I recently went to Ottawa for the first time, and my favorite part of the trip was the National Gallery of Canada. I didn’t recognize a lot of the art or artists, so it felt like opening a treasure chest.
Now my unhinged Wikipedia tabs are especially unhinged, still, and I’ve ordered a book on Emily Carr. Anyway, I thought it could be nice to have a written record of why I liked a few pieces.
Medieval Art
What a motley crew.
The gentle hand holding is moving. Protective and firm in the face of some real big-time jerks.
I love Eve’s face.
And Adam is literally rotting away in a very cool way. Also the snake head looks like an opossum, and I’m into that.
19th Century Pieces
Frankly, I just want to attend this party.
I love some partying in art.
This piece takes up a whole wall. I got lost in it for a long time.
It shone in person. Above the fire, the paint swirls in red and blue, like a heat wave warming up the tensed limbs.
You can almost hear the men shouting, and smell the smoke and sweat. Beautiful.
Early 20th Century Art
Not a huge suprise, I loved so many pieces in this period.
I think I ran past quite a few pieces to get a closer look at this stunning piece. I love the different textures of the wallpaper, the quilt, metallic chair. And the sitter (Onontaha) looks non-plussed, nervous? I’m intrigued by her expression.
I mean, it’s Chagall. Painting his homeland, Vitebsk in modern-day Belarus.
Chagall painted this canvas shortly after leaving the Soviet Union in 1922. He wrote: “In my pictures there is not one centimetre free from nostalgia for my native land.”
https://www.gallery.ca/collection/artwork/memories-of-childhood
I disliked the mention that the painting appears ‘naive’ in the description – that’s not mentioned online.
It also reminds me of a scapegoat, in the religious sense. A red thread would be tied to a goat’s horn and it would be driven off with the sins of the community. Maybe the red and slightly unnerving expression evokes this. Maybe not.
Love the creepy faces, love the ginger hair and bush, love the colors, and the classic theme of beauty and birth against a backdrop of death.
I’m fond of the Yeats siblings. They must have had such an interesting upbringing.
I also can’t find a lot of information on this piece, but it’s smack dab in the middle of Ireland’s fight for independence. So that’s what I got from it.
You can feel the air of revolution, or something important: meeting after dark, banners, and distant movement among the backdrop of the Sligo Mountains. I also love that women are depicted centrally as they were a key part.
1930s
I definitely want to learn more about Emily Carr. Her brushstrokes and interesting subjects stood out to me. She also wrote and clearly was inspired by landscapes and indigenous art. An icon by all accounts. I had never heard of her.
Thanks, National Gallery!
Vera looks like the type of woman you want to be or be around. Her gaze drew me in – I imagine I’m one of many.
And oh, hey, a quick google search tells me she was an artist in her own right. It seems like quite an accomplished one. (Blah to women’s accomplishments being overshadowed by men’s romantic interest.)
1960s and Contemporary
We tried to look for a print of this one in the giftshop, but no luck.
I’m ignorant about the symbolism but can appreciate it’s beauty. Love the different textures, gradients, and the blue background.
I found this one unnerving, in a good way. The faces cleverly hidden in a big clear open space.
Read More:
https://www.gallery.ca/magazine/your-collection/at-the-ngc/three-portraits-stories-of-three-women
https://emagazine.aggv.ca/artist-in-our-collection-vera-weatherbie-1909-1977/
https://emagazine.aggv.ca/artist-in-our-collection-vera-weatherbie-1909-1977/
