Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century

Joan Murray

Nov 1999 · Dundurn

About this ebook

Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century is a survey of the richest, most controversial and perhaps most thoroughly confusing centuries in the whole history of the visual arts in Canada - the period from 1900 to the present. Murray shows how, beginning with Tonalism at the start of the century, new directions in art emerged - starting with our early Modernists, among them Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven. Today, Modernism has lost its dominance. Artists, critics, and the public alike are confronted by a scene of unprecedented variety and complexity. Murray discusses the social and political events of the century in combination with the cultural context; movements, ideas, attitudes, and styles; the important groups in Canadian art, and major and minor artists and their works. Fully documented, well researched and written with clarity and over four hundred illustrations in both black-and-white and colour, Murray’s book is essential for understanding Canadian art of this century. As an introduction, it is excellent in both its scope and intelligence.

About the author

Joan Murray is the director of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, an art historian and a muchpublished author. She has spent over twentyfive years of research towards a complete catalogue of Tom Thomson's work. She is currently writing a history of Canadian art in the 2th Century. Her other works include Tom Thomson: The Last Spring (Dundurn, 1994) and Confessions of a Curator (Dundurn, 1996).