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FUCKING CANADIAN ART.

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The Rogers media mogul just delviered a 300 million dolalr gift to the Art Gallery of Ontario, well it s more then that if you include a 50 million dollar bribe to Frank Gehry and a 20 million dollar endowment.

1/3 rd of the 300 million dollars is taken up by the purchase of a Reubens (well 117/300 million). This painting was just recently refound, and its authourship is heavily debated, mostly b/w those for auction houses and real art historians- the real art historians mostly in agreement that it was a student and not the master.

Aside from the "Reubens", there is the usual Kreighoffs, Kanes and Group of 7ers

Kane is a v. v. v. minor history painter known mostly for his sentimanetalizing portraits of natives, which I guess is better then killing them off whole sale.

Kreighoff is a 19th century dutch immigrant to Canada, who painted cloying scenes of life in Rural Upper Canada, which was as unrelated to life as could be possible (ice skating vs freezing to death-which makes a better picture ?)

The group of 7 pictures include a handful of good to great Harrises and a bunch of other shitty landscapes.

Harris paintings do not have the tennous of JEH McDonald or the whole sale rip offs of post impressionism or the cake icing thick impasto of a JEH McDonald.

What they do have is serene and glorius color, lots and lots of whites and greens and blues and blacks, , with large bimorphic shapes that vaugley resemble mountains or icebergs.

his last paintings were done in the Bahamas and oh my god, the color is amazing, parrot greens, corals, crimsons, pinks, oranges, just land evoked with swirling lines and elegant shapes. –an undervalued period, none of the moguls collection contain any of them .

the oddity of the collection is the huge amounts of unremarkable English pottery , mostly English and mostly made b/w the 16th and 18th Centuries, it’s the sort of polite collectible that smacks of hummels for the upper classes.

its boring, and all comes on the tail of auction results from vancouver0 where Kane sold for a new record (17 million)- a similar auction in Toronto will sell of half a dozen Kreighoffs and expect similar prices. Both of them are safe, dull and prestigious, sold more for patriotism then aesthics. And Harris, while Brillant and Shamelessly unknown outside of Canada, is over compensenated within because of it.

Why Cant we get decent results for unknowns- the recent Covilles are all about Death and God, somber and photrealsitc and almost exenestial in their misery.

or Kurlek, whose religious paintings are as plain as a Methodist hymn and as gory as his native Orthodoxy ( he did a series of paintings on Mathhew- one of which features a farmer, whose field is half plowed, crucifed on a fence post. )

or the stern potruitre of 19th century Quebec

or even the most recent workers, Jeff Walls massive often ugly Cibrachromes, o whose violence seems nesscary, or Stan Douglas's video peioces, who show the method of their artifice, and are all the more moving because of it or Robert Attila Lucas's connections b/w the cult of the body and the cult of body politic or Joyce Weilands quilts, or Agnes Martins scared evocations of light or hundred of others.

im sick of the boredom of the canuck establishment and how they buy art.


― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 15:36 (twenty-three years ago)

they should buy my mum's paintings. she's better than all the pretentious grain-fed twats you mention.

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 15:55 (twenty-three years ago)

who is yr mom. is she from the city. also i am so fucking stoked for yr gig tomorrow.

― anthony easton (anthony), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 17:34 (twenty-three years ago)

fields what's yr band called?

(yeah canadian ilx massive go go go)

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 17:55 (twenty-three years ago)

anthony! you're coming to the show! wicked dude, see you there. sorry in advance for sucking so bad.

check the edmonton journal's entertainment section -- in particular todd babiak's "rock notes" column. yup, that's us in the middle, but they got our name wrong (again). nice to know we're getting some potentially disastrous publicity. i wonder if we're going to get served our cease and desist papers on stage? (wishful thinking)

my band is called the t0m cru1se m1ssile ...

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 21:08 (twenty-three years ago)

Alex Coville, wow, thats a name I havent heard in a while. I was starting to think my university made the guy up and no one outside of Sackville had ever seen his work.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 21:53 (twenty-three years ago)

you go to mount allison?

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Wednesday, 20 November 2002 22:26 (twenty-three years ago)

Hey fields, when are you guys coming to Winnipeg? Lotsa cool places to play here. And don't say when hell freezes over, please. And please don't tell me you've already been here, at least in the last little while.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 21 November 2002 04:28 (twenty-three years ago)

Voice of Fire.

That is all I have to say on this subject.

― Miss Laura, Thursday, 21 November 2002 09:58 (twenty-three years ago)

bryan, could you recommend any winnipeg venues? what's the scene like in winnipeg these days?

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Thursday, 21 November 2002 15:13 (twenty-three years ago)

anthony, what's Harris' first name and the names of the others in the Group of 7? You're right, Harris is unknown to me but your descriptions make me curious.

