A quote from The McMichael Gallery in Kleinburg celebrating the 100th anniversary of the first ‘Group of Seven’ exhibit.
And ‘dawn’, backlit by a full moon, on May 7, 2020 from Willisville Mountain in La Cloche. A view painted by ‘Group of Seven’ artists and their contemporaries.
“On May 7, 1920, a group of artists calling themselves the Group of Seven mounted their first formal exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario). Approximately 2000 visitors passed through the doors during the exhibition’s three-week run. Of the more than 120 paintings on view, only six sold. “Seven Painters Show Some Excellent Work” read the headline in Toronto’s Daily Star newspaper, reflecting the moderate opinion of most critics. In a letter to his mother, painter A.Y. Jackson wrote that the exhibition was “attracting quite a lot of attention even if it is not understood.”
The group of seven artists whose pictures are here exhibited have for several years held a like vision concerning Art in Canada. They are all imbued with the idea that an Art must grow and flower in the land before the country will be a real home for its people. – Exhibition catalogue, May 1920″
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