“An engaging reference book for historians across the humanities, Lora Senechal Carney’s Canadian Painters in a Modern World, 1925-1955 finesses a broad swath of history and culture with remarkable grace and clarity.” Roald Nasgaard, Florida State University

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“[Lora Senechal Carney] makes it clear that the art of the period was, in its various movements and through its various personalities, not only innovative, but often explosive, aimed at overturning the status quo to fashion the world anew.” National Gallery of Canada Magazine

Lora Senechal Carney taught at the University of Toronto for more than thirty-five years and served until recently as an editor of the national art history journal RACAR. She lives in Toronto.

Illustrations xiii

List of Canadian Artists Named in This Book xvii

List of Pre-1960 Writers on Art Named in This Book xxi

Acknowledgments xxiii

A Note on the Text xxv

Preface xxvii

1 Lawren Stewart Harris, Europe, and the Bodhisattva in the Next Room 3
· Lawren S. Harris, Review of Romain Rolland’s book Mahatma Gandhi and his exchange with John D. Sinclair, 1925 20
· W.G.M., “A Subscriber Writes of the Group Show,” Canadian Bookman, June 1926 22
· From an anonymous editorial comment on the Société Anonyme exhibition, Canadian Forum, 1927 24
· Anonymous, from “Classifying Canadian Art,” Canadian Bookman, 1927 25
· Lawrence Mason, from “‘Modern Art’ Displayed in International Exhibit at Toronto Art Gallery,” The Globe, 1927 26
· Lawren S. Harris, from “Modern Art and Aesthetic Reactions: An Appreciation,” 1927 28
· Lawren S. Harris, from “Creative Art and Canada,” Supplement to the McGill News, 1928 30
· Lawren S. Harris, from “Theosophy and Art,” Canadian Theosophist, 1933 34

2 Discovering David Milne 37
· Donald W. Buchanan, from “David B. Milne,” 1935 50
· David Milne, letters to Alice Massey, 1935 51
· Graham McInnes on a Milne Exhibition, from his art column in Saturday Night, 1935 54
· Graham McInnes on another Milne exhibition, from his Saturday Night art column, 1936 55
· David Milne, from a letter to Donald Buchanan on the subject of Buchanan’s biography of Morrice, 1937 56
· A Coda: Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau on Milne, from a letter to Maurice Hébert, 1935 59

3 Emily Carr and the Wordless Speech of Things 63
· Emily Carr, from the journals written during and after her 1927 trip to Ontario 73
· Emily Carr, from a talk given in Victoria, 1930 74
· Emily Carr, from the 1930-1934 journals, with letters from Lawren S. Harris 76
· From Emily Carr’s later journals, 1935-1937 94

4 The Spanish Civil War and the Moral Duty of Artists 97
· Statement for the Montreal exhibition of Fritz Brandtner’s paintings, 1936 112
· Henri Girard, from “La vie artistique - Fritz Brandtner,” 1936 113
· Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, “Chronique des beaux-arts: Louis Muhlstock,” 1936 114
· Charles Comfort, “Where I Stand on Spain,” 1936 117
· Frank H. Underhill, from a review of The Yearbook of the Arts in Canada, 1936 119
· Elizabeth Wyn Wood, from “Art and the Pre-Cambrian Shield,” 1937 119
· Paraskeva Clark, from “Come Out From Behind the Pre-Cambrian Shield,” 1937 122
· Walter Abell, from Representation and Form, 1936 126
· G. Campbell (Graham) McInnes, “New Horizons in Canadian Art,” 1937 130
· Norman Bethune, from “An Apology for Not Writing Letters,” 1936 134

5 Defending Art vivant in Montreal 139
· Henri Girard, from “At Scott and Sons Gallery, J.W. Morrice,” 1933 157
· John Lyman, from “Morrice - The Shadow and the Substance,” 1937 159
· Jean-Charles Harvey, “In Literature, in Art, to Be Free or Not to Be,” 1937 160
· Jacques de Tonnancour, from “Views from the Promised Land,” 1940 161
· Julien Hébert, “Pellan,” 1941 163
· Marcel Parizeau, from “Canadian Painting Today,” 1942 164
· Paul-Émile Borduas, from “Ways of Savouring a Work of Art,” 1943 167
· Fernand Leduc, “Borduas,” 1943 170
· Françoise Sullivan, from “Feminine Art,” 1943 173
· Jacques G. de Tonnancour, from “Roberts,” 1943 177

6 The War and New Cultural Order 179
· Robert Ayre, from “Exhibition of ‘Art of Our Day’ by Contemporary Arts Society Found
· Haunting and Significant,” 1940 194
· Walter Abell, from “Art and Democracy,” 1941 195
· John Grierson, from “Documentary Idea, 1942” 197
· Ernst Neumann, from “Some Ideas on Painting,” 1942 200
· Miller Brittain, “Art To-day,” 1942 203
· Frederick B. Taylor, from “Painting War Production,” 1943 205
· Paraskeva Clark, from “Thoughts on Canadian Painting,” 1943 207
· Pegi Nicol MacLeod, “Recording the Women’s Services,” 1945 208

7 The Automatistes, True Poets 211
· Thérèse Renaud, “Poem,” 1945 223
· Rémi-Paul Forgues, “Surrealism in Montreal,” 1945 224
· Bruno Cormier, “For Modern Thought,” 1945 225
· Fernand Leduc, “All New Consciousness …” 1946 228
· Claude Gauvreau, from “Revolution at the Contemporary Arts Society,” 1946 229
· Madeleine Gariépy, “Riopelle,” 1947 232
· Josephine Hambleton, from “A Canadian Painter of Vision,” 1948 233
· Paul-Émile Borduas, letter to Josephine Hambleton, 1948 235
· Paul-Émile Borduas, from Refus global, 1948 238

8 Cold War Culture 243
· Miller Brittain, “A Note by the Artist,” 1949 264
· Alex Colville, Statement, 1951 265
· Agnès Lefort, from “Reflections of a Picture Seller,” 1951 266
· Jack Shadbolt, from “Recent British Columbia Paintings and the Contemporary Tradition,” 1951 268
· Alexandra Luke and Jock Macdonald, statements from Canadian Abstract Exhibition, 1952 270
· Manifesto of the Plasticiens, 1955 271
· Guido Molinari, from “The Tachiste Space or the Automatist Situation,” 1955 274
· James A. Houston, from “In Search of Contemporary Eskimo Art,” 1952 277
· Marshall McLuhan, from “Notes on the Media as Art Forms,” 1954 280

Notes 283

Bibliography 299

Index 317

National Gallery of Canada review by Sheila Singhal