― felicity (felicity), Thursday, 21 November 2002 15:53 (twenty-three years ago)

Well, there's always the Albert, a venue that every band seems to have to play at least once in their careers (i.e. Rheos, Tragically Hip, etc.). It's a scummy little hole in the ground, but it's pretty easy to get a gig there and I think you might even get paid a little bit! You'd have to describe your music (or provide a sample) for me to say whether or not a different venue would be better. The U of M and U of W both have places to play. There's the West End Cultural Centre, but it's more a folky venue (although NoMeansNo played there last week). There's the Pyramid, which hosts just about everything, though it seems to have developed a hip hop slant over the last few years. There's probably 5 or 6 other good places to play that I've forgotten. The scene here is pretty cool, though I'm a little out of touch with live shows as of late. The best Winnipeg band is called 60 Stories (IMHO). Can't compare them to anyone except maybe Belle & Sebastian on lithium. There's the Weakerthans, who seem to be everyones fave Winnipeg band if they're not from here (I have barely heard them! Their shows always sell out so quickly I never get to see them). Nathan is really good. Most of the Endearing Records bands are ok, especially Paper Moon (r.i.p. The Bonaduces). There're a lot of metal bands, lots of hip hop (the Peanuts & Corn guys; good riddance to Mood Ruff), LOTS of folk bands (they have the best places to play). One of the University venues would probably be good, and both universities have good campus radio stations. If I knew what you sounded like I'd be able to steer you in the right direction.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 21 November 2002 16:16 (twenty-three years ago)

you go to mount allison?
I went to Mount Allison yup. Did my tour of duty complete with victory lap.

Maybe we should have a thread to remeber the Bonaduces by. great band. I forget but supposedly there is a long and winding connection between The Bonaduces and Kate's band.
As for Endearing bands, they release Julie Doiron's last few albums, did Pretty In Pop ep which is utter classicness and The Pets from Steinbach, all of which are criminally underlooked. It all makes up for unleashing The Northern Pikes and Wide Mouth Mason on the world.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 21 November 2002 17:25 (twenty-three years ago)

paper moon and nathan have both played here in edmonton and done quite well as i understand it (though i missed both their shows). as for the weakerthans, well i'm a big fan. i don't generally find music that is so straightforward so engaging, but i like the honesty and sheer musicality of the weakerthans. i'm also quite aware of winnipeg's burgeoning hip hop scene, as many of them have made the trek to play for edmonton's rather suspect hip hop underground. also, winnipeg's "outside" electronics scene (venetian snares and others) were featured in a recent article in The Wire.

edmonton's musical output does not have the depth of winnipeg's -- our large, oppressive, punk scene mafia sees to that. i imagine winnipeg suffers from the same level of musical inbreeding and bullshit scene politics (being cities of roughly the same size/geography) but edmonton has always felt terribly claustrophobic to me.

we have some good bands coming up, however, and we could see something really good happen here in about a year's time.

bryan: my band would fit well on a bill with any of your winnipeg nathans, paper moons or weakerthans. we sound like a 70's t.v. theme (Hill Street Blues, Taxi) as interpreted by Pavement. angular guitar and math-y rhythms meet smooth trumpet and stevie wonder's electric piano. *shrug* would fit well on any indie-rock/post-rock/pop bill.

any suggestions?

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Thursday, 21 November 2002 19:01 (twenty-three years ago)

First off, a big apology to anthony for fucking up his thread. Now, fields, do you have a demo CD or something that could be played on the radio here? That would help. the t0m cru1se m1ssile sounds like a good idea for a band. Any band with electric piano and trumpet would do well here, though you'd probably come off better in a larger place (even if it wasn't full, though we'll try to get the word out) like the Pyramid. I'll go and talk to some of my buddies at the Music Trader (the best indie music store here with the worst name) and see what they think. Would you come with another band? I could possibly help get you a show with a couple of people I know. My friend Tyler (DJ Hunnicutt from McEnroe, Farm Fresh, etc) will be able to help out. I'll talk to him tonight and let you know tomorrow what he thinks. The Winnipeg indie scene is ruled to a certain extent by the Music Trader guys, which kinda sucks, though I'm friends with some of them and they're basically cool guys. The punk scene here is almost dead from what I can tell, though it's been replaced with a metal scene, but it's pretty benign. People here are usually so grateful for bands that don't leave for Toronto or Vancouver that everyone's pretty accepting. Most people I know here also appreciate originality, so your band would probably be hearted. Anyway, I'll let you know what they think later on.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 21 November 2002 20:25 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah man, big apologies to anthony for the total thread hijack.

