Birth of modernity
As the Seven meet, forty years after Confederation, Canada is gradually asserting its political, economic and social identity. Despite its growing international importance, Canada continues to lag behind in cultural and artistic fields. While there is a landscape art, it is academic and shows little artistic innovation. In this dusty atmosphere, a group of Toronto advertising painters and illustrators befriended each other in the early 1910s. They quickly confronted their work, their techniques and their thoughts on art at dinners at the city's Arts and Letters Club. They shared a common frustration with the conservatism of the local art scene. The Group of Seven was officially born in 1920 as a modern art association and dissolved in 1933. The artists sought to create a new Canadian pictorial style, "driven by strong emotions, born from our own landscape.
Members of the Group
The influence Tom Thomson exerted on the Group was never denied by its members. Before his early death in 1917, this forest ranger certainly converted them to the pleasures of outdoor life. It was under his leadership that the future Seven set out to represent Ontario's wilderness. He also introduced them to the pristine spaces of the Laurentian Shield. Together, they sketch and paint in the wilderness, inspiring and criticizing each other. Although Tom Thompson drowned in Canoe Lake, the Group did not see the birth of the Group, but its members have never ceased to acknowledge the major role it has played in their evolution. Thus Harris said, "I have counted Tom Thomson as a member, even though the name of the group dates from after his death. Tom Thomson was nonetheless essential to the movement, being as much a part of its formation and development as its other members. "
The founding members of the Group of Seven are Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and Frederick Varley. With the exception of Lawren Harris, they all work as advertising illustrators for Grip Ltd., a Toronto-based graphic design agency. More than a passion, advertising is a great fit for them. The manager gives them the freedom to take art classes or to take long summer holidays for creative expeditions. For his part, Lawren Harris inherits a farm equipment business. In addition to ensuring his financial independence, his status allows him to provide material support to the Group.
Painter Emily Carr should be added to this list. Although she has never been a member of the Group, her work is strongly influenced by the approach of the seven painters. Recognized as a leading figure in Canadian art, her paintings are based on the themes of forests and totemic art in British Columbia.
Artistic style
Despite their desire to assert an indigenous style, the Group's painters were influenced by the post-impressionists: Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin or Edvard Munch. Soldiers in the First World War, A.Y. Jackson and Frederick Varley had the opportunity to study directly the works of this period as well as those of the Neo-Impressionists. One cannot help but see in the dead trees or in the dark and ravaged atmospheres of their later productions reminders of the battle scenes in which they were forced to participate.
In opposition to nineteenth-century naturalism, they seek to rebalance the relationship between art and nature. They combine the imitation of natural effects with the expression of their feelings towards the represented motif. They often work together, either outdoors or in the Studio Building, built in 1914 by Lawren Harris and patron James McCallum in Toronto's Rosedale neighbourhood. For this reason, the careers of each of the founding members evolved along parallel paths.
Before that, the year 1912 marked a decisive turning point in their stylistic research. That year, MacDonald and Harris discovered contemporary Scandinavian painting in an exhibition held in Buffalo, United States. They remained captivated by the vision of Scandinavian painters, particularly their use of flat tints and bright colours to breathe life into their landscapes. They soon realized that this innovative approach could easily be applied to their art, which is why their early works feature dense solids and bright colours. Boldly simple, they emphasized surface patterns.
In 1921, after a stay on the austere north shore of Lake Superior, Lawren Harris began to more radically schematize the colours and compositions of his paintings. He was followed by MacDonald, Carmichael and Varley, who were inspired by his methods of diluting pigments and stylizing their compositions. But Lawren Harris went even further. In the mid-1920s, he reduced his paintings to a few elementary, almost monochrome forms. Ten years later, he became one of the pioneers of Canadian abstraction.
Home and evolution of the Group
When the Group was formed, the Seven did not present themselves as landscape painters. It was not until their first exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) in 1920 that they stipulated their exclusive attachment to landscape. From that moment on, they were controversial. Critics compared their works to "the stomach contents of a drunkard" and criticized them as "an outrage to public morals. In the end, these heated debates helped to establish their reputation. The painters respond intelligently and passionately to them, emphasizing the importance of their art as a truly national expression. But they had the unfailing support of Eric Brown, then Director of the National Gallery of Canada. Seven years before the formal formation of the Group, Brown acquired some of their works to enrich the Gallery's collection. To silence critics, he ensured that the Seven's paintings were shown at major art events, including in Canada and at Wembley, UK. Their presence in the artistic landscape quickly established their legitimacy.
Between 1925 and 1931, the Seven were a strong reminder of the importance of the subject, seen by them as the essential element of Canadian painting. They multiplied their expeditions, venturing ever further north to conquer new forms and tonalities. Convinced that the spirit of Canada is felt in its most intimate substance, they merged their conception of an Arctic land with the vast untamed territory.
Their success was due in part to the ancillary skills of some of them. Teachers, writers or excellent speakers, they skillfully promote their work. This is how they expose themselves in the United States, but also in the United Kingdom and France. Secondly, by their colourful simplicity, their works seem designed to reach the greatest number. In fact, mass reproductions of their paintings sell like hotcakes. When the Group of Seven disbanded in 1933, their style quickly evolved into a traditional modern genre.
Career after the Group of Seven
Varley and MacDonald founded their own school in 1933, the British Columbia College of Arts, with the goal of bringing together painting, theatre, dance and music. Unable to compete with the Vancouver School of Art during the Depression, the school was forced to close two years later. MacDonald moved to Nootka, in an environment that was subject to the elements. He set out to infuse spiritual expression into its vast landscapes. The result was a series of semi-abstract paintings that he called "modalities" and defined as "expressions of thought in relation to nature.
Varley moved to Lynn Valley in North Vancouver. Ruined after school closes, he dreams of returning to England. A portrait commissioned by the National Gallery enabled him to move east in 1936. In Ottawa, he sold a few sketches and taught, but at the beginning of the war, his classes were cancelled and he moved to Montreal.
Posterity
In its twelve years of existence, no one disputes that the Group has magnificently renewed Canadian painting. In fact, the romantic panoramas of the Canadian Shield have contributed to the emergence of a "national vision". The vast forests have been elevated to the status of symbols of Canadian Independence. In the mid-1950s, reproductions of their paintings decorated all Canadian schools. The Group's work is owned and, more importantly, valued by museums across the country.The nationalism that drives these seven painters is double-edged. While it initiated the formation of the Group, it also limited its development. Its influence on the artistic scene is gradually losing steam. Pictorial quality is relegated to the background. On this point, all members are not equal in terms of artistic evolution. Those who become the most renowned are also the least daring. Fans will probably remember the vibrant oil sketches of life and emotion by MacDonald, Varley and Jackson.
Nevertheless, they are to be credited with proving that Canadian art was capable of shaking up genres and making its way on the international scene. As a result, they encouraged the creation of museums and government cultural agencies. The group, and in particular Lawren Harris and A. Y. Jackson, has paved the way for generations of artists from Canada and around the world. Their influence can be seen in artists with very different styles: the Scottish painter Peter Doig, the abstract painter Jack Bush and the Group of Eleven of which he was a member. This alliance of artists also began in Toronto, but twenty years after the break-up of the Group of Seven. The main goal was to exhibit abstract art in their city.
Today, most Canadian public museums house Group of Seven paintings, including the National Gallery of Canada,the Art Gallery of Ontario andthe McMichael Canadian Art Collection.
