Art for war and peace : how a great public art project helped Canada discover itself / Ian Sigvaldason, Scott Steedman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Sigvaldason, Ian, auteur.

Contributor:

Steedman, Scott, auteur.

Rosengarten Family Fund.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Serigraphy, Canadian--20th century.

Serigraphy, Canadian.

Painting, Canadian--Reproduction.

Painting, Canadian.

Painting, Canadian--20th century.

World War, 1939-1945--Art and the war.

World War, 1939-1945.

Nationalism and art--Canada--History--20th century.

Nationalism and art.

Physical Description:

xiv, 232 pages : illustrations principalement en couleur ; 24 x 30 cm

Place of Publication:

[Vancouver, British Columbia] : Red Leaf, 2020.

Summary:

''The Sampson-Matthews print program was the largest public art project in Canadian history. Launched at the start of the Second World War, it lasted 22 years and cost tens of millions of dollars. The exquisite, oversize silkscreens were based on designs by a who's who of Canada's greatest artists, including David Milne, Emily Carr, B.C. Binning, Lawren Harris and A.Y. Jackson, Tom Thomson, J.W. Morrice and Clarence Gagnon. The idea that launched the project was simple. Get Canada's best painters to contribute to the war effort by creating new works, guided by the National Gallery. Toronto printer Sampson-Matthews would turn these into high-quality silkscreens, which would then be sent to every military unit and government office from Britain to Ceylon. At the same time, target the home front: schools, libraries, banks, insurance companies. By 1943, the prints were hanging in Eaton's store windows from coast to coast. The images were so popular that the program went into overdrive after the war. Dozens more artworks were commissioned and tens of thousands more printed. Sets toured the USA, Soviet Russia, war-torn Europe; the Bank of Montreal put them in every branch. The grand landscapes became familiar backdrops for two generations of Canadians.The program was a grandiose exercise in art education, a coming together of culture, commerce and patriotism that only a world war could ever create. Watch the film Argo and you'll see two prints in the Tehran embassy scenes, benevolent totems assuring the plotters that everything will be alright; this is Canada, relax Art for War and Peace tells the story of the Sampson-Matthews prints, with full-colour reproductions of 112 silkscreens and contributions from several art writers, including Douglas Coupland, now available in this paperback edition.''-- Site de l'éditeur.

"The largest public art project in Canadian history, the Sampson-Matthews print program began as wartime propaganda and lasted into the 1960s. The bright silkscreens hung in every school, library, bank and dentist's office from Whitehorse to St. John's, shaping Canadians' ideas about art--and their vast homeland. Art for War and Peace tells the remarkable story of the prints, with full-colour reproductions of more than a hundred silkscreens and contributions from several art writers, including Douglas Coupland."-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Introduction: Pine trees and propaganda

One: The Wartime Program

Canadian artists and war

Greeting cards for the people

Why silkscreening?

The creative leader: Joseph Sampson

Graphic art and design

A lone fisherman, a bigness of vision: Yvonne McKague Housser's Evening, Nipigon River

A landscape of awe: Arthur Lismer's Isles of Spruce

The chill of a winter's day: James Wilson Morrice's The Ferry, Quebec

An imaginary Yuquot: Jock Macdonald's B.C. Indian Village

Are these Canadians?: The saga of Fritz Brandtner's Potato Pickers

Two: Triumphant in peace

Print centres across the land: The Federation of Canadian Artists' Silkscreens

Commercial design meets fine art: Alfred Joseph (A.J.) Casson

Celebrating the hewers of wood: The pulp and paper prints

A gentleman and a bureaucrat: Harry McCurry

A very personal sense of joy: B.C. Binning's Ships in Classical Calm

God in nature: Emily Carr's Indian Church

From war to wilderness: Charles Comfort's Algonquin Lake

Nature's chaotic patterns: A.Y. Jackson's Jack Pine

An original print, a canvas copy: A.J. Casson's White Pine

Dancing through the wilderness: Lawren Harris's Algoma Country

Industry on the prairies: John Ensor's Summer's Store

Electricity in the air: Tom Thomson's Northern Lights

Fall on the farm: Thoreau MacDonald's The Plough

Three: A slow decline, a long afterlife

At the helm for fifty years: Charles Matthews

The rise and fall of Sampson-Matthews Limited

"Indian" Aboriginal images: The Beament and Price prints

Mesmerized by the silkscreens

Build a better country. Frame is $6 extra.

Notes:

Réimpression. Publié à l'origine en 2015.

Comprend des références bibliographiques et un index.

Local Notes:

Acquired for the Penn Libraries with assistance from the Rosengarten Family Fund.

ISBN:

9781927018804

1927018706

1927018803

9781927018705

OCLC:

1312743069