Annual Report 2008-2009 - National Gallery of Canada

Program Activity 2:
outreach
Exhibitions and Installations;
Education and Communications
Exhibitions and Installations
Priority: Offer programming of high quality.
The Gallery’s 2008–09 exhibitions program includes in-house
and travelling exhibitions by both Canadian and international
artists, from its contemporary and historical collections and/or
borrowed from outside sources. Original research and publications
accompanied the special exhibitions, contributing to art
historical know ledge and resources in Canada. As well, loans
were negotiated successfully from national and international
collections in support of the special exhibitions. Educational
components, including Bell audioguides, the website, special
education programming, and didactic information presented
within the Gallery spaces, accompanied the major exhibitions.
The experience of visitors to the Gallery is enhanced,
facilitating learning and appreciation of the fine arts, and
encouraging them to return.
In addition to numerous installations from the National
Gallery’s collection, the NGC opened the following exhibitions
in the National Capital Region:
• Presented by the NGC Foundation Circle Patrons, The 1930s:
The Making of “The New Man” featured more than 200
extraordinary works that explored the seminal link between
art and biology. The exhibition exhibited works by eminent
European artists such as Salvador Dalí, Pablo Picasso, Vassily
Kandinsky, Max Ernst, and August Sander, as well as such
North American artists as Grant Wood, Jackson Pollock,
Walker Evans, and Alex Colville.
• Utopia/Dystopia: The Photographs of Geoffrey James showcased
more than 80 photographs representing all of
Geoffrey James’ major series. The exhibition was presented
by Pratt & Whitney Canada.
• In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun: Sámi and Inuit Art
2000–2005 was organized and circulated by the Art Gallery
of Hamilton. The exhibition presented some 70 works made
between 2000 and 2005 by Canadian Inuit artists and Sámi
artists from Norway, Sweden, and Finland. The exhibition
was presented at the National Gallery with the generous
support of the embassies of Finland, Norway, and Sweden.
• Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture, co-organized
by the National Gallery of Canada and the J.P. Getty
Museum, explored the remarkable development of portrait
sculpture in 17th-century Rome. Thanks to Gian Lorenzo
Bernini and his contemporaries, the portrait bust became
an innovative and groundbreaking art form. The rare
opportunity to view these works in close proximity sheds
light on the remarkable artistic innovations of the period
and provides a glimpse into their individual styles as well as
the relationships among them.
• Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer presented a
dynamic and innovative group of contemporary Canadian
artists, each of whom created large-scale sculptural installations
that engage, and even rely on the viewer. Stemming
traditions of performance, installations, minimalism,
environmental and body art, the presented works invited
visitors to interact, transforming the classic relationship
between the object and the individual who looks at it.
Other smaller exhibitions and installations from the National
Gallery collection include:
• Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts
• Comic Relief
• “From Today Painting is Dead”: Humour and Invention of
Photography
• A Renoir Sketchbook
• Dots, Pulses, and Loops
• BGL: The Discourse of Elements
• High-definition Inuit Storytelling
• Drawn Positions: Geographies and Communities
• Back to the Beginning … Rethinking Abstraction from an
Indigenous Perspective
• Living Room
• Lewis Wickes Hine – Social Photographer
• A Passion for Life: The Photographs of André Kertész
• An Enchanted Domain
• RBC Canadian Painting Competition
44 Key Expected Results