Date & time
Tuesday, November 22, 2016
4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
4 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.
Arts & culture, Conferences & lectures
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Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Lecture Series 2016-2017
IN THE MUSEUM'S COLLECTIONS
Speaker(s)
Anne Whitelaw
Cost
Lectures are free and open to the public
Where
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium
1380 Sherbrooke St. W., Montréal, QC H3G 1J5
The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University, is dedicated to innovative research about the history of art in Canada: its diverse communities, creative spaces and astonishing richness. In 2016, three members of the Institute will be telling these stories in a series of public lectures, curated by Institute director Martha Langford for the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. The 2016 series will introduce audiences to different facets of art making in Canada.
Johanne Sloan asks how contemporary art comes to be embedded in Canadian cities.
Sherry Farrell Racette takes us back in time to Indigenous communities – to the splendour and meaning of Métis textile works, which she evokes in use.
Anne Whitelaw introduces us to yet another network of Canadian art communities formed by women volunteers – those enlightened supporters of modern art and artists in Canada. These three lectures bring fresh insights to the telling of Canadian art history.
Lecture 3 - “Ask the women, it’s their show:” Volunteer Committees and the Making of Contemporary Canadian Art
Anne Whitelaw, Associate Professor of Art History/Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Fine Arts, Concordia University
The sale of contemporary art in Canada is normally associated with the rise of commercial galleries in Montreal and Toronto in the late 1950s and 1960s. Prior to the establishment of these galleries, the annual “Do you own a Canadian Picture?” sales organized by the volunteer women’s committees of Canadian art museums supplied the market for contemporary Canadian art. Initiated by the Women’s Committee of the Art Gallery of Toronto in 1947, the one-day sale was replicated by the committees of the Vancouver Art Gallery in 1948, the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1949, and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1958. Taking place in a period when most museums had little interest in contemporary art and there were few commercial galleries, these annual sales provided an important vehicle for living Canadian artists to sell their work. This talk will examine the history of these art sales, and explore the role of volunteer women in establishing a market for contemporary Canadian art.