City: Vaughan

In the late 19th century, the Impressionist movement found a footing in Canada, and Quebec artists quickly responded with works of rare beauty and sophistication. Many Quebec artists trained in France during this period, carrying the pollen of European modernism back with them to Canadian soil. Landscape and city scenes were staples of their work, and this show will assemble a choice collection of master works that trace a journey from the bustling streets of Montreal—then Canada’s financial capital—down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City, through the beloved Charlevoix region and out to the windswept cliffs of the Gaspé Peninsula. The exhibition will offer not just a magisterial statement on the outstanding quality of Quebec painting, but also a glimpse into the heart and soul of a culture, seen through the eyes of her most beloved and foundational artists. The survey will include works by William Brymner, Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Morrice, Henrietta Mabel May, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Maurice Cullen, Clarence Gagnon, and others, and will be drawn from a host of public and private collections. To accent these works, archival photography and objects of material culture from the period will be added to deepen the viewer’s experience of the moment in which the artists were working, augmented by historic recordings drawn from Quebecois musical culture. The result will be an immersive time-travel experience like no other.

Curated by Anne-Marie Bouchard and Sarah Milroy.

Among the great treasures of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is a group of 54 jewel-like miniatures by the artist Clarence Gagnon. Completed in the early 1930s, these are the final paintings made for what is arguably the most famous illustrated book by a Canadian artist: Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by the French novelist Louis Hémon and published in 1933 by Éditions Mornay in Paris. These paintings were gifted to the McMichael in 1969 by Colonel R.S. McLaughlin and were the first works by a francophone Quebec artist to enter the collection.

Due to conservation concerns, these delicate artworks can only be displayed once every three years and the McMichael is delighted to have them on view for the 2024 holiday season. Visitors can also purchase a book with the entire suite of fifty-four illustrations from the Gallery Shop. The book includes an essay by Ian M. Thom, former Chief Curator at the McMichael and most recently, Senior Historical Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

John Scott: Firestorm presents the work of the late Canadian artist John Scott (1950–2022), gathering paintings, drawings, and sculptures made by Scott from the 1980s through the 2010s.

The exhibition focusses on works that explore machine imagery, conflict, violence, and surveillance. Growing up on the Canadian/American border in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott developed an acute awareness of American politics and militarism. Depictions of stealth bombers, firearms, and tanks were used by Scott to comment on human vulnerability and the threat of nuclear arms, violence, and the threat of tyranny – all subjects expressed in his raw and urgent graphic style.

Firestorm is guest curated by Dr. John O’Brian, who has undertaken new research to position Scott’s accomplishment within a global context. The exhibition celebrates a unique and singular voice in the history of Canadian art, one grappling with the acute threats to humanity in our times.

In the late 19th century, the Impressionist movement found a footing in Canada, and Quebec artists quickly responded with works of rare beauty and sophistication. Many Quebec artists trained in France during this period, carrying the pollen of European modernism back with them to Canadian soil. Landscape and city scenes were staples of their work, and this show will assemble a choice collection of master works that trace a journey from the bustling streets of Montreal—then Canada’s financial capital—down the St. Lawrence River to Quebec City, through the beloved Charlevoix region and out to the windswept cliffs of the Gaspé Peninsula. The exhibition will offer not just a magisterial statement on the outstanding quality of Quebec painting, but also a glimpse into the heart and soul of a culture, seen through the eyes of her most beloved and foundational artists. The survey will include works by William Brymner, Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Morrice, Henrietta Mabel May, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Maurice Cullen, Clarence Gagnon, and others, and will be drawn from a host of public and private collections. To accent these works, archival photography and objects of material culture from the period will be added to deepen the viewer’s experience of the moment in which the artists were working, augmented by historic recordings drawn from Quebecois musical culture. The result will be an immersive time-travel experience like no other.

Curated by Anne-Marie Bouchard and Sarah Milroy.

Among the great treasures of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection is a group of 54 jewel-like miniatures by the artist Clarence Gagnon. Completed in the early 1930s, these are the final paintings made for what is arguably the most famous illustrated book by a Canadian artist: Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by the French novelist Louis Hémon and published in 1933 by Éditions Mornay in Paris. These paintings were gifted to the McMichael in 1969 by Colonel R.S. McLaughlin and were the first works by a francophone Quebec artist to enter the collection.

Due to conservation concerns, these delicate artworks can only be displayed once every three years and the McMichael is delighted to have them on view for the 2024 holiday season. Visitors can also purchase a book with the entire suite of fifty-four illustrations from the Gallery Shop. The book includes an essay by Ian M. Thom, former Chief Curator at the McMichael and most recently, Senior Historical Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

John Scott: Firestorm presents the work of the late Canadian artist John Scott (1950–2022), gathering paintings, drawings, and sculptures made by Scott from the 1980s through the 2010s.

The exhibition focusses on works that explore machine imagery, conflict, violence, and surveillance. Growing up on the Canadian/American border in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott developed an acute awareness of American politics and militarism. Depictions of stealth bombers, firearms, and tanks were used by Scott to comment on human vulnerability and the threat of nuclear arms, violence, and the threat of tyranny – all subjects expressed in his raw and urgent graphic style.

Firestorm is guest curated by Dr. John O’Brian, who has undertaken new research to position Scott’s accomplishment within a global context. The exhibition celebrates a unique and singular voice in the history of Canadian art, one grappling with the acute threats to humanity in our times.

