The Essential Artist Necessary Voice in Every Age

Duane Aubin

v4.4

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................ 3 ART IS…IN SEARCH OF DEFINITION ....................................................................................... 4 DESCRIPTIONS IN THE DUST: ART SPEAKS IN ANCIENT EGYPT ............................................. 20 BRUSHES OF BRILLIANCE ...................................................................................................... 34

ART SPEAKS FROM SPAIN ......................................................................................................... 34 Pablo Picasso ................................................................................................................ 34 Salvador Dali .................................................................................................................. 40

CANADIAN CONTENT: THE GROUP OF SEVEN ................................................................................. 47 The Problem .................................................................................................................. 47 The Solution ................................................................................................................... 52 The Aftermath ................................................................................................................ 56 The Legacy .................................................................................................................... 57

THE POWER OF THE PEN ...................................................................................................... 59 ENGLISH ELOQUENCE: THE POETS ............................................................................................. 59

The King James Version ................................................................................................. 60 Wordsworth - Precursor to Freedom ............................................................................. 61

AMERICAN MUCKRAKERS: ART GOES TO WASHINGTON ..................................................................... 67 Upton Sinclair ................................................................................................................. 67 Ralph Nader ................................................................................................................... 68 Michael Moore ............................................................................................................... 69

ART GETS SHRILL: ASSESSING HEAVY METAL AND HIP HOP ................................................ 72 HEAVY METAL ....................................................................................................................... 72 HIP HOP .............................................................................................................................. 80

ART SPEAKS ON: DOES THE PAST SPEAK OF ART’S FUTURE? ............................................. 97 BIOLOGY, PHYSIOLOGY ............................................................................................................ 97 MORE SHRILL MUSIC ............................................................................................................ 100 MORE SHRILL MOVIES .......................................................................................................... 105 CAN THE POLITICIANS HANDLE IT? ........................................................................................... 107 THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY STAY THE SAME ......................................................... 112 WHAT WILL CHANGE FIRST? .................................................................................................... 115

APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... 116 INDEX ................................................................................................................................. 124 BILBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................................................. 128

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Introduction

Do we need artists? Is art important? Artists’ contributions to society’s well-being may be, on the

surface, difficult to objectively quantify, but if we just got rid of art altogether, would we miss it?

This book was originally a research paper exploring the question, “Are heavy metal and hip hop

art?” I came to realize that, in order to make an informed opinion, I’d first need to grapple with

the more fundamental question, “what is art?”

This took me on quite a journey. From the anthropological, historical and social to the political,

economical and commercial, a study of the arts is a study of the history of the human

experience, including its highs and lows. While I will repeat it at a more appropriate point, I

must say here that this process was, at times, uncomfortable, for a number of reasons. I was

challenged to confront some realities and deal with some controversial issues in as objective a

manner as I could. Some may not agree with my methods, but if I couldn’t submit to the

process, I certainly couldn’t recommend that process to any other person. As such, please be

warned: this book contains mature subject matter which will be offensive to some and is neither

appropriate for children nor recommended for the squeamish.

Now, sure, the title of this book betrays the tentative conclusion, but I’ll appeal to the old adage -

“getting there is half the fun” - and invite you to share the journey with me. I have tried not to

make it an overly long journey; and assume no pretense that I’ve covered all the bases.

Hopefully, it will be useful as somewhat more of a handbook in helping you just get started

along your own journey of discovery.

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Brushes of Brilliance

Giotto overwhelmed his audience in late 13th century Italy. Whereas the contemporary

style of his time was one that alienated the common observer, Giotta softened and

humanized his subjects, so that the observer could connect with his subjects. One might

say that Giotto brought meaning by moving from symbol to substance, reality. His ability

to capture depth changed European art, and his style dominated the European art world

for centuries. The work of three particular art leaders in the 20th century has gone from

reality to symbol. In this chapter we will look at Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dali, and the

Group of Seven.

Art Speaks from Spain

Pablo Picasso

We often say “a picture is worth a thousand words.” What is frustrating is, sometimes it

takes a thousand words to understand a picture. Interpreting meaning requires learning.

Picasso is said to have moved us away from contemplating the final product, the what,

towards contemplation of the process, the how. Ultimately, however, we still want to

answer why?

