Colours of Jazz, 1920s Modernism in Montreal
The Beaver Hall Group
October 24, 2015 - January 31, 2016
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is presenting Colours of Jazz, 1920s Modernism in Montreal. The Beaver Hall Group. It is a unique, and the very first exhaustive examination of the Beaver Hall Group. It sheds a new light on this short-lived group of artists (1920-1923) whose production gave a strong impetus to artistic life in Montreal, Quebec and Canada between the two wars.
The works on view cover the period from the official existence of the Beaver Hall Group (1920-1923) to the establishment of the Canadian Group of Painters (1933).
The exhibition presents works not only by the official members of the Beaver Hall Group but also artists associated with them through friendship and solidarity. Their works represent one of the most original expressions of pictorial modernism in Canada, with women asserting themselves as professional artists for the first time, on an equal footing with men. The exhibition brings together some 140 works, in addition to more than fifty from the archives, including many rediscovered or never seen before paintings. In addition to painting, several sculptures and bas-relieves are also presented.
The Beaver Hall Group was to Montreal, in a sense, what the Group of Seven was to Toronto, but rather than offering an image of Canada’s identity through the depiction of untamed landscapes, they showed their attachment, applying a modern touch, to portraiture and to humanized cityscapes and landscapes. What they emphasized and presented in a new way was a Northern culture rather than Northern nature, although some of them also painted countryside scenes.
1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group features works by Nora Collyer, Emily Coonan, Adrien and Henri Hébert, Prudence Heward, Randolph S. Hewton, Edwin Holgate, A.Y. Jackson, John Y. Johnstone, Mabel Lockerby, Mabel May, Hal Ross Perrigard, Robert W. Pilot, Sarah Robertson, Anne Savage, Adam Sherriff Scott, Regina Seiden and Lilias Torrance Newton, along with André Biéler, Ethel Seath, Kathleen Morris and Albert Robinson.
More than twenty institutions and close to fifty private collectors have loaned works to the exhibition, which makes a remarkable body of artistic production. Visitors to the exhibition will be able to revisit some well known paintings, as well as rediscover major and significant works that have been rarely (if ever) exhibited since they were created.
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For more information, visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website.
1 comment:
Had the opportunity to visit the exhibition on December 30, 2015. Having always admired The Group Of Seven, and then being told about The Beaver Hall Group, I just had to visit the exhibit. I was not let down. What an abundance of work, all under one roof! I thoroughly enjoyed the exhibit, and plan to visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts again to view the exquisite paintings! I found myself mesmerized by many of the paintings depicting 1920's Montreal, and having grown up in Montreal, many of the pieces had a special meaning for me.
Now I find myself researching the painting group, wanting to see more of their works!
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