Emily Carr

ONGOING INSTALLATION

This installation in the Gallery’s 1st Floor Rotunda reflects Emily Carr’s direct engagement with and great affection for British Columbia’s landscape—for her, a site of artistic and spiritual inquiry. It brings together four of Carr’s iconic paintings: Big Raven (1931); Red Cedar (1931); Scorned as Timber, Beloved of the Sky (1935); and Above the Gravel Pit (1937). These works offer insight into the development of her artistic practice, the diverse ways in which she depicted the landscape, and the varied techniques she employed. Together, they demonstrate that, while many early settlers in this region perceived the forests as wild and impenetrable, Carr sought to represent the vitality of the natural world and seized the opportunity to present a deeply personal vision of the coastal rainforest. The Vancouver Art Gallery is home to the finest collection of art by Emily Carr (1871–1945) in the world, and the collection is particularly rich in her forest paintings from the 1930s.