Consider a painting of an Ethiopian mother holding a child breathing his last. What rends

the heart most? The child, in the throes of starvation? The mother, powerless to save?

The dehydration that renders her weeping tearless? One painting can convey all this

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emotion without an essay explaining who the artist is. But, such an easy connection is

often not possible with Picasso or Dali.

Nevertheless, these two artists represent the height of art in the mid 20th century, among

the most recent giants of the art world. As we look at Picasso and Dali, we will find that,

although they knew each other and in fact were compatriots, they were quite

independent of each other’s work, ideas, and aims.

Cubism is the product of Picasso’s creative genius. It is born of an

attempt to use spatial distortions to provide the viewer with the maximum information possible about the painted object. To that precedent may be added the profound impression made on Picasso by primitive Iberian sculpture and African masks which revealed modes of synthetic and non-naturalistic representation unknown in the European tradition,” (Faerna, 7).

Picasso would say that “’I paint objects as I think them, not as I see them,’” (Penrose,

13). This concept Picasso found in African art, and his work “forged the first real link

between African art and Western ideas,” (13). I mention this up front simply to allow for

the obvious connection to the history of art that finds much root in Africa, as previously

concluded in the chapter on Ancient Egypt.

Figure 2 - Les Demoiselles d’Avignon, 1907. Widely regarded as the beginning of

Cubism, with its line, juxtaposed planes, African mask faces…

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Picasso’s return to symbol perhaps makes meaning less clear than more clear. It took

study to see in Les Demoiselles d’Avignon his “deep seated fear and loathing for the

female body, which existed side by side with his craving for and ecstatic idealization of

it,” (Wikipedia, Les Demoiselles d’Avignon). Carl Jung, comparing Picasso’s work to that

of his patients, suggests that “it is the ugly, the sick, the grotesque, the

incomprehensible, the banal that are sought out — not for the purpose of expressing

anything, but only in order to obscure… (Huffington, 202). With some reading, however,

one can learn about Picasso’s symbols; from the feelings of despair in his blue period, to

his heavy symbolism in Guernica, Picasso seems to want to say something, to express

his fear of death or revulsion to war.

Artists are indeed thinkers. . To read about the paintings of Picasso or Dali is to be

overwhelmed with their willingness to put in words their views on what art is, and isn’t,

and what makes their contributions stand out.

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We recall Callingwood’s assertion that “…it becomes clear to him only as the poem

takes shape in his mind, or the clay in his fingers,” (29). Picasso concurs, observing that

“If you know exactly what you’re going to do, what’s the point in doing it? Since you

know, there’s no interest in it,” (Cowling, 71).

Picasso once said, “You have to wake people up. You’ve got to create images they

won’t accept. Make them foam at the mouth. Force them to understand that they’re

living in a pretty queer world. A world that is not reassuring. A world that’s not what they

think it is,” (Huffington, 109-110). Of course this immediately reminds me of a

contribution of Wind, who suggested that art ought to have a socially stinging component

to it (9).

While his blue period reflects his mood at the time, dealing with a friend’s suicide, and

his alienation in his new surroundings, Guernica ushers in a new model of the popular

The Old Guitar Player 1903 Woman Ironing 1904

Note the common position

of the head.

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artist; according to Faerna, “never before…had painting achieved such a universal

expression of the drama of contemporary events,” (53).

“Picasso’s great fresco is a monument to destruction, a cry of outrage and horror

amplified by the spirit of genius,” (Huffington, 233).

There is irony in the circumstances of the creation of Guernica, that speaks to our

human fault of attributing unrelated character attributes to people we admire for

particular skills. Once, while he was still working on Guernica, his two mistresses wished

he would choose between them. He refused, saying they had to sort it out amongst

themselves. James Lord comments on the irony, that, “while the two mistresses

Figure 3 - Guernica, 1937

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engaged in a fistfight in his studio, he peacefully continued to work on the enormous

canvas conceived to decry the horrors of human conflict,” (Huffington, 234).

