Annual Report 2008-2009 - National Gallery of Canada

Bringing Canada to
the World and the World
to Canada
From Bernini’s popes
to the “New Man” in
the 1930s art to a very new
kind of (needy) table
In his address on Art and Politics at the Nuremberg Party Day
Rally on 1 September 1935, Hitler proclaimed that art should be
the “… prophetess of Sublimity and Beauty and thus sustain
that which is at once natural and healthy.” The statement
defined a dramatic narrowing of art’s purpose, which coincided
neatly with the ideal of the “New Man” then being taken up
by totalitarian regimes. Whether it caused them to tow the line
or to rebel, the effect of this new political climate on the artists
of the day was profound.
This sea change was explored in-depth in the Gallery’s remarkable summer exhibition, presented by the National Gallery of
Canada Foundation Circle Patrons, The 1930s: The Making of “The New Man,” which drew more than 62,000 visitors. Organized by
the Gallery through an international curatorial committee, the show brought together paintings, sculptures and photographs,
many in equal parts stunning and distressing, by more than 100 European and North American artists – Dalí and Picasso among
them – from public and private collections on both continents.
Similarly unforgettable, the winter exhibition Bernini and
the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture, organized by the Gallery
and the J. Paul Getty Museum, was the first-ever comprehensive
exhibition of portrait busts by one of the greatest sculptors
of all time, Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The 17th-century Italian
genius was patronized by a succession of powerful popes and
cardinals. Through his breathtaking projects of painting, sculpture
and architecture, he became known as the “artistic dictator”
of Rome.
“They’re engaging us, they require us to be there.
These sculptures need an audience.”
Moving dramatically forward in time, Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer featured 17 large sculptural installations
by 11 influential contemporary Canadian artists. Drawn in part from the Gallery’s collection, and also featuring several works
created for the exhibition, the selected works featured interactive elements that light up or oscillate or radiate heat in response
to someone’s presence; in one case a table literally follows visitors around. This dynamic exhibition explored the current
changing nature of art itself, as well as its relationship with viewers.
It is through creating and hosting ambitious, thought-provoking and historically significant exhibitions such as these that
the Gallery’s mandate to further Canadians’ knowledge and understanding of art, and its vision to continue to make art accessible,
meaningful and vital, are fully realized.
Other notable exhibitions from 2008–09 included Utopia / Dystopia: The Photographs of
Geoffrey James, the Gallery’s first major retrospective of the work of this celebrated contemporary
Canadian photographer presented by Pratt & Whitney Canada; Real Life: Ron Mueck and
Guy Ben-Ner, the summer exhibition in Shawinigan Space that brought Mueck’s arresting sculptures
together with the video art of Ben-Ner; and, In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun: Sámi
and Inuit Art 2000–2005, presented with the generous support from the Embassies of Finland,
Norway and Sweden.
Bernini and the Birth of Baroque
Portrait Sculpture
12 Highlights and Achievements