The Collection on View

February 23, 2010 to February 27, 2010

Bartholomaeus Bruyn the Younger, Portrait of a Man, c. 1525.

This exhibit is currently closed for a special event, reopening on Tuesday, October 18.

Beginning in February, the EUROfix exhibition will change into a new installation that continues to build on the art historical roots already established in this ongoing presentation of the permanent collection. Many of the European artworks will remain on display, but they will be joined by an impressive selection of masterworks from the Canadian collection. The new exhibition features over 150 paintings, drawings, decorative arts, and sculptures drawn exclusively from the WAG’s own collection. Spanning six hundred years, the installation pays homage to the Gallery’s European and Canadian holdings, established upon a rich tradition of discerning tastes, creative minds, and public generosity.

Introduced in the first space of this three-gallery exhibition are religious and secular paintings and objects from Northern and Western Europe, and produced between 1400 and 1800. The selection not only highlights the evolution of painting itself, through the representation of perspective and human form, but also the changing relationship between artist and patron. Traversing the mid-19th century, viewers will discover paintings, sculptures, and decorative arts by Canadian artists integrated with the European contingent. Here we observe not only the continuation of Old World styles and themes by New World artists, but we also discern how European aesthetic sensibilities were adapted to and transformed by the North American experience. Euro-Canadian interaction continues within one gallery dedicated solely to works on paper, ranging from topographic studies of the Canadian frontier by early artist-explorers, to Impressionist and Expressionist innovators, to mid-20th century drawings by Inuit masters]. The final offering in the third gallery of the exhibition invites viewers to consider overlapping influences between European and Canadian artists during the first-half of the 20th century.

With the rise of Modernism, artists continued to draw from the past for inspiration, as well as taking older models in revolutionary new directions, often seeking to create new modes of expression using ideas found in non-European visual cultures.

Sponsored by the Johnston Group.


 

Jean Frans van Bloeman, Landscape Near Rome, c. 1700.

Related Programs & Events

Past Programs & Events

  • Canadian Art Highlights Tours

    Wednesday, July 7, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, July 14, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, July 21, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, July 28, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, August 4, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, August 11, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, August 18, 2:00pm-2:30pm
    Wednesday, August 25, 2:00pm-2:30pm

  • Talk - Piety, Politics and Painting in Reformation Germany

    Wednesday, September 22, 12:10pm-1:00pm

  • Drop-In Tours - The Collection on View

    Sunday, October 3, 2:00pm-3:00pm
    Sunday, October 24, 2:00pm-3:00pm
    Sunday, November 21, 2:00pm-3:00pm
    Sunday, November 28, 2:00pm-3:00pm

  • Visit the Conservation Lab!

    Wednesday, October 13, 12:10pm-1:00pm

  • Heroines of History

    Wednesday, April 13, 7:00pm-8:30pm

  • Member Event: Members' Event - Director's Tour

    For WAG members only. WAG Director Stephen Borys will lead a tour of The Collection on View.

    Thursday, April 14, 2011
    Thursday, April 14, 2011

  • Art for Lunch - Curator's Tour

    Wednesday, April 20, 12:10pm-1:00pm

  • Tour new works in the Collection on View

    Wednesday, October 5, 12:10pm-1:00pm

  • Art for Lunch: Gallery Ball 2011

    It's the WAG's gala fundraising event of the year!

    Saturday, October 15, 2011

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Thursday 11am - 9pm
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