John Scott: Firestorm presents the work of the late Canadian artist John Scott (1950–2022), gathering paintings, drawings, and sculptures made by Scott from the 1980s through the 2010s.

The exhibition focusses on works that explore machine imagery, conflict, violence, and surveillance. Growing up on the Canadian/American border in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott developed an acute awareness of American politics and militarism. Depictions of stealth bombers, firearms, and tanks were used by Scott to comment on human vulnerability and the threat of nuclear arms, violence, and the threat of tyranny – all subjects expressed in his raw and urgent graphic style.

Firestorm is guest curated by Dr. John O’Brian, who has undertaken new research to position Scott’s accomplishment within a global context. The exhibition celebrates a unique and singular voice in the history of Canadian art, one grappling with the acute threats to humanity in our times.

The recent digitization of the Kinngait Drawings Archive—89,000 works strong and held by the McMichael for more than three decades—has allowed unprecedented curatorial access to the origins of this now world-renowned graphic tradition.
Curated by Emily Laurent Henderson, Associate Curator, Indigenous Arts and Culture at McMichael, this once-in-a-generation exhibition of more than 200 works will foreground the cultural continuities of life in Kinngait in the face of dramatic societal change over more than five decades. The adaptability and resilience of this unique community has been documented in works that depict intergenerational knowledge transfer, community building, and boundless imagination.

This exhibition will reveal overlooked bodies of work by some of the country’s most beloved artists including Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Kananginak Pootoogook, and Pudlo Pudlat as well as introduce audiences to hitherto unknown artists whose work was suppressed by the aims of the print program that prioritized the tastes of settler markets in the South.

TAFELMUSIK BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

Solo: A Violinist’s Journey

Sei Solo—these words J.S. Bach wrote on the title page of his revolutionary works for solo violinists. The words can be interpreted as “six solos” or “I am alone”—a clever double-entendre: a challenge to the performer. This program features the remarkable G-Minor Sonata that opens Bach’s collection, as well as works for solo violin by his compatriots Westhoff and Telemann. The performance is balanced by Missy Mazzoli’s Dissolve, O my heart, a 21st-century response to Bach.

Performer
Cristina Zacharias, violin

John Scott: Firestorm presents the work of the late Canadian artist John Scott (1950–2022), gathering paintings, drawings, and sculptures made by Scott from the 1980s through the 2010s.

The exhibition focusses on works that explore machine imagery, conflict, violence, and surveillance. Growing up on the Canadian/American border in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott developed an acute awareness of American politics and militarism. Depictions of stealth bombers, firearms, and tanks were used by Scott to comment on human vulnerability and the threat of nuclear arms, violence, and the threat of tyranny – all subjects expressed in his raw and urgent graphic style.

Firestorm is guest curated by Dr. John O’Brian, who has undertaken new research to position Scott’s accomplishment within a global context. The exhibition celebrates a unique and singular voice in the history of Canadian art, one grappling with the acute threats to humanity in our times.

The recent digitization of the Kinngait Drawings Archive—89,000 works strong and held by the McMichael for more than three decades—has allowed unprecedented curatorial access to the origins of this now world-renowned graphic tradition.
Curated by Emily Laurent Henderson, Associate Curator, Indigenous Arts and Culture at McMichael, this once-in-a-generation exhibition of more than 200 works will foreground the cultural continuities of life in Kinngait in the face of dramatic societal change over more than five decades. The adaptability and resilience of this unique community has been documented in works that depict intergenerational knowledge transfer, community building, and boundless imagination.

This exhibition will reveal overlooked bodies of work by some of the country’s most beloved artists including Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Kananginak Pootoogook, and Pudlo Pudlat as well as introduce audiences to hitherto unknown artists whose work was suppressed by the aims of the print program that prioritized the tastes of settler markets in the South.

John Scott: Firestorm presents the work of the late Canadian artist John Scott (1950–2022), gathering paintings, drawings, and sculptures made by Scott from the 1980s through the 2010s.

The exhibition focusses on works that explore machine imagery, conflict, violence, and surveillance. Growing up on the Canadian/American border in Windsor, Ontario, in the 1950s and 1960s, Scott developed an acute awareness of American politics and militarism. Depictions of stealth bombers, firearms, and tanks were used by Scott to comment on human vulnerability and the threat of nuclear arms, violence, and the threat of tyranny – all subjects expressed in his raw and urgent graphic style.

Firestorm is guest curated by Dr. John O’Brian, who has undertaken new research to position Scott’s accomplishment within a global context. The exhibition celebrates a unique and singular voice in the history of Canadian art, one grappling with the acute threats to humanity in our times.

The recent digitization of the Kinngait Drawings Archive—89,000 works strong and held by the McMichael for more than three decades—has allowed unprecedented curatorial access to the origins of this now world-renowned graphic tradition.
Curated by Emily Laurent Henderson, Associate Curator, Indigenous Arts and Culture at McMichael, this once-in-a-generation exhibition of more than 200 works will foreground the cultural continuities of life in Kinngait in the face of dramatic societal change over more than five decades. The adaptability and resilience of this unique community has been documented in works that depict intergenerational knowledge transfer, community building, and boundless imagination.

This exhibition will reveal overlooked bodies of work by some of the country’s most beloved artists including Kenojuak Ashevak, Pitseolak Ashoona, Kananginak Pootoogook, and Pudlo Pudlat as well as introduce audiences to hitherto unknown artists whose work was suppressed by the aims of the print program that prioritized the tastes of settler markets in the South.