The And of the Land: Perspectives on Landscape by Artists from British Columbia
Joan Balzar – Jane Billaux – B. C. Binning – Claude Breeze – Audrey Capel Doray – Emily Carr – Pierre Coupey
Michael de Courcy – Orville Fisher – John Fulker – Lawren Harris – Tam Irving – Don Jarvis – Ann Kipling – Roy Kiyooka – J. W. G. Macdonald – Jack Shadbolt – Arnold Shives – Gordon Smith – Sylvia Tait – Takao Tanabe
Lionel Thomas – Frederick Varley – Lyle Wilson
The West Vancouver Museum is pleased to present The And of the Land: Perspectives on Landscape by artists from British Columbia, from June 18 to August 30, with an opening reception on Tuesday, June 17, 7 pm.
Drawing from the collection at the West Vancouver Museum, and complemented by borrowed works from local artists, collectors, and institutions, the exhibition explores the conjunction of landscape and perspective, in the works of artists who have lived and worked in British Columbia over the past century.
The artists in the exhibition are connected through their relationships to one another, as mentors, teachers, students, and friends, and their works address overlapping themes, or even depict the same sights as different visions. Set side by side in the exhibition, windows by Roy Kiyooka and Takao Tanabe look out and in, Pierre Coupey’s remembered landscape is contrasted with John Fulker’s real-time photograph, and an apparently dispassionate aerial view of Canada by Michael de Courcy connects Sylvia Tait’s intimate Montreal interior to B. C. Binning's roadside view of Howe Sound.
Although the islands in one harbour may share wall space with the islands in another, they are still divided by channels and time, and the “and” of the land refers to their conjunction, implying both division and overlap. Perspectives on the landscape expand and contract, to include interiors and exteriors, observation and memory, imagination and intellect, physicality and psychology; visions beyond the point where sight fails.
The West Vancouver Museum would like to acknowledge the support of the donors to the permanent collection, and of the lenders to the exhibition. This exhibition is curated by Francesca Szuszkiewicz, Collections Assistant, and was initially developed as part of a summer student position supported by Young Canada Works in Heritage Organizations.