In fact, after learning about the dark side of Picasso, I have come to believe that he

benefits from the modern phenomena of celebrity. As an artist, Picasso enjoyed fame,

fortune, and running in the higher circles of society. As is the case with entertainers and

people of fame and wealth, it seems that they can do no wrong. Only through this

research (and after having read well into the subject) have I come across the startling

facts of Picasso’s social relationships. Picasso had said “when I die, it will be a

shipwreck, and as when a huge ship sinks, many people all around will be sucked down

with it,” (Huffington, 470). Picasso was destructively self-absorbed. His relationships

were generally poor all around. He had three illegitimate children. He died and left no

will. There were three suicides in the wake of his 1973 death: the morning of Picasso’s

funeral, grandson Pablito drank potassium chloride bleach after being told he was

refused entry to his grandfather’s funeral; in 1977, long time mistress Marie-Therese

hanged herself, aged 68; and in 1986, second-wife Jacqueline, to whom he called out in

fear in his final moments, shot herself.

In 1963, which proved to be 10 years before his death, he told his son Claude that he

could no longer visit him. “I am old and you are young. I wish you were dead.” Claude

tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide, but lived on to inherit his share of the estate

despite not being allowed to be present at his father’s funeral.

Francoise Gilot, one of Picasso’s mistresses (she was the mother of two of his children,

but the marriage-after-the-fact was a ruse, while he married Jacqueline just 12 days

before) sought to tell her story in a 1964 book entitled My Life With Picasso. While the

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Picasso faithful rallied in support of his legal war to prevent the book from publishing,

James Lord said “It is important to know how perverse, cruel, ruthless, sentimental, and

promiscuous Picasso could be. Indeed, how could anyone honestly study his work and

imagine him to be otherwise,” (Huffington, 444).

And on, and on. These are things I might never have known had I not this opportunity to

look beyond the headlines of superlative accolades. So great is the support for Picasso

that, as I studied him, again, the stories written about him merely glance over his

darkness, if it is mentioned at all.

Ultimately, Picasso’s death was not what one might have expected. Rather than a

dignified scene of national mourning of an icon, very public, with all the family gathered

around, it was a sad case of secrecy and alienation. Picasso’s death is starkly lacking in

dignity; through his work he attempted to deal with his fear of death, and it was

apparently unsuccessful. Huffington summarizes, “there is a sense in all great art that

beyond the darkness and the nightmares that it portrays, beyond humanity’s anguished

crises that it gives voice to , there is harmony, order and peace…Picasso’s advanced

age was filled with despair and fueled by hatred,” (474).

Salvador Dali

Dali’s story was not as pathetic as was Picasso’s, but, interestingly enough, Gibson

suggests that Dali’s life can be seen as a development on the theme of shame. Again,

as in my study on Picasso, while fascination for the works remains, contemplating the

source of inspiration of the works, and possible meaning of the works, is now in

question.

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Dali developed what he called the "paranoiac-critical method,” a process that

"materializes the images of concrete irrationality with imperialist fury of precision,"

(Naret, 66), "born solely of the 'obsessing idea,'" which would continue in the works of

Warhol, Johns and others. It can be clarified as a "spontaneous method of irrational

knowledge based on the critical and systematic objectivity of the associations and

interpretations of delirious phenomena," (Descharnes, 30-31). When you repeat out loud

your name until it seems to lose its subjective meaning, this is an approach to the

method, which attempts to strip an object of its subjectivity.

This rather reminds me of Barnett Newman’s concern that we ought not to rush to see in

a work of art what it “looks like,” (suggestive of something else), but to grasp, or at least

try to grasp, what the work is, in and of itself.

Dali once said "the swastika, as old as the Chinese sun, demands honour for the object

itself," (Descharnes, 34). His work included many instances of characterizations of

Hitler, Stalin and others, and, in such a politically charged time as the 1930s, this was

difficult for his Surrealist associates who ejected him from their association in 1934.

Be that as it may, pursuit of understanding requires that we continue to push beyond

what is, even after following Dali’s rigour and confronting the intrinsic nature of the thing

disconnected from its standard socio-political associations, and ask “now what?” What is

the value of honouring the object itself?”

Dali obsessed predominantly on extremely sexual ideas, which must have been even

more shocking than it would be in the relatively more permissive social climate of today.

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His source was predominantly his dreams, and he was a master at capturing the images

of his dreams with brutal honesty, as free of editing as he could muster.

As I think about the sanctity of age, I realize that issues that scuttle modern works are

overlooked in works of the past. Wind had implied something of this phenomenon, that it

must be remembered that art is rendered and received within a socio-political context.

