Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form

3 February – 24 May, 2015
Talk and Tour: Sunday, 1 February, 1-3pm
Opening: RMG Fridays, 6 March, 7-10pm

Symposium:
Abstraction in Canada: The Legacy of Jock Macdonald
Saturday 7 March 2015, 10am – 4pm

Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form is a travelling exhibition, organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and celebrating the artist’s life and exhibiting many previously unknown works. The exhibition begins with Macdonald’s early painting career in Vancouver, surveys his move toward abstraction and his extraordinary automatics, and concludes with the later abstractions he produced as part of the Toronto-based collective of abstract artists, the Painters Eleven.

A pioneer of postwar abstraction in Canada, Jock Macdonald was a key figure and influenced not only his peers, but also future generations of Canadian painters. The exhibition traces the artist’s practice and shows the dramatic transformations he underwent throughout his development. Influenced by spirituality and Surrealist thinking, Macdonald believed that the artist’s task was to “break out of the tangible reality of daily existence to realize the highest planes of art expression”. (Pg 15, Thom, The Early Work: An Artist Emerges) His career was an artistic journey in a perpetual state of evolution and growth. As a founding member of Painters Eleven, Macdonald’s contribution to abstract painting in Canada is seminal.

Evolving Form is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in over thirty years and is a fresh look at the influential artist’s career.

A special project website detailing the artist’s life with an interactive timeline, drawing tool and gallery of artworks accompanies the exhibition. Click here to launch jockmacdonald.org

This project is accompanied by a major book co-published by the three art galleries and Black Dog Publishing, featuring texts by each curator, an essay by scholar Dr. Anna Hudson, excerpts from Macdonald’s correspondence and a diary the artist kept while living in Nootka Sound from 1935 to 1936.

The exhibition is organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, and is curated by Ian M. Thom, Michelle Jacques and Linda Jansma.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Government of Canada through the Museums Assistance Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.

Image: Jock Macdonald, Nature’s Pattern, 1954; Collection of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery

The 2013 Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) Awards were presented on September 27 at the University of Toronto Art Centre. The Awards are annual, province-wide, juried awards of artistic merit and excellence. They recognize the new exhibitions, publications, programs and community partnerships that have been commissioned and produced by Ontario’s public art galleries over the previous year.

Our Senior Curator, Linda Jansma commented “The OAAG awards are particularly important as they represent the best in the work that Ontario art galleries are doing as reviewed by our peers. We are very pleased to have nominated Stuart Reid for the writing award and congratulate him on being chosen as the winning recipient.”

We’re thrilled to announce that we were named as partners in two exhibitions that won Curatorial Writing Awards:

Simone Jones All That Is Solid Catalogue Cover

Essay
Stuart Reid
“Simone Jones: The Image Stream”
Simone Jones: All That Is Solid
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, Rodman Hall Art Centre, St. Catharines, Thames Art Gallery, Chatham-Kent, and The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford, 2012

The exhibition Simone Jones: All That Is Solid was at the RMG from 17 November, 2012 to 13 January, 2013.
Click to learn more.

A Vital Force Catalogue Cover

Major Essay
Alicia Boutilier
“A Vital Force: The First Twenty Years”
A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters
Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen’s University, Kingston, and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, 2013

The exhibition A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters opens at the RMG on November 30th and is on view until February 9^th, 2014. The opening reception is held at RMG Fridays on Friday December 6 from 7-10pm.

For more information on the OAAG Awards and to read more about all of the recipients in 2013, click here.

If you’re interested in reading these essays, the catalogues are available for purchase at the RMG Shop or through ABC Books Canada.