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"A window onto the perspectives of Canadian artists during three eventful decades of local and global history. From the Roaring Twenties and the Group of Seven to the Automatistes and the early Cold War, Canadian artists lived through and embodied an era of global tumult and change. With an interweaving of historical narrative, lavish illustrations, and writings by many of Canada's most revered cultural figures, Lora Senechal Carney illuminates the lives, perspectives, and works of the era's painters and provides glimpses of the sculptors, poets, dancers, critics, and filmmakers with whom they associated. Canadian Painters in a Modern World gives readers direct access to a carefully curated selection of writings, artwork, photos, and other documents that help to reconstruct the public spheres in which artists including Paul-Émile Borduas, Emily Carr, Alex Colville, Lawren Harris, David Milne, and Pegi Nicol MacLeod circulated. Each of the book's eight chapters consists of a narrative about a key issue or debate, consistently focusing on the relationship of art to politics and society, and on how these are negotiated in an individual's life. Relating artistic engagement with and responses to the Spanish Civil War, the Second World War, and the Cold War, Senechal Carney discovers a common desire for new connections between art and life before the atomic era. Revealing continuities, ruptures, and watershed moments, Canadian Painters in a Modern World showcases artistic production within specific socio-political contexts to shed new light on Canadian art during three decades of conflict and crisis."-- Illustrations -- List of Canadian artists named in this book -- List of pre-1960 writers on art named in this book -- Acknowledgments -- A note on the text -- Preface. 1 Lawren Stewart Harris, Europe, and the Bodhisattva in the next room : Lawren S. Harris, review of Romain Rolland's book Mahatma Gandhi and his exchange with John D. Sinclair -- W.G.M., "A subscriber writes of the group show," Canadian Bookman, June 1926 -- From an anonymous editorial comment on the Société Anonyme exhibition, Canadian Forum, 1927 -- Anonymous, from "Classifying Canadian art," Canadian Bookman, 1927 -- Lawrence Mason, from "'Modern art' displayed in international exhibit at Toronto Art Gallery," The Globe, 1927 -- Lawren S. Harris, from "Modern art and aesthetic reactions: an appreciation," 1927 -- Lawren S. Harris, from "Creative art and Canada," Supplement to the McGill News, 1928 -- Lawren S. Harris, from "Theosophy and art," Canadian Theosophist, 1933. 2 Discovering David Milne : Donald W. Buchanan, from "David B. Milne," 1935 -- David MIne, letters to Alice Massey, 1935 -- Graham McInnes on a Milne exhibition, from his art column in Saturday Night, 1935 -- Graham McInnes on another Milne exhibition from his Saturday Night art column, 1936 -- David Milne, from a letter to Donald Buchanan on the subject of Buchanan's biography of Morrice, 1937 -- A coda: Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau on Milne, from a letter to Maurice Hébert, 1935. 3 Emily Carr and the wordless speech of things : Emily Carr, from the journals written during and after her 1927 trip to Ontario -- Emily Carr, from a talk given in Victoria, 1930 -- Emily Carr, from the 1930-1934 journals, with letters from Lawren S. Harris -- From Emily Carr's later journals, 1935-1937. 4 The Spanish Civil War and the moral duty of artists : Statement for the Montreal exhibition of Fritz Brandtner's paintings, 1936 -- Henri Girard, from "La vie artistique - Fritz Brandtner," 1936 -- Hector de Saint-Denys Garneau, "Chronique des beaux-arts: Louis Muhlstock," 1936 -- Charles Comfort, "Where I stand on Spain," 1936 -- Frank H. Underhill, from a review of The Yearbook of the Arts in Canada, 1936 -- Elizabeth Wyn Wood, from "Art and the pre-Cambrian shield," 1937 -- Paraskeva Clark, from "Come out from behind the pre-Cambrian shield," 1937 -- Walter Abeil, from Representation and Form, 1936 -- G. Campbell (Graham) McInnes, "New horizons in Canadian art," 1937 -- Norman Bethune, from "An apology for not writing letters," 1936. 5 Defending Art vivant in Montreal : Henri Girard, from "At Scott and Sons Gallery, J.W. Morrice," 1933 -- John Lyman, from "Morrice - the shadow and the substance," 1937 -- Jean-Charles Harvey, "In literature, in art, to be free or not to be," 1937 -- Jacques de Tonnancour, from "Views from the Promised Land," 1940 -- Julien Hébert, "Pellan," 1941 -- Marcel Parizeau from "Canadian painting today," 1942 -- Paul-Émile Borduas, from "Ways of savouring a work of art," 1943 -- Fernand Leduc, "Borduas," 1943 -- Françoise Sullivan, from "Feminine art," 1943 -- Jacques G. de Tonnancour, from "Roberts," 1943. 6 The war and new cultural order : Robert Ayre, from "Exhibition of 'Art of our day' by Contemporary Arts Society found haunting and significant," 1940 -- Walter Abell, from "Art and democracy," 1941 -- John Grierson, from "Documentary idea, 1942" -- Ernst Neumann, from "Some ideas on painting," 1942 -- Miller Brittain, "Art to-day," 1942 -- Frederick B. Taylor, from "Painting war production," 1943 -- Paraskeva Clark, from "Thoughts on Canadian painting," 1943 -- Pegi Nicol MacLeod, "Recording the women's services," 1945. 7 The Automatistes, true poets : Thérèse Renaud, "Poem," 1945 -- Rémi-Paul Forgues, "Surrealism in Montreal," 1945 -- Bruno Cormier, "For modern thought," 1945 -- Fernand Leduc, "All new consciousness..." 1946 -- Claude Gavreau, from "Revolution at the Contemporary Arts Society," 1946 -- Madeleine Gariépy, "Riopelle," 1947 -- Josephine Hambleton, from "A Canadian painter of vision," 1948 -- Paul-Émile Borduas, letter to Josephine Hambleton, 1948 -- Paul-Émile Borduas, from Refus global, 1948. 8 Cold War culture : Miller Brittain, "A note by the artist," 1949 -- Alex Colville, statement, 1951 -- Agnès Lefort, from "Reflections of a picture seller," 1951 -- Jack Shadbolt, from "Recent British Columbia paintings and the contemporary tradition," 1951 -- Alexandra Luke and Jock Macdonald, statements from Canadian Abstract Exhibition, 1952 -- Manifesto of the Plasticiens, 1955 -- Guido Molinari, from "The tachiste space or the automatist situation," 1955 -- James A. Houston, from "In search of contemporary Eskimo art," 1952 -- Marshall McLuhan, from "Notes on the media as art forms," 1954. Notes -- Bibliography -- Index
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