As the work itself remains, while current events are swept into history, the reaction to the

work begins to peel away from its right context and lose interpretive depth. Thus, in

comparing music we refer to as “classical” (including genres such as classical, romantic

and baroque) with contemporary forms of jazz, rock and rap, we must remember not to

handicap the critique of the current with our socio-political views while allowing the music

of the past freedom from its context.

I say this now because Dali’s work includes plenty of foul subjects and motifs, with

recurring symbols of fellatio and sodomy, vaginas and excrement. Yet, again, as in the

case with Picasso, I first found myself experiencing Dali in a state of wonderment, for

indeed his images were technically most remarkable. And, if we would follow Dali’s

thoughts, we thus accept the challenge of contemplating organs and excrement without

the baggage, as Dali might consider it, of meaning.

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“The Lugubrious Game,” Gibson observed, “contains a veritable anthology of the sexual

obsessions for which only compulsive masturbation and painting itself were providing

Dali with an outlet at the time,” (215).

While Dali was at this time obsessed by the subject of anal penetration, he liberally

distributes vaginas, for him the most terrifying of orifices, throughout the work.

Dali is credited by the Surrealists themselves as making critical contributions to their

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work. Breton, who led the “trial” that would eject Dali from the fraternity of Surrealists,

admits that Dali had "endowed Surrealism with an instrument of primary importance, in

particular the paranoiac-critical method, which has immediately shown itself capable of

being applied equally to painting, poetry, the cinema, the construction of typical

Surrealist objects.... all manner of exegesis," (Descharnes, 31). But, Dali was most

unwilling to submit to the discipline Breton wished his associates would maintain. When

in 1928 Dali submitted two works for an exhibit, the curator felt he had no choice but to

ask Dali to withdraw the two paintings voluntarily. Dali told his dealer that he was

“delighted by the objections, since they proved that painting could ‘still possess the

subversive value of horrifying and traumatizing the public,’” (Gibson, 186-187).

Figure 4 – Dali, The Great Masturbator, 1929

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Was this aim to shock virtuous, noble in intent? I don’t know, because I think that shock

for shock’s sake is sensationalist and shallow. Dali, however, was not just shocking for

shock’s sake. He was putting his shame on display, sharing the intimate inner self, the

“purest and truest elements of his soul,” (Gibson, 187). Such honesty is remarkable, for

indeed we are permanently geared towards self-preservationist habits of self-packaging,

and presenting an image to the outside world that attempts to protect the inner darkness.

In this, Dali and his work is a great triumph, as he produces a legacy of work based on a

most un-championed emotion — shame.

Picasso and Dali have a lot in common. Both are products of Spain. They both

championed controversial art forms. They both found satisfaction in “graduating” from

representational art towards a more introspective and revelatory style that emphasized

not what was but what “they saw” within their minds. They both had relationship

problems and sought sexual excess beyond traditional marital expression. Both had a

fear of death, and dealt poorly with it.

But, the differences are also quite marked. Picasso occupied the social elite while

believing himself apart from it, while Dali always seems to crave it the more, although his

relationship with the media was strained. Picasso walked gingerly on political issues,

while Dali trampled on them.

What does all this mean to our study of the voice of the artist? I believe that it’s

reasonable to conclude that the sociological issue of class has as much to do with the

interpretation of art as does the art itself. As I move on to consider contemporary music

forms, I am encouraged to know that hesitations to acknowledge the newer material may

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well rest on issues through which Picasso and Dali plowed a generation ago — despite

all the baggage accompanying their stories, their art rises above to stand on its own.

Although I accept that art is more than “just skill,” I recall my sense of wonderment as I

began to “see” the technical merit in the works of Picasso and Dali. For those who will

observe the works with little if any investigation into the source of the works (the lives,

the passions and fears), this technical merit alone will make the experience worthwhile.

Beyond the works themselves, however, as I am drawn into the inquiry of the identity of

the artist — the times, relationships, philosophies — I confirm that the art was a catalyst

for studying history, philosophy, and some of the fundamental questions that are with us

still.

