Canadian artistic group formations: Art as a form of cultural and national identity

Title: Canadian artistic group formations: Art as a form of cultural and national identity
Variant title:
  • La formation des groupes d'artistes canadiens : l'art comme forme d'identité culturelle et nationale
Source document: The Central European journal of Canadian studies. 2016, vol. 10-11, iss. [1], pp. 57-72
Extent
57-72
  • ISSN
    1213-7715 (print)
    2336-4556 (online)
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
 

Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.

Abstract(s)
The terms cultural and national identity are fluid terms that allow for a wide scale of interpretation. What do we define as being a cultural identity specific to a nation? Canada, like all other nations of the world, has its own unique set of distinct features, that is, its symbols. Making occasional references to Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, this paper focuses on the specific groups of Canadian painters who officially formed the Group of Seven in Toronto and the Beaver Hall Group in Montreal. What made them "better" than other Canadian painters before and after? They strove for national content, hence an identity, and this aim was evident from the very beginning. The paper proposes to illustrate how as a group they succeeded where individual artists failed, and simultaneously created a steadfast and durable identity for Canada, thereby capturing the essence of the Canadian being through their paintings.
Les conditions culturelles et nationales de l'identité sont des termes mouvants qui laissent une grande part à l'interprétation. Qu'est-ce que nous définissons comme l'identité spécifique d'une nation? Le Canada comme toutes les autres nations du monde a son lot de caractéristiques distinctes que nous considérons comme des symboles. La présente contribution se concentre sur des groupes de peintres canadiens spécifiques, sans inclure Tom Thomson et Emily Carr qui formaient officiellement le « Group of Seven » de Toronto et le groupe « Beaver Hall » de Montréal. Qu'est-ce qui les a rendus meilleurs que les peintres canadiens antérieurs et postérieurs ? L'essai propose d'illustrer la façon dont ils ont lutté en tant que groupe, mais aussi comment ils ont ou n'ont pas réussi en tant qu'artistes individuels, créant avec ténacité une identité durable pour le Canada en saisissant l'essence du Canada dans leurs peintures.
Note
In an earlier form, this article was first presented as a paper at a conference entitled "Multiculturalism in Canada: Changing Perspectives", which was organized by Károli Gáspár University of the Reformed Church in Hungary and Eötvös Loránd University on 24-25 November 2016.
References
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