{"id":35494,"date":"2016-09-07T11:59:35","date_gmt":"2016-09-07T15:59:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=35494"},"modified":"2016-10-02T19:48:52","modified_gmt":"2016-10-02T23:48:52","slug":"the-idea-of-north-the-paintings-of-lawren-harris-at-the-ago","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=35494","title":{"rendered":"The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris at the AGO"},"content":{"rendered":"

How do you reintroduce Canada\u2019s most famous artist to a Canadian audience? If that artist is Lawren Harris, and the show is titled The Idea of North<\/em>, then the groundwork seems already laid\u2014reframe Harris\u2019s paintings of the great white north as idealized yet problematic, taking into consideration factors of race, class, gender, and privilege that informed his work. After all, a basic hanging of Harris\u2019s landscape paintings is nothing new. So with this potential its fingertips, did the show get as critical as it could have?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lawren S. Harris, Red House and Yellow Sleigh, 1919, oil on pulpboard, 26.7 x 33.7 cm. Courtesy of Art Gallery of Ontario<\/p>\n

With help from co-curator Andrew Hunter\u2014who, for the AGO\u2019s iteration of the show, added two new sections on old Toronto\u2019s Ward neighbourhood, a source of inspiration for Harris\u2014the show lightly addresses these critical issues, but is perhaps too polite in its approach. In the exhibition\u2019s core where iconic mountain peaks and icebergs hang, didactic panels softly explain that \u201cHarris did not usually include [in his paintings] the people he met\u2014either Inuit or southerners working in the Arctic,\u201d because this was his \u201chighly personal response to place.\u201d These panels acknowledge that Harris left people out of his paintings on purpose, but they avoid talking critically about the artist\u2019s privileged background as, for lack of a nuanced term, a wealthy white male, and how this erasure\u2014notably of Indigenous communities\u2014brings up questions of power relations at play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lawren S. Harris, Icebergs, Davis Strait, 1930, oil on canvas, 121.9 x 152.4 cm. Courtesy of McMichael Canadian Art Collection<\/p>\n

Honourably, the curators try to rectify Harris\u2019s dismissal of the Inuit specifically by including two large-scale photographic reproductions of Inuit families, taken by Harris himself in 1930. They hang amongst barren iceberg paintings and depictions of Baffin Island\u2019s empty North Shore, and the juxtaposition is certainly charged: not only is it proof that Harris encountered these communities, but also blatant evidence of his conscious painterly disregard.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Lawren S. Harris, Inuit Children, Pangnirtung, Baffin Island, 1930, reproduction from original photograph. Courtesy of the Estate of Lawren S. Harris<\/p>\n

However, without including an Indigenous voice in this section of the show, the curators\u2019 attempt at rectification falls short. A didactic panel admits that \u201cUnfortunately, the power of Harris\u2019s vision has led many to imagine the Arctic as an empty and unpopulated land,\u201d so why not incorporate an Indigenous voice or narrative in response to this point?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Installation view from The Idea of North<\/em>. Photo: Emily Lawrence<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the show, contemporary artist Anique Jordan was commissioned to create two photographic works in response to Harris, wherein she addresses the Black communities active in The Ward in the early 1900s\u2014a community unsurprisingly absent from Harris\u2019s paintings of the neighbourhood. Jordan\u2019s works are probably the most powerful in the show: featuring the voice of a young black female juxtaposed alongside Harris\u2019s expresses a point about erasure that didactic panels simply can\u2019t. Incorporating something similar by an Indigenous artist into the core section of the show had the potential to cultivate further critical dialogue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Anique Jordan, Mas\u2019 at 94 Chestnut, 2016, chromogenic print. Courtesy of the artist<\/p>\n

Thus, The Idea of North<\/em> merely scratches the critical surface. The show seems aware of the problematic aspects of Harris, but is overly polite in its explanations and is seemingly too timid to push further\u2014perhaps in fear of appearing blasphemous against one of Canada\u2019s most famous artists.<\/p>\n

Emily Lawrence<\/p>\n

*Exhibition information: July 1 – September 18, 2016, \u00a0Art Gallery of Ontario, 317 Dundas Street West, Toronto. Gallery hours: Tue & Thur, 10 am – 5 pm; Wed & \u00a0Fri, 10 am – 9 pm; Sat & Sun, 10:30 am – 5:30 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Emily Lawrence<\/strong><\/p>\n

The show seems aware of the problematic aspects of Harris, but is overly polite in its explanations and is seemingly too timid to push further\u2014perhaps in fear of appearing blasphemous against one of Canada\u2019s most famous artists.<\/p>\n

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