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Canadian Content: The Group of Seven

Just when I thought that I might be able to make some hypotheses about the work of the

Group of Seven, based on the findings thus far, I was pleasantly surprised to find I was

way off in my assumptions. After having grappled with the maelstrom of Picasso and

Dali I assumed that the Group of Seven painters, contemporaries bringing the Canadian

landscape to their canvass, were quiet, benign and harmless, peacefully forging a

Canadian identity of anonymity and passivity. I thought that, as the art world was in the

throes of the challenging characters and creations of cubism and surrealism, I would find

the work of the Group of Seven relatively bland. I was overwhelmingly wrong, and the

method requiring exploration of the social milieu in which they worked has proven again

to be necessary for a real appreciation of their impact.

The Problem

It is noteworthy to begin by stating outright that the Group of Seven did not happen by

accident, and that they had every intention of making a bold statement. The milieu into

which the Group thrust themselves was choked with a prevailing attitude that Europe

was “the place to be” where art was concerned. Indeed, France had developed a system

that supported the arts financially, educationally, and culturally. And the Dutch influence

was also great. These and other factors dictated that the critically accepted trends

tended to be determined outside Canada, and imported into Canada by Canadian artists

who studied abroad. “Collectors were…supporters of foreign importations;” thus, the

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Group arrived at the conclusion that “there would be a formidable resistance to such an

art,” as what they were creating (Reid, 149).

“Art must sting.” It is not overkill to repeat this contention – working towards an

assessment of heavy metal, hip hop and the future of art in general, this most salient

position is again sufficient to recognize a common development of theme in the overview

of what art is all about. As time moves on, and current art becomes art of the past, that

art loses its context, and all the reactionary nature of it (both in terms of its reactionary

statements about its world, and the world’s reaction to it) fade. We’ve seen through the

thoughts of critics such as Rosenberg and the works of artists such as Picasso that art

must see beyond the surface, beyond “what it is” to “what it means;” as time moves on,

all we are left with, short of studying context, is “what it is,” which can only be less than

what was intended of the creator of the piece.

The immediate impact of the work of the Group of Seven has indeed supported, and

perhaps even created, a perception that Canada is predominantly a wilderness, a

hinterland of raw nature, and its people as retreating, retiring conservatives. Robert

Stacey cites Canadian geographer Brian Osborne as suggesting that “…the work of the

Group of Seven came to dominate Canadians’ self-images, or at least, the images of

their country. An ideology of Northern distinctiveness became central to the iconography

of Canadian landscape,” (Tooby, 42).

My initial reaction to such thought was that “this is claptrap.” I am a born and raised

Canadian, and there are a number of difficulties I had with such terms as a “Canadian

sky” and other such attempts at “iconography.” First, if I could somehow blindfold the

average person, take them to another country and, in the middle of an open field,

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remove the blindfold, I doubt strongly that person could identify the country in which they

were, based on looking at the sky. Further, I haven’t travelled a whole lot, but I’ve

travelled enough to know that each country offers a rich diversity of natural environments

such that anywhere could look like anywhere else, short of some particularly identifiable

landmark, such as Ayers Rock or Niagara Falls. And finally, 80% of Canadians these

days live in urban centres (Statscan). The majority of my acquaintance with Canada is in

Toronto, with its CN Tower (tallest “free standing tower” in the world for 35 years) and

Rogers Centre (largest retractable roof/electronic scoreboard), and its Path underground

network of shops and services (again, the largest in the world)…if I didn’t go on camping

trips in public school, the raw nature that typifies images of Canada would never have

been seen.

But, after thinking about it, I understand the term “iconography” not to describe the actual

geography of a region, but the geography as represented in a body of artistic works.

Stacey helps, in commenting that “…one finds politico-geographical terms such as

‘Canadian art,’ ‘Canadianism,’ ‘the Canadian North’ or Lawren Harris’ ‘The North’

bandied back and forth, denied, or asserted to characterize the new movement in its

essence,” (42). If artists build their body of works in a region to reflect certain standard

views, we tend to accept those views as representative of the actual region, rather than

a symbolic expression of the artist’s view of the region. Thus, the artist becomes the

creator of a stylized ideal, and we are in turn invited to investigate and discover that

ideal. As Stacey said, they are used to characterize not so much Canadian terrain itself,

but “the new movement in its essence.”

