UPDATE: The AGO synopsis of the exhibition, here.
Steve Martin is now officially a curator. When it was announced two years ago that the art loving comedian wanted to bring the works of Lawren Harris to an international audience, galleries climbed aboard. Called The Idea of the North, the retrospective on a powerhouse of the Canadian Group of Seven has opened at the Hammer Museum in L.A. The show will head to Boston and then the Art Gallery of Ontario in summer 2016.
Martin (who has his own extensive art collection) personally sought out the more than 30 of Harris’s iconic northern landscapes in the show. They were collected from private owners, the National Gallery of Canada, McMichael Canadian Art Collection and other public galleries. The show is a partnership of the Hammer and the AGO, the first major exhibition of Harris paintings to be presented in the U.S.
All images: Hammer Museum, UCLA
Read this Globe and Mail piece about the Idea of the North exhibition as it opened at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2016 after visiting L.A. and Boston.
Categories: Group of Seven, Painting-Canadian
Canadian Art Junkie 
Glad to see you create more profile for this show, it’s a wonderful thing. It will in time come to the AGO as well, as I’m sure you know — with some additional works, and some commentary positioned for an audience likely already to have more awareness of this major artist than may be the case in LA. All credit to Steve Martin for his interest, energy & commitment to the project.
LikeLike
Absolutely right. I can’t wait to see it in Toronto.
LikeLike
Kudos to Steve Martin for making Lawren’s work shine even brighter than it has for almost a century. In the era & and an “esque” of Emily Carr, she is unique.
LikeLike
I always enjoy your comments!!
LikeLike