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Treasures of the National Gallery of Canada
by David Franklin
This handsomely produced volume, featuring 128 full-page color illustrations, showcases a wide-ranging selection of the most outstanding works from Canada’s largest art museum. Each of the pieces chosen for inclusion is introduced by a curatorial specialist, who sets it in its historical context and comments on its meaning and its place in the artist’s oeuvre. Pride of place is given to the Gallery’s unparalleled holdings in Canadian art, but European art—paintings, sculptures, prints, and drawings—is equally well represented. Masterworks from the Inuit art collection are also included, as well as examples from the Gallery’s small but distinguished Asian collection. In recent decades, photographs have become an increasingly important part of the Gallery’s collecting mandate, both through its own collection and that of its affiliate the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, and this emphasis too is amply reflected here.
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Jeff Wall
by Thierry Duve
Jeff Wall is foremost among the artists who since the late 1960s have brought photography to the forefront of contemporary art. This revised and expanded edition of the definitive monograph on the Canadian artist, first published in 1996, includes a new fully illustrated essay on Wall's recent work by the French historian of art and photography Jean-Fran+ois Chevrier, in addition to the artist's recent writings. Describing himself as 'a painter of modern life', Wall produces huge transparencies mounted onto light boxes which diffuse a brilliant glow through his photographs of contemporary urban scenes and 'constructed' social situations. These images employ the latest technology to create tableaux which are evocative of subjects ranging from Hollywood cinema to nineteenth-century history painting. When installed they evoke both the seduction of the cinema screen and the physical presence of minimalist sculptures. Wall engages at a sophisticated level with theories of representation both as an artist and as a theoretical writer on contemporary art and culture. Major surveys of his work have been presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1995); the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume, Paris (1995); the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London (1996), and the Mus+e d'Art Contemporain, Montreal (1999).
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Irene Avaalaaqiaq: Myth and Reality
by Judith Nasby
Irene Avaalaaqiaq, one of Canadaís most prominent Inuit artists and a leading member of the prolific artistic community of Baker Lake in the new Arctic territory of Nunavut, has enjoyed a distinguished thirty-year career. A distinctive creator of drawings, prints, and sculpture, she is best known for her remarkable wall hangings, which reveal a rich tradition of spirit and shamanistic imagery.
Avaalaaqiaq brings a highly individualistic vision to her tapestries. Her world view, derived from an oral tradition, is expressed by manipulating bold shapes in bright contrasting colors against a solid background. In this first critical retrospective of Avaalaaqiaqís work, Judith Nasby discusses her life and art as well as her commitment to preserving her heritage and making it accessible to an international audience.
"The story of Avaalaaqiaqís life and her capacity to draw creative inspiration from it not only makes compelling reading, it makes an important contribution to the documentation of the history of the indigenous peoples of the Canadian arctic. Through a mix of art historical analysis, social/cultural background, and the artistís own voice, this book convincingly demonstrates how personal biography and Inuit oral traditions have been used by Avaalaaqiaq to create a powerful and distinctive new art, where indeed myth and reality intersect."
Marie Routledge, National Gallery of Canada
About the Author
Judith Nasby is director of the Macdonald Stewart Art Centre and adjunct professor in the School of Fine Art and Music, University of Guelph, Canada.
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Cape Dorset Sculpture
by Derek Norton, Nigel Reading, Terry Ryan
Cape Dorset Sculpture showcases an extraordinary collection of outstanding works of contemporary Inuit stone sculpture, with related graphic works and classic older carvings. All the artists are from the Arctic community of Cape Dorset, Nunavut, which has had the single greatest impact on the worldwide recognition of Inuit art.
Featured in the book are new sculptures by forty-four leading artists, many of whom were instrumental in shaping the look and direction of Inuit art. By turns powerful and enchanting, these works explore richly varied themes such as Arctic wildlife; life in the home, the community, and on the land; and shamans, transformations, and fantastic beings.
In his introduction, Terry Ryan recalls the early days of art-making in Cape Dorset. Derek Norton and Nigel Reading provide vital background information on the art and artists of Cape Dorset. The artists contribute stories and personal insights about their sculptures.
The success of Inuit artists from Cape Dorset, particularly the first generation of sculptors and the graphic artists, has inspired them to constantly reinvent their art and to explore new directions. Many of the younger artists, who are from families that were the original art-makers of the Arctic, are following in their ancestors’ path but making the art their own.
About the Author
Derek Norton and Nigel Reading are founders of the Spirit Wrestler Gallery in Vancouver.
Terry Ryan is director emeritus of the West Baffin Eskimo Co-Operative in Cape Dorset, Nunavut, and director of Dorset Fine Arts in Toronto.
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