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For some reason, this issue struck a chord with me as being particularly noteworthy. My

reading bears out this reaction, as Michael Tooby saw fit to address it up front in his

editorial forward, that

landscape painting…is both obvious and fundamental in discussing Canadian art since it has itself acted as an ideological and psychological vehicle for defining Canada. In a country where today almost 80% of the population lives in urban areas, this early modern art dominates both popular consciousness of what constitutes Canadian art, and forms a central body of material for intellectual, academic and artistic debate over the development of a sense of national identity in the visual arts and in Canadian culture as a whole, (11).

So, I’m back to Rosenberg’s recommendation — I’ve got to look deeper than the work

itself.

I was surprised to find that the Group of Seven anticipated resistance, but, on what

basis? What is to resist in the painting of a waterfall, forest tree line or mountain lake?

Cornelius Krieghoff, After the Ball Chez Jolifou. Oil. 1855. 24" x 36".

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James W. Morrice. La plage, Paramé, 1902 oil

At the time, the style that gained the critical acclaim was definitely European. Coming

out of the Paris school and the Dutch movement were mood, atmosphere, heaviness,

and sombre colour.

At right is a piece from the “great Canadian,” Cornelius Krieghoff: note the brooding sky,

the muted colour. This work is a development of one of his favourite themes, the all-night

country inn revel. This piece was considered a “renewed commitment to the Canadian

scene,” although the type of stage-set genre had developed in Düsseldorf and was

popular in Europe and the US, (Reid, 63). As testament to the times, this “great

Canadian painter” was not born in Canada, but rather in Amsterdam. Nor, did he die in

Canada, but rather in Chicago. He was considered somewhat of an itinerant, yet spent

enough time in and developed an influential body of work of Canadian subjects to earn

that mantle. There was a time when his works were considered to be missing the mark

by the “educated Quebeckers”

— apparently, people in his

Quebec City circle encouraged

him to return to Europe for a

“refresher course in the noble

aims of the art of painting,”

(Reid, 62).

Krieghoff became known for his

attention to details, his technical

abilities to capture those details.

This would be starkly contrasted

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Lawren S. Harris. Snow, 1917, oil on canvas. 69.7 x

in the “soft” texture that

came to describe much of

the Group of Seven style.

And then there was James

W. Morrice. Considered one

of Canada’s finest painters,

he spent most of his

productive years in France.

An idea the Group was

aiming to challenge was that a Canadian painter “didn’t have sufficient material based on

Canadian landscape.” To press this issue in the face of Morrice was quite

confrontational, since Morrice was “the most famous and undoubtedly the most

important” member of the Canadian Art Club; there might only have been one other

Canadian considered to have the strongest reputation outside the country, (Reid, 132).

In fact, Duval suggests that Morrice was “regarded by many, especially in Quebec, as

our greatest painter,” (135).

At left is one of Morrice’s acclaimed works. Again, as a champion of the European

influence, the colours are drab, with no boldness, no quickening. Although born in

Montreal, he studied in England and Paris.

The Solution

Of such was the establishment with which the Group determined to contend. The chief

weapons in their arsenal would be colour and line.

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Lawren S. Harris, From the North Shore, Lake Superior

Of all the members, Lawren Harris’ work strikes me the most. He was among the more

vocal of the members, especially on the issue of forging a Canadian content agenda. In

response to the Federal Art Commission’s mandate that procured what the Group

considered a gross imbalance towards foreign art, Charles Hill tells us that Harris said

“Their whole policy is a stupid and senseless effort to keep us on the beaten track

which…leads to oblivion. This is where Canadian art is bound unless it cuts itself loose

from…Holland and the Royal Academy in England and becomes something more than a

mere echo of the art of other countries,” (Tooby, 71).

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Tooby suggests that “…what is clear though is that the Group of Seven took on a crucial

shift: that this art should…celebrate the country in a moral and spiritual way,” (25). Harris

was also a leader in this area. His work display a “dramatically reduced, austere but

inspiring form,” such that “one can almost trace the course of Harris’ spiritual

development in his canvasses” (Reid, 152) through the 1920, having become a member

of the theosophical movement near the end of World War 1.

As aforementioned, these soft lines, bold colours and lack of minute detail are in stark

contrast to the details that impressed the previous generation in the works of artists such

as Krieghoff. Again, it wasn’t by accident, but a part of their general agenda to forge a

style and interpretation that reflected the value and beauty they saw in Canada’s subject

matter. I find that the Harris style serves not to pull a viewer towards the canvas to gawk

Lawren S. Harris, Morning Light, Lake Superior

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at elements of the picture isolated by scrutiny from the whole, but to stand back and take

in the “bigger picture,” much as one would do if enjoying a sunrise, or afternoon glory.

