The McMaster Museum of Art Celebrates the 125th Anniversary of the University

Written by Ewan Armstrong Sunday, 22 January 2012 03:24

Hamilton, Ontario.- The McMaster Museum of Art is proud to present "125 & 45: An Interrogative Spirit", on view at the museum from January 20th through August 25th (in the Tomlinson Gallery, additional works will be on view in the Levy gallery from January 27th through May 5th). In 1887, while Canadian artist George Agnew Reid (1860-1947) was adding the final brushstrokes to his iconic Ontario genre painting, Call to Dinner; and English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) undertook his pioneering freeze-frame photography of human and animal motion that bridged science and art;McMaster University was founded. The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) now celebrates both the 125th anniversary of McMaster University and the 45th anniversary of the Museum with a two part exhibition, "125 & 45: an interrogative spirit". This exhibition highlights some of the key donors and benefactors who have contributed to the development of the art collection interweaving landmark moments in the histories of the University and Museum.

The MMA has a teaching and research collection that is unique in Canada—the most coherent collection of German Expressionist works, as well as works by European precursors, concurrent vanguard movements, and contemporary legacies. The Museum’s birth at McMaster University sprang from the convergence of like-minded efforts. The foundation of the German Expressionist collection in the early 1960s by Professors Karl Denner (German Department) and George Wallace (Art History and Fine Art Department) coincided with the establishment of the Wentworth House Art Committee to purchase contemporary Canadian and European works.  This led Wallace, along with Dr. Togo Salmon, Chair of the History Department, to push for a purpose-built gallery on campus. It opened in 1967. The most dramatic and significant moment for the Museum was the Herman Levy collection donation of European historical and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in 1984  (a second donation of works came in 1990). Levy’s association with the University dates from the late 1940s and his bequest, in 1990, provided funds for significant international historical, modern and contemporary works.

Recently, the Donald Murray Shepherd Trust (a former McMaster Classics professor) provided funds for the purchase of modern period European works by David Bomberg, Christian Rohlfs and Natalia Goncharova, which will be included in the exhibition. 2012 is also represented by a promised gift, a unique and rare A.Y. Jackson figurative painting done in 1913. The work was offered by McMaster graduates (1951) J. Russell and Winifred Hewetson, It has been in their family collection for almost 80 years and this is its first public exhibition. In addition to the works by Reid and Muybridge, this exhibition includes works by Carl Beam, David Burliuk, Gustave Caillebotte, Otto Dix, Elisabeth Frink, Naum Gabo, Hortense Gordon, Alexej Jawlensky, Arnaud Maggs, Camille Pissaro, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Pauta Saila (and other Inuit works from the 1980 donation by McMaster alumni William Berry), Egon Schiele, Chaim Soutine, Andy Warhol, and Joyce Wieland.

The McMaster Museum of Art officially opened to the public on June 11, 1994 and houses McMaster University's permanent collection of close to 6,000 works representing the history of art in a diversity of media from ancient times to the present. It is recognized internationally for its specialist collection of early twentieth-century German prints and outstanding European paintings, drawings and prints, including a donation by Hamilton businessman Dr. Herman Herzog Levy O.B.E. of his own private collection. There are also significant holdings of Cape Dorset prints, sculptures and artifacts as well as a finely focussed collection of historical and contemporary Canadian art. The development of the collection that the Museum now houses is closely linked to the history and educational mandate of McMaster University. From its origins in Toronto in 1887 until its move to Hamilton in 1930, the University commissioned and collected works of art which included paintings of biblical subjects and University dignitaries for display in offices and ceremonial spaces. However, it was following a donation of European prints by the Carnegie Institute in the 1930s that systematic collecting and proactive programming was begun by the University to encourage the appreciation of art by students and the public.


During the 1960s and 1970s several faculty members contributed to the formulation of a coherent permanent collection. As a result of their efforts, European prints and Canadian art were regularly added to the collection and their teaching philosophy, which valued the direct experience of original works of art,was embraced by the University. In 1967 the first dedicated space for a gallery opened and was administered by the Department of Art and Art History.

Central to the transformation of the McMaster University Art Gallery to the McMaster Museum of Art has been a concerted effort focussed on collections development and education. It was decided that the University's art collection should stress quality and the formal, stylistic and historical relationships among specific works and that the collection would be built selectively and with purpose. Acquisitions policies emphasize the relationship between the teaching of art, art history and other subject areas (especially within the Humanities) as well as broader concerns such as learning, research and public enjoyment. Within this context, three areas have been singled out for development -- Canadian art, early 20th century German Expressionist art and modern and contemporary European art -- and is directed by the Museum's Acquisitions Committee. Visit the museum's website at ... http://www.mcmaster.ca/museum

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