First annual exhibition entry form

Submission summary 1932 - 1938

Call for entries, 1935 Christmas exhibition

Submission analysis 1935 - 1937

   
Three exhibition application forms by Maud Rees Sherman.

In 1939 the Exhibition Committee selected "40 watercolour paintings which had formed part of the 8th Annual B.C. Artists' Exhibition" to be sent to Sackville, New Brunswick, after which they went on tour in the Maritime provinces. Refer to "Maritime Art Association" for more information.

  
Honourable Mentions, 1939 & 1941 B.C. Artists' exhibitions

   
Three lists of award winners from 1941, 1943, 1944.

Twelfth annual exhibition entry form (click for more information)

1946 work schedule

The pre-1950 catalogues are transcribed completely from the inaugural 1932 exhibition up to 1950, including all known annual exhibitions, summer exhibitions, and Christmas exhibitions. Six travelling shows are listed. Every artist listed in them has a biographical file in BC Artists listing every work that they exhibited. The remaining catalogues from 1951 to 1968 are referenced to all participating artists in the artist index with "BCA" and a year. Thus, for example, BCA56, for an artist who had work in the 1956 Annual exhibition, or BCA56-61 to indicate a range of exhibitions.

The selection process for the exhibitions varied over the years, and the jury or their selections were frequently a hotly debated topic in the art community. In response, the art gallery did their best by engaging professional curators to jury. In some cases almost no work was accepted, and the jury's comments in the 33rd Annual catalogue were particularly scathing about the lack of quality and originality in work entered. Up until 1945 there were only 2 BC Artists' exhibitions that were non-jury.

In September 1948 artist W.P. Weston wrote an article about this topic. It was published in the Vancouver Art Gallery Bulletin, prior to the (juried) seventeenth annual B.C. Artists' exhibition.

The second-to-last exhibition in 1967 was a juried show, and the jury of one selected only 10 out of 400 entries as being worthy of exhibition. I personally think that this probably surprised everyone. The exhibition committee would have made considerably more space available for the show than was actually required. Artists protested, of course.

For the 37th and final B.C. Artists exhibition in 1968, the art gallery threw in the towel, and exhibited one artwork - unjuried - from every artist who submitted. As a result, 473 artists showed their work, noted in the artist index or artist biographies as BCA68. It resulted in a very interesting mix of professional and amateur artists.