Idealized art isn’t always virtuous, as it reflects the ideas and ideals of the artist (as

discovered in the study of Dali and Picasso). Perhaps because I am male, I have been

somewhat desensitized by the abundant studies in the female nude form bearing titles

“Nude —.” Looking over the work of Group member Fred Varley, I was shocked back to

sensitivity to note that his several portraits with titles such as Girl in Red 1926, Indian

Girl 1927 as compared with Portrait of a Man 1950, suggest a condescending male

chauvinism, not to mention the seeming dehumanization in the title Negro Head 1940.

But then I remember that those were different times. Not to mention, judgments of

“virtue” are a whole other discussion. It reminded me of Dalian titles of hands or

hindquarters, that objectification at least is a common art tool. Is this “good” or “bad”?

Lawren Harris, Afternoon Sun, Lake Superior

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The Aftermath

Several factors contributed to the demise of the Group, that didn’t have to do with art

specifically, but with the various other social forces in which arts are entwined.

First, resentment began to build against the Group’s resounding success. Although the

members travelled and obviously were influenced by and reflected their journeys

westward, the members themselves were almost all central Canadians, headquartered

in Toronto. There were accusations of exclusivity in who could “join their house,” (Reid,

178). In part a manifestation of this national restlessness to reflect “more of Canada,”

and in part a maturation of the ideas of the Group and wish to expand, the Canadian

Group of Painters was formed in 1933. This group’s principle centre of activity remained

Toronto — but the group represented progress nonetheless.

From a philosophical point of view, the Group had its fair share of detractors, as it

expected it would. Chief among them was John Lyman, who resented the hegemony

and the elitist presumption that “only the Group were considered true Canadian artists,

precluding the acceptance of other painters who were as accomplished,” (Reid, 202).

But, more than that, he felt that the Group had focussed on the wrong area. Developing

a Canadian expression was not so much in the subject matter, but in the freedom of

Canadians to be creative, and see beauty where it might have been found, within

Canada or otherwise. His champion was Morrice who, he felt, reflected what Canadian

art might theoretically become through an association of the spirit of the two dominant

races,” (Reid, 202).

57

Interestingly enough, war was hardly an influence to their work, as far as I was able to

read. In fact, there is no entry in Reid’s index for any of the wars. He did, however,

mention that several members of the Group were commissioned as war artists between

1914 and 1918, and World War 2 did slow the activity of the latter Canadian Group, lead

by former Group of Seven members Lismer and Jackson. Whereas war provided

inspiration for some of the Spaniards’ most profound works (both Picasso and Dali had

political involvement and relationships that extended beyond their art), the Canadian

“school” seemed quite content to prevent war from defining their body of work, only

“tangling” with their government on issues directly related to their work.

Of course, the Depression took its toll on much of the activity, as funding slowed, as

exhibits and shows decreased, and as buyers dwindled. Reid makes several albeit

general mentions of it in his work.

The Legacy

Ultimately, the Group was successful, as they dominated the Canadian art scene,

leaving a legacy that still defines and influences Canadian art to this day, and spawned a

body of schools to emulate and expand upon their ideas as well as a contingent of

opponents who were motivated to ensure that their vision of Canada was not overlooked

in the enthusiastic acceptance of the work of the Group.

The Group of Seven left a body of work that is much easier for Canadians to embrace as

emblematic of the spirit of Canada than, say, what Dali left for the average Spaniard

(The Lugubrious Game is challenging, isn’t it?). However, for the first time, I am aware of

the challenges they faced in spearheading a movement that gave Canada its own hat to

58

toss into the ring of the world scene. At a time when “Canadian content” was thought to

be impossible, when the rugged landscape considered too rugged for the tastes that

appreciated the misty romanticized European flavour, the Group pushed forward.

In reflecting on the many claims to fame emanating from Canada, it’s possible the quiet

confidence either begins or is taken to new heights with the Group of Seven. Rather than

beating our nationalistic chest while waiving our flags in the faces of the nations, we

make our significant contributions to medicine, aeronautical engineering, computer

technology, sports, the arts, etc., and allow the contributions themselves to speak for us.

128

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