Hi everybody!

Hope you are enjoying the flowering forsythias that are out now and the beginnings of the cherry blossoms. Apartment dwellers like myself can keep our eye on the exploding blooms of the cherry blossoms in High Park via the 24-hour Bloom Cam (they are starting!!).

Finally, we wanted to share this heartwarming story from Trish’s neighbourhood in the east end. The neighbourhood children (including Trish’s daughter and son) have created themed works of art in their front windows so other people can enjoy an art scavenger hunt. I may have shed a tear watching this!

Please read on!

Favourites from the Collection

Today we hear from the wonderful Melissa Smith, as she discusses her favourite works by Janice Kerbel from the Contemporary Collection: 

I’m not sure many people know how big a nerd I am, but I have an M. A. in Art History under my belt (along with Museum Studies – it was a circuitous route). I specialized in semiotics and symbolism in 16th and 17th century art. I wrote a very long thesis on 16th century emblematic books, a real page turner lol! I had every intention of pursuing an academic career but changed my mind after getting accepted by some Phd programs. I realised that I was feeling a sense of dread, instead of elation. This is what led me to work in museums, where I discovered my true passion – engaging with visitors, breaking down perceived and physical barriers to art and museum objects. I truly believe that art and culture not only improves our wellbeing, but can change the world.

All this to say, I have a great many favourites in the AGO and many reside in the European and Prints and Drawings collections (I also studied Printmaking!), but working in museums also opened my eyes to Contemporary Art. A period of art production, I wanted nothing to do with, while I was in school. See change is possible!

So I’m very excited to share that one of my most favourite works in our collection is by Janice Kerbel. We acquired the Remarkable series, a group of panelled silkscreen prints on campaign poster paper, a few years ago. Kerbel works tongue and cheek with language, design, and font in this body of work and I LOVE IT! She plays off of circus/fair tropes, particularly those associated with the problematic sideshows from yore, and subverts them in such a way that we are seduced into looking closer, while considering our past and current practices. We’re currently exhibiting The Regurgitating Lady poster on the 4th floor, but we also have the originals and digital files to reproduce exhibition versions for The Temperamental Barometric Contortionist, The Shyest Person Alive, Faint Girl, and Iggy Fatuse The Human Firefly. Confronted by the stark, two meter posters with slab serif typefaces conjures the sideshow impresario and performers and I love the contrast of referenced fairground sideshow ephemera in a gallery context. They originally appeared at the 2007 Frieze Art Fair in London and were wallpapered all over. Maybe there was a commentary there around the absurd theatricality of the event and the art world, in general….Mostly, for me, there is a certain poetry hidden in the lines of these typographic monoliths that brings a smile to my face every time I walk past them.

I miss you all and hope you’re doing well. It’s important to find the things we can smile and laugh about, now more than ever, and I hope this work brings a smile to your face too.

Armchair Traveller – Let’s go to the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam

Our journey will take us back to Amsterdam to visit The Rijksmuseum. The virtual reality tour of the museum is particularly impressive! Spend some time in the Great Hall and marvel at the vaulted ceilings, the incredibly detailed mosaic floors and the stained glass windows. You can approach several pieces in the collection to get a close-up view and even get a narrated interpretation of the work you are looking at. Pictured above is Jan Asselijn’s The Threatened Swan. Asselijn was a known Dutch landscape painter (the AGO has Landscape with Ancient Ruins in the collection), but he shockingly (based on the mastery) only painted one animal! Follow the story of the painting and learn what may have made the swan so angry. You also won’t want to miss a thorough exploration of Rembrandt van Rijn’s Night Watch! 

While you are marvelling at the museum, you may be interested in a 10 minute Ted Talk from Wim Pijbes, the emeritus General Director of the Rijksmuseum. You will find that the AGO and the Rijksmuseum have a similar vision of opening access to art for all!

Be well and stay healthy,

Jonathan, Christine, Trish and Nicole