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Indepth Arts News:
"RECENT ACQUISITIONS OF CONTEMPORARY ART
1997 TO 2000"
2000-08-16 until 2000-10-08
Winnipeg Art Gallery
Winnipeg, MB,
CA Canada
Every year, many exciting works of art are added to The Winnipeg
Art Gallery’s collection. This exhibition includes a selection of
contemporary works that have entered the collection since 1997.
Most of them have been generously donated by private collectors
and artists.
The Winnipeg Art Gallery also purchases contemporary art.
Many of these acquisitions are made with the assistance of the
Canada Council for the Arts Acquisitions Assistance Program,
which assists in the purchase of major contemporary Canadian art
which meets the Canada Council’s criteria. Trudy Golley’s
Empyreal Cadence, 1996, and Murray Favro’s Snow on Steps,
1994, falls into this category. Steve Gouthro’s Building, 1990,
is being purchased through the President’s Appeal 2000, a special
fundraising campaign designated for the purchase of three major
works by contemporary Manitoba artists. The other two works,
House of Tea, 1997-1998, by Esther Warkov, and Sandy Bay,
1998-99, by Robert Houle, will be exhibited at the National
Gallery of Canada over the summer.
Many factors and individuals play a role in deciding what
becomes part of a public gallery’s collection. Consideration is
given to the work of art’s provenance—its aesthetic value, its
condition, and its history of ownership and exhibition.
Another important factor is its relevance to the collection. Based
on existing strengths in the collection and its collecting mandate, a
gallery may only acquire certain types of art. Some galleries might
only collect the art of a particular people (Inuit art), or works in
only one media (ceramics), or even the work of one artist, for
example, the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh. The WAG’s
mandate, on the other hand, is far reaching, encompassing
historical, contemporary, decorative, Inuit, and photographic
work by Manitoba, Canadian, and international artists.
Frequently a work is accepted because it directly relates to other
works in the collection. For example, a gallery may have
something from one period of an artist’s career, but not from
another. This is the case with Paterson Ewen’s Untitled
(Amsterdam) c.1961, a recent donation from Kenneth James
Hughes, Winnipeg. This exceptional and rarely seen early work
from Ewen’s Montreal period complements his other work in the
collection Untitled (Iceberg), which dates from 1974.
This exhibition will provide an opportunity to see other recently
acquired works by Manitoba, Canadian, and international artists
including Karl Beveridge and Carol Conde, Aganetha Dyck,
Arthur Mackay, Jack Shadbolt, Doug Walker, and Andy
Warhol. Text panels about the acquisition process and
informative labels for individual works will explain how a
collection is built one piece at a time.
This exhibition is sponsored by the Volunteer Committee to The
Winnipeg Art Gallery.
James Patten
Curator, Contemporary Art and Photography
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