Rare Group of Seven art a coup for Esplanade

By Chris Brown on July 5, 2018.

NEWS PHOTO CHRIS BROWN
Curator Joanne Marion wipes a sticker at the Alberta and the Group of Seven exhibition in the Esplanade Art Gallery on Wednesday. The exhibition is showing until July 14.

cbrown@medicinehatnews.com @MHNBrown

There’s a distinct feeling of seventh heaven these days around the Esplanade, where works from the famed Group of Seven are currently hanging.

“There’s some really, really beautiful pieces and it’s really rare we would have pieces from the Group of Seven on display in Medicine Hat,” art gallery curator Joanne Marion said this week. “They’re not that easy to come by. I think people will really enjoy being able to see the original Group of Seven pieces in the flesh as it were.”

The Group of Seven, some of Canada’s most celebrated landscape painters, were some of the country’s most important artists in the early 20th century. The group consisted of Franklin Carmichael, Lawren Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Franz Johnston, Arthur Lismer, J.E.H. MacDonald and F.H. Varley.

This exhibition, Alberta and the Group of Seven, combines works from the famed group with pieces from other Alberta artists who had some sort of connection to the group, often as students or colleagues. Euphemia McNaught, Annora Brown and H.G. Glyde are among the Alberta artists with works featured.

“Some of the pieces by the Alberta artists are particularly remarkable,” Marion said. “There’s some real surprises there, some very powerful works and it’s all fairly representational landscape but stylistically there’s quite a gamut in there as well.”

The exhibition, guest curated by Alberta art specialist Mary-Bath Laviolette, is about 50/50 split between Group of Seven and Alberta artists. Only one piece is from the Esplanade, with the rest coming from private collections or other institutions. Marion believes the exhibition resonates well with this corner of the province.

“The art of this area is heavy on landscape, it’s a very popular genre for southeastern Alberta and I think some of the Alberta artists are very well known here,” she said. “It seemed like a fantastic opportunity, especially for summer, perhaps for visitors from out of province.”

Running alongside Alberta and the Group of Seven is Jude Griebel’s Ground-Figure: Sculpture 2013-2018.

Marion describes the pieces as characters and landscapes sometimes at the same instant.

“I thought it was quite an interesting counterpoint to Alberta and the Group of Seven. They’re really engaging figures. They’re really emotionally charged, they also have quite a sense of humour and whimsy,” she said.

From the Sundre, Alta., area, Griebel builds the sculptures out of his rural roots, Marion explains, adding “he’s very much concerned with agriculture and ranching but beyond that other human uses of our environment.”

The exhibitions are on display until July 14, one day after the Downtown Medicine Hat Art Walk on July 13.