"A Brush With War: Military Art From Korea to Afghanistan" Coming To Victoria, B.C.

Written by Stella Leyva Sunday, 17 April 2011 23:34

Victoria, B.C.- The travelling exhibition of works by post World War II Canadian war artists reaches the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, B.C. in June. "A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan" opens on June 24th and is on view until September 5th 2011. The exhibition explores the two military art programs that started more than twenty years after the Second World War; the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (1968-1995) and the Canadian Forces Artists Program (2001- present).

Initially influenced by the art of the First and Second World War programs, over the past sixty years military art has moved gradually in new directions, current works expressing artists’ more personal rather than documentary responses to their subjects. The exhibition brings together 64 extraordinary paintings from the Canadian War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection of War Art and other collections. Most of the works were created under the aegis of the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (CAFCAP), which ran from 1968 to 1995, or the ongoing Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP), established in 2001. The others are either individual contributions from the years when no official military art program existed or independent commissions from military units. After Victoria, the exhibition's final stop will be at the Military Museums in Calgary (from October 2011 to January 2012).



Together, these works provide a striking visual presentation of the Canadian military experience from 1946 to 2008. Highlights include well-known historic paintings by Alex Colville, A. Y. Jackson and Pegi Nicol MacLeod, and contemporary military masterpieces by Gertrude Kearns, William MacDonnell, Allan Harding MacKay and Scott Waters. “The artist’s role in documenting conflict has evolved significantly since 1916, when Lord Beaverbrook established the first Canadian military art program,” said Mark O’Neill, Director General of the Canadian War Museum (who curated and originally showed the exhibition). “Contemporary war artists, with their nuanced and complex depictions of conflict, contribute immeasurably to our understanding of Canadian military history in its personal, national and international dimensions.” Since 1968 nearly 70 Canadian civilian artists have witnessed this history as official artists, observing members of the Canadian Forces in challenging situations at home and abroad. They have chronicled military life in places as diverse as the Persian Gulf, Cyprus, Kosovo, Somalia, Haiti and Afghanistan. The Canadian War Museum developed A Brush with War in partnership with the Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence (DND), and with the financial support of the Canadian Beaverbrook Foundation. The Museum and DND have worked closely together since 1971 to support the creation of a visual record of Canada’s military history. They have collaborated to select artists for each program and co-manage the CAFCAP and CFAP.



The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is a public art museum dedicated to the celebration of art. With vision, leadership and scholarship, we will engage and inspire diverse audiences through exhibition, interpretation and stewardship of the collection. The Art Gallery's Mandate/Purpose as outlined in our Constitution is to establish, and preserve collections of the arts and crafts which are held in trust for the benefit of current and future generations; and to display these collections, to create a receptive field for artists and their work, to provide, in addition to the primary emphasis on the collection and presentation of the visual arts, public programs such as lecture, recitals of artistic, musical and other works of cultural merit and to provide and manage facilities for the appreciation and study of the visual arts. When it first opened in 1951, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria exhibited art in the historic 1889 mansion that is now adjacent to its seven modern galleries. With almost 17,000 works of art, the Art Gallery has the largest public collection in BC and is a vibrant and active part of Victoria's artist community. Designed by William Ridgeway Wilson, the Spencer Mansion was built in 1889. The property originally stretched from Fort Street to Rockland Avenue and incorporated formal gardens, two tennis courts, stables and a coach house.

The crowning feature, the belvedere, commands an inspiring view of the ocean. The Mansion was donated in 1951 by Miss Sarah Spencer to become the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. The exhibition gallery spaces were originally added on to the Spencer Mansion between 1955 and 1978. From 2001 to 2003, the seven galleries have been extensively renovated and outfitted with state-of-the-art heating, ventilation and air conditioning giving the Art Gallery one of the best climate control systems in Canada. These changes allow the Art Gallery to host prestigious touring exhibitions and bring a higher calibre of artwork to Vancouver Island. Substantial aesthetic improvements have been made to the front entrance, corridors and Gallery Shop. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria prides itself on presenting a diverse assortment of exhibitions including showcases of own Canadian, historical and world-class Asian collection, as well as creating, commissioning and hosting important contemporary exhibitions. Both the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council recognized the Art Gallery for its outstanding presentations in recent years. The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria is home to one of Canada's most important Asian art collections, second only to the Royal Ontario Museum and the Gallery's Asian Garden boasts the only authentic Japanese Shinto Shrine in North America. Visit the museum's website at ... http://aggv.ca

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