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Art Canadian

National Visions, National Blindness

Canadian Art and Identities in the 1920s

by (author) Leslie Dawn

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Nov 2011
Category
Canadian, Native American, General, Modern (late 19th Century to 1945)
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774840620
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9780774812184
    Publish Date
    Jan 2007
    List Price
    $34.95
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774812177
    Publish Date
    Aug 2006
    List Price
    $95.00

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Description

In the early decades of the twentieth century, the visual arts were considered central to the formation of a distinct national identity, and the Group of Seven’s landscapes became part of a larger program to unify the nation and assert its uniqueness. This book traces the development of this program and illuminates its conflicted history. Leslie Dawn problematizes conventional perceptions of the Group as a national school and underscores the contradictions inherent in international exhibitions showing unpeopled landscapes alongside Northwest Coast Native arts and the “Indian” paintings of Langdon Kihn and Emily Carr. Dawn examines how this dichotomy forced a re-evaluation of the place of First Nations in both Canadian art and nationalism.

About the author

Awards

  • Winner, Raymond Klibanksy Prize, The Canadian Federation for the Humanities and Social Sciences

Contributor Notes

Leslie Dawn is a professor in the Department of Art at the University of Lethbridge.