby - Construction of the Imaginary Indian | 219
Robert Fulford - The Trouble with Emily | 223
Gerta Moray - Emily Carr and the Traffic in Native Images | 229
CHAPTER 6 - WHAT IS CANADIAN IN CANADIAN LANDSCAPE?
Introduction - 236
Cole Harris - The Myth of the Land in Canadian Nationalism | 239
Robert Fones - Natural Range of Bur Oak, Natural Range of Canada Plum, Natural Range of Shagbark Hickory, Natural Range of White Oak | 241
Benedict Anderson - Staging Antimodernism in the Age of High Capitalist Nationalism | 245
Peter Doig - Canoe-Lake and Figure in a Mountain Landscape | 247
Roald Nasgaard - The Mystic North | 251
Liz Magor - Cabin in the Snow | 254
Robert Stacey - The Myth - and Truth - of the True North | 258
Michel Saulnier - Le Groupe des Sept | 258
Grant Arnold - The Terminal City and the Rhetoric of Utopia | 269
Stan Douglas - Nu·ka· | 272
Scott Watson - Race, Wilderness, Territory, and the Origins of Modern Canadian Landscape Painting | 277
Robert Houle - Premises for Self-Rule | 283
Reesa Greenberg - Defining Canada | 286
Jin-me Yoon - A Group of Sixty-Seven | 290
CHAPTER 7 - THE EXPRESSION OF A DIFFERENCE
Introduction | 296
Edward Poitras - Offensive/Defensive | 299
Esther Trépanier - The Expression of a Difference: The Milieu of Quebec Art and the Group of Seven | 303
Johanne Lamoureux - Interview with John O’Brian and Peter White | 307
David Thauberger - Slough and Lake Reflecting Mountains | 313
Robert Linsley - Painting and the Social History of British Columbia | 317
Marlene Creates - Entering and Leaving St. John’s, Newfoundland, 1995 | 321
Shawna Dempsey & Lorri Millan - Lesbian National Parks and Services | 324
Christos Dikeakos - ch’e chée lmun and Wanuskewin Park, Mike Vitkowski’s Farm, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan | 327
Jonathan Bordo - Jack Pine: Wilderness Sublime or the Erasure of the Aboriginal Presence from the Landscape | 331
Zacharias Kunuk - Video and Location Stills | 335
Dot Tuer - Performing Memory: The Art of Storytelling in the Work of Rebecca Belmore | 335
Rebecca Belmore - Ayumee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to their Mother | 341
Loretta Todd - Yuxweluptun: A Philosophy of History | 348
Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun - Scorched Earth, Clear-Cut Logging on Native Sovereign Lands, Shaman Coming to Fix and Red Man Watching White Man Trying to Fix Hole in Sky | 348
Mike MacDonald - Butterfly Garden | 352
Notes | 355
Bibliography | 371
Contributors | 375
Contemporary Art Pages | 379
Acknowledgments | 380
Image Credits | 381
Index | 383
