BRITISH COLUMBIA ARTISTS  

The Group of Seven

1913 - 1931


The Group of Seven was one of the most important artists groups formed in Canada, yet their work was publicly disliked when it was first noticed in Western Canada. The Group exhibited in B.C. starting in August 1922 at the Vancouver Exhibition, where their work largely passed unnoticed. They exhibited their work again in the 1924 and 1926 Provincial Exhibitions in New Westminster. A Western Tour of their work was shown in Vancouver and New Westminster in 1928.

By this time the public's interest was aroused in opposition to the Group of Seven's way of painting the Canadian experience, although a number of west coast artists were attracted to the new possibilities inherent in the free style of the Group.


Catalogue from the 1931 PNE show.

Members of the Group lived, travelled, visited, and painted in British Columbia, including Frederick H. Varley, Lawren Stewart Harris, and Lionel Lemoine Fitzgerald (a later addition to the original group). Arthur Lismer reported to the National Gallery of Canada on the state of the arts in Western Canada following a western tour in 1935.

A substantial amount of research and writing has been done on the Group of Seven and its members. Their influence was fundamental to a new way of expressing Canada, and their successor groups - the Group of Eleven, the Canadian Group of Painters - continued to carry the Group of Seven's torch of artistic innovation for many years.


Exhibitions

DATE TITLE
1928 Sept. 3 - 8 Loan Exhibition

References

CANADIAN ART PRINTS (refer to CAP79)

THE GROUP OF SEVEN - ART FOR A NATION
      1995, Charles C. Hill, National Gallery of Canada, ISBN 0-7710-6716-x
      Includes exhibition list, with G7 shows in Western Canada

Clippings


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