Emily Carr was born in Victoria, British Columbia, in 1871, and died there in 1945. She studied art in San Francisco, London and Paris. Except for a period of fifteen years when she was discouraged by the reception to her work, she was a commited painter. After 1927, when she was encouraged by the praise of the Group of Seven, interest in her paintings grew and she gained recognition as one of Canada’s most gifted artists. Now, nearly sixty years after her death, her reputation continues to grow.
Gerta Moray has spent two decades tracing Emily Carr's career and relationship with the First Nations of British Columbia. Her major monograph, Unsettling Encounters: First Nations Imagery and the Art of Emily Carr (University of British Columbia Press), will appear in 2006.
Moray holds degrees from the Universities of Oxford and Toronto, and from the Courtauld Institute of Art. She is Professor of Art History at the University of Guelph and her research and publications focus on the creative worlds of Canadian contemporary and modern art, looked at through international and feminist perspectives.