This text is part of the special Museums notebook
The exhibition offers a whole section of the country’s creative memory. Generations — The Sobey family and Canadian art, which houses the Pierre Lassonde pavilion of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) until spring. A real lesson in art history that its curators swear is as instructive as it is accessible.
The illustrious Sobey clan is not only recognized as the owner of the supermarket chain of the same name: they are also the precious guardians of a vast collection of works of art, among the most prestigious in Canada. By exhibiting 150 pieces taken from the coffers of the line of entrepreneurs born in Stellarton, Nova Scotia, the MNBAQ offers a complete panorama of 19th century Canadian art.e and the XXe century through some of its most legendary representatives, including First Nations artists. “The family gave us complete freedom in the selection of works,” says Jennifer Withrow, associate chief curator at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection public museum in Kleinburg, Ont., which created and toured the ‘event Generations — The Sobey family and Canadian art.
Tell stories
It was the Sobeys themselves who offered to share their treasures with as many people as possible. “We didn’t want to have an exhibition that sent the message: “Look how beautiful the Sobey collection is!” We wanted to do something different, tell stories and show how these works — by Emily Carr, from British Columbia, the Group of Seven, contemporary indigenous artists, automatists or Quebec impressionists — can be mix, while they are normally part of isolated categories,” adds Mme Withrow. She specifies that the arrangement of the paintings in the room, reflecting all the diversity of the content, was carefully thought out in this sense. “These are works of very high quality which are not always accessible to the public, because they are part of private collections. We can see how artists, throughout the centuries, were concerned with the same things, but in different ways. »
The title Generations — The Sobey Family and Canadian art contains three interpretations. He first refers to the three generations of collectors from the Sobey branch represented in the course, then salutes the inventive ideas generated by the marriage of all these varied universes. The name also refers to the Sobey Prize for the Arts, a distinction – imagined by Donald Sobey and awarded by the Sobey Foundation for the Arts, another glorious Sobey initiative – supporting Canadian visual arts created in 2002. This celebrated its 20 years since the McMichael Canadian Art Collection opened the exhibition in February 2022. “We have talked a lot about the effect of this prize, how it has propelled the careers of contemporary artists. It generated visibility for these artists, which they didn’t have before. »
The Quebec legacy
Of course, Quebec’s legacy is celebrated in this assembly of gems from all the provinces. The essentials Paul-Émile Borduas, Clarence Gagnon, Jean Paul Lemieux, James Wilson Morrice, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté and Jean Paul Riopelle are obviously in the spotlight. “In a room, we paired Morrice with Lemieux. They are different artists in terms of style, we don’t necessarily associate them, but we find that they are both very interested in nostalgia, in memories of the past. By putting them together, we see similarities,” describes Jennifer Withrow, before continuing by establishing a parallel between the Quebec Impressionists and the Group of Seven, a collective of Canadian painters from the beginning of the 20th century.e century focused on nature and landscape. “This is an element that, in our opinion, has not been given enough importance in the history of the Group of Seven. We always talk about the influence of Scandinavian artists, but when we do research, we understands that the artists of the Group of Seven greatly admired the impressionists in Quebec, these Quebec painters who had exhibited their paintings in Toronto. We wanted to show how the Quebec Impressionists influenced the development of modern painting in Ontario. »
Mme Withrow wishes visitors a “moving experience”. “We immediately see that this is not a traditional exhibition. It is not arranged in chronological order. We distinguish on an aesthetic level, through the colors, the emotions generated, similarities between artists that we do not always have the opportunity to see together. The relationships between the paintings and the artists are very easy to appreciate; you don’t have to have a doctorate in art history to appreciate the links that we have tried to draw in the exhibition. »
The exhibition Generations — The Sobey family and Canadian art is on display at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec until May 12.
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