It’s no secret that women artists have been notoriously overlooked throughout the course of white, male-dominated art history.

Christiane Pflug, Kitchen Door with Esther, 1965. Image: christianepflug.com

There are many reasons for this, not least of which is that women’s ability to express themselves was seriously limited before they won the right to vote. For non-asian and non-First Nations women in Canada, this was in 1916 in Winnipeg.

Click HERE to see a 1974 CBC clip of Beatrice Brigden, recalling suffragette Nellie McClung’s famous ‘mock parliament’ of 1914. It’s great.

The early 20th century produced some women artists who are well worth knowing about, for instance Lilias Torrance Newton, Emily Coonan, the Automatiste Marcelle Ferron and the self-taught painter Christiane Pflug.

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Canadian sculptor and painter Sorel Etrog was born in Romania in 1933, studied in Tel Aviv and moved to Toronto in 1963 from New York, where he had been at the Brooklyn Museum of Art on scholarship.

Sorel Etrog, The Hand, 1972. Image: flickr.com

In 1959, Etrog had his first Canadian solo exhibition at Gallery Moos and shortly thereafter, having become a Canadian citizen, represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1966.

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Greg Curnoe, Self-Portrait #4, 1992. Image: ccca.ca

New York and London are the twin centres of today’s international art world, but what about less-visible, off-the-map places, like Hamburg, Chicago or Winnipeg, the almost unbelievably creative geographical heart of this country?

(We saw Guy Maddin narrate his acclaimed, celebratory, idiosyncratic film, My Winnipeg, live last night in Toronto – click HERE to watch the trailer)

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Have you heard of the Canadiana Fund?

Kenneth Lochhead, Saskatchewan Jubilee, 1955. Image: kennethlochhead.com

They have, apparently, in Saskatchewan, where collectors from the province have been donating works of art by local artists to the fund, which sees the work displayed in Canada’s official residences.

“The fund is also pleased to have works from all of the members of the Regina Five, which is a regionally noteworthy group. The Regina Five are Arthur McKay, Ronald Bloore, Kenneth Lochhead, Ted Godwin and Douglas Morton.”

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Norman White. Image: wikimedia.org

“I have little interest in artistic creation which expresses things about me or the world that I had previously known. I have turned to computers for this work because they give me ample possibility for eluding my own contrivance.” – Norman White

Born in Texas and raised in Boston, Norman White has been based in Toronto since 1967. He taught himself electronics in the late 1960s and has since been recognized for his pioneering work in kinetic electronics.

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RON KOSTYNIUK

Calgary artist Ron Kostyniuk has been making and exhibiting architecture-inspired relief structures since the 1960s.

A relief sculpture by Ron Kostyniuk. Image: Courtesy of the artist.

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Artist Hilda Woolnough. Image: hildawoolnough.com

HILDA WOOLNOUGH

Hilda Woolnough (1934 – 2007) is a well-renowned visual artist who had been a resident of Prince Edward Island for more than 30 years. She was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in 2000 and her work is in many public and private collections including the Montreal Museum of Fine Art, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Canada Council Art Bank and the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

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Harold Town. Image: swansea.ca

HAROLD TOWN

VoCA salutes curator Mia Nielsen for bringing the artist – and member of the Painters Eleven – back, with an exhibition of his work at the Drake Hotel, Toronto.

Beautiful Loser is up at the Drake from November 1, 2007 – 5 January, 2008 and will feature some of Harold Town’s early abstract paintings, collage works, intricate drawings and late sculptures.

Harold Town, Mechanical Forest Sound, oil on masonite, 1953. Image: farm1.static.flickr.com

Town represented Canada in two Venice Biennales and his works are held many collections, including those of the Tate, London and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

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Gershon Iskowitz. Image: artmatters.ca

GERSHON ISKOWITZ

In the first of our monthly feature on underrated Canadian artists, VoCA salutes the late, great Gershon Iskowitz.

Like many Canadians, we were never properly schooled in 20th century Canadian art. On a visit to Gallery Moos in Toronto recently to inquire about work by the Costa Rica-based Canadian artist Leonidas Correa, we were struck by some of Mr. Iskowitz’s paintings. Continue reading →