The McMaster Museum of Art
125 & 45: AN INTERROGATIVE SPIRIT
January 20 - August 4, 2012 Tomlinson Gallery
January 27 – May 12, 2012 Levy Gallery
In 1887, while Canadian artist George Agnew Reid (1860-1947) was adding the final brushstrokes to his iconic Ontario genre painting, Call to Dinner; and English photographer Eadweard Muybridge (1830-1904) undertook his pioneering freeze-frame photography of human and animal motion that bridged science and art;McMaster University was founded.
The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA) now celebrates both the 125th anniversary of McMaster University and the 45th anniversary of the Museum with a two part exhibition, 125 & 45: an interrogative spirit. This exhibition highlights some of the key donors and benefactors who have contributed to the development of the art collection interweaving landmark moments in the histories of the University and Museum.
The MMA has a teaching and research collection that is unique in Canada—the most coherent collection of German Expressionist works, as well as works by European precursors, concurrent vanguard movements, and contemporary legacies.
The Museum’s birth at McMaster University sprang from the convergence of like-minded efforts. The foundation of the German Expressionist collection in the early 1960s by Professors Karl Denner (German Department) and George Wallace (Art History and Fine Art Department) coincided with the establishment of the Wentworth House Art Committee to purchase contemporary Canadian and European works. This led Wallace, along with Dr. Togo Salmon, Chair of the History Department, to push for a purpose-built gallery on campus. It opened in 1967.
The most dramatic and significant moment for the Museum was the Herman Levy collection donation of European historical and Impressionist and Post-Impressionist art in 1984 (a second donation of works came in 1990). Levy’s association with the University dates from the late 1940s and his bequest, in 1990, provided funds for significant international historical, modern and contemporary works. Recently, the Donald Murray Shepherd Trust (a former McMaster Classics professor) provided funds for the purchase of modern period European works by David Bomberg, Christian Rohlfs and Natalia Goncharova, which will be included in the exhibition.
2012 is also represented by a promised gift, a unique and rare A.Y. Jackson figurative painting done in 1913. The work was offered by McMaster graduates (1951) J. Russell and Winifred Hewetson, It has been in their family collection for almost 80 years and this is its first public exhibition.
In addition to the works by Reid and Muybridge, this exhibition includes works by Carl Beam, David Burliuk, Gustave Caillebotte, Otto Dix, Elisabeth Frink, Naum Gabo, Hortense Gordon, Alexej Jawlensky, Arnaud Maggs, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, Robert Rauschenberg, Gerhard Richter, Pauta Saila (and other Inuit works from the 1980 donation by McMaster alumni William Berry), Egon Schiele, Chaim Soutine, Andy Warhol, and Joyce Wieland.
Art Museum Marks Two Birthdays
Hamilton Spectator review by Regina Haggo, Feb 2, 2012
A.Y. (Alexander Young) Jackson (Canadian 1882-1974)
Girl in the Middy, 1913,
oil on panel; double-sided (landscape on verso)
Promised gift of Winifred Hewetson, in memory of J. Russell Hewetson, 2012
Image courtesy of the Estate of the late Dr. Naomi Jackson Groves
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List of Works in Exhibitions
Tomlinson Gallery: 20 January – 4 August 2012
Works representing the first year of McMaster University, 1887
George Agnew Reid (Canadian 1860-1947)
Eadweard Muybridge (English 1830-1904)
Plate 92. Ascending stairs, 1887
Plate 157. Jumping, running twist high jump, 1887 Gift of Mr. Jack Greenwald, 2001
collotype; from Volume 4, Females (Nude) of Animal Locomotion: an electrophotographic investigation of consecutive phases of Animal Locomotion
Work representing the first year of the Museum, 1967 (also a Levy Bequest Purchase)
Elisabeth Frink (English 1930-1993)
Work representing the mid-point of McMaster University, 1949
Alfred Pellan (Canadian 1906-1988)
Works representing the mid-point of the McMaster Museum of Art, 1989/1990
Rainer Fetting (German, b. 1949)
Gerhard Richter (German, b. 1932)
Work representing the current year for the University and the Museum, 2012
A.Y. (Alexander Young) Jackson (Canadian 1882-1974)
Gifts of Herman Levy first gift by Herman Levy, 1947:
second gift by Herman Levy, 1948:
Gustave Caillebotte (French 1848-1894)
George Lemmen (Belgian 1865-1916)
Claude Monet (French 1840-1926)
Camille Pissarro (French 1830-1903)
Chaim Soutine (French b. Lithuania 1893-1943)
Purchases with the Levy Bequest
Otto Dix (German 1891-1969)
Alexej von Jawlensky (Russian 1864-1941)
Egon Schiele (Austrian 1890-1918)
Purchased with Donald Shepherd Trust funds
David Bomberg (English 1890-1957)
Christian Rohlfs (German 1849-1938)
Natalia Sergeevna Goncharova (Russian 1881- d. Paris, 1962)
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Levy & Togo Salmon Galleries, 27 January – 12 May 2012
Ottochie Ashoona (Cape Dorset, 1942-1969)
Barbara Astman (Canadian b. USA 1950)
Sheila Ayearst (Canadian, b. 1951)
Leonard Baskin (American 1922-2000)
Self Portrait with Bird, 1995
Carl Beam (Ojibwe/Anishinaabek 1943-2005)
Darwin, n.d. (c.2002)
Women’s Leggings, c.1890
Lynne Cohen (Canadian b. U.S.A., 1944)
Naum Gabo (Russian 1890 - d. London, 1977)
Betty Goodwin (Canadian 1923-2008)
Hortense Mattice Gordon (Canadian 1887-1961)
David Ikutaaq (b. Kazan River area, 1929-d. Baker Lake 1984)
Paengun Isaluk (Bob Barnabus) (Ikpiarjuk, b.1934)
Arnaud Maggs (Canadian b. 1926)
Victoria Mamnguqsualuk (b. near Garry Lake, 1930)
Enook Manomie (b. Cape Dorset 1941 – d. Iqaluit, 2006)
Angootikjuak Muckpa (Mittimatalik, b. 1942)
Anne and Patrick Poirier (both French—Anne, born 1942; Patrick, born 1942)
Robert Rauschenberg (American 1925-2008) from the series Tibetan Keys and Locks
Pauta Saila (b. Kilaparutua area, northwest of Cape Dorset 1916-d. Ottawa 2009) Tony Scherman (Canadian b.1950) Freud, 2006 / Renata, 2006 from the series “The Mad and the Insane” both encaustic on canvas
Tudlik (b. c.1890 – d. 1966, Cape Dorset)
Andy Warhol (American 1930-1987)
George Burton Wallace
Joyce Wieland (Canadian 1931-1998)
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