Emily Carr and the Theatre of Transcendence
March 10 to October 28, 2012
Emily Carr
Tree Trunk, [detail], 1931 oil on canvas Collection Vancouver Art Gallery, Emily Carr Trust |
Throughout her career, Emily Carr’s art was
informed by a questioning of organized religion. This
was strengthened through her encounters with Lawren
Harris, a founding member of the Group of Seven and a
proponent of Theosophy, in the mid-1920s. From 1930
on, Carr focused much of her activity as a painter on
her vision of nature as a “god-like” vehicle that held
out the possibility for linking consciousness to a realm
beyond earth-bound human culture. This exhibition includes paintings and drawings of the forest produced by Carr from 1930 through to the early 1940s that are representative of her interest in transcendence and the natural world. It also looks at the desire for transcendence in contemporary culture. In addition to Carr, artists represented in the exhibition include Karin Bubaš, Lawren Harris, Euan Macdonald, Richard Prince, Kevin Schmidt, Steven Shearer, Mina Totino and Theodore Wan. Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art Generously Supported by our Visionary Partner: Michael O'Brian Family Foundation |