AGO/From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia
April 11 – August 9, 2015
“Emily Carr is one of Canada’s greatest artists, best known for her paintings of west coast native villages and forest and seashore landscapes.
Born in Victoria in 1871, early studies took her to San Francisco and London.
Tracing a dramatic journey from darkness to light, and from winter to summer, the exhibition features nearly 100 paintings, watercolours and drawings by Carr, including rarely seen sketches, works drawn from private collections as well as the recently discovered illustrated journal Sister and I in Alaska, in which Carr documented her pivotal 1907 trip up and down the Northwest Coast. Visitors will travel with Carr as she explores this landscape and its indigenous communities, searching for a sense of place and self in both her brooding forest scenes and the euphoric skyscapes of her late career.
In dialogue with Carr’s paintings, the exhibition features more than 40 historic indigenous artifacts from the Pacific Northwest Coast, including masks, baskets and ceremonial objects by Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw, Nuu-chah-nulth, Salish, Tsimshian and Tinglit makers.”