we're hoping to get into the studio around christmas, but its kind of tenuous at the moment. our friend/producer j. is coming back from his home in NYC for the holidays -- hopefully we'll be able to wrangle him into manning the board for us.

so we'd probably be looking at coming through town in the new year at some point and we'd probably want to coincide it with shows in regina and saskatoon (just to make the trip worthwhile). we definitely would try to bring another band with us, our friends "go corvallis" are top-notch.

any info. you could provide would be great -- and of course any of edmonton's resources i can help you with, consider it done!

cheers!
rob

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Thursday, 21 November 2002 21:44 (twenty-three years ago)

Cool. I'll let you know what I find out. Getting the university radio stations to do some (free) promotion would probably be a good idea, and some recorded music would help. Good luck in the studio. I don't go to Edmonton enough (haven't been since '99, lived there for a while during the winter of '93 - '94 which SUCKED!). Does the email address you have showing here work? I'll send you what I find out that way if it does. I can probably get some names of venues in Regina and Saskatoon for you as well (Tyler and the Peanuts & Corn guys always play there as well, with Saskatoon being a particular favorite) if you need.

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 21 November 2002 21:52 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah man that would be ace! thanx!

rob

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Thursday, 21 November 2002 21:59 (twenty-three years ago)

And while your at it send one to

Attn: MD Chris
CHMA
152 Main Street, Suite 303
Sackville, NB
E4L - 1B4

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 21 November 2002 22:24 (twenty-three years ago)

i love his band like i love jesus and sodomy, but it was midnite and he didnt take the stage, and i needed to get home and i was black w. sadness.

― anthony easton (anthony), Friday, 22 November 2002 17:12 (twenty-three years ago)

Who? I saw the Rheos and all was good with the Earth last night.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Friday, 22 November 2002 18:19 (twenty-three years ago)

i apologize for playing so late. you can blame hockey, dodgy unionized sound technicians, and our complicated "film presentation" for us not playing until after midnight. i was so looking forward to an anthony-style review ...

not sure what shape the band is going to be in after january. jason's son/daughter will be born around new years'. we may never see him again as he is forced to rapidly adjust to fatherhood.

― fields of salmon (fieldsofsalmon), Friday, 22 November 2002 20:36 (twenty-three years ago)

I partially take back the props I gave Paper Moon, as I had until today only heard them live. I heard a recording of their song 'Your Thesaurus Won't Help You Now' and Heather the singer (I think?) sounded way more like Nina from the Cardigans than she ever did live. Too bad.

― Bryan (Bryan), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 20:47 (twenty-three years ago)

The server just munched a gigantic post I did that was actually ON TOPIC. Dammit! Anyhow, we went to the McMichael this weekend and saw a bunch of the Group of Seven work, just a thin slice of it I guess. My favourites were definitely Lawren Harris and Franklin Carmichael, though I found some of Tom Thompson's paintings nice. MOst of the rest of them were just too....BROWN.

Oddly, the feature was female Canadian artists, and it's slightly sad that they need to have a feature when many of them are every bit as good, if not better, than the male artists they have featured. I mean, I found most of the Emily Carr work better than most of the Group of Seven stuff I saw. And the best piece of all, imo, was by Dulcie Foo Fat. (I am now waiting for Bryan to say something about this.)

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Tuesday, 26 November 2002 21:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I went back to the McMichael last winter and spent a good portion of my time walking around thinking 'I could do that' which sounds horribly egotistical, and is perhaps delusional, but I was dead serious at the time. I still might be. There are one or two that humbled me though. Does that sound weird, to be appreciating art in such a competitive sense?

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 02:03 (twenty-three years ago)

Not if you got the MAD SKILLZ. Hey, you could make a few bucks!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 03:48 (twenty-three years ago)

And of course, the standard comeback to "I could do that" is invariably: "Yeah, but you didn't."

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 03:49 (twenty-three years ago)

Ouch. That's the truth. It's a horrible thing to admit that you take comfort in the fact that you walk through life always *thinking* that you're betraying your own talent, when maybe you're just too cowardly to get out there and really find out. Damn. I suck. I mean, I always knew this on lots of levels, but never quite thought about it in exactly that way - never walked flat into a wall like that before either.

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 04:07 (twenty-three years ago)

If you're not ready to just go out there and find out how good you are at what you think you might be good at, that just means you're like pretty much everyone else. Just go do it and you're one step ahead. I'll go to your first show!

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 04:19 (twenty-three years ago)

I appreciate that, honestly. But I'm still, well...I want to say destroyed but that sounds ridiculous so I'll just say daunted, because of course it isn't going to be just that easy. There are obstacles (excerpted is a longwinded and far too personal an essay on the long term effects of self-sabotage) not to mention that I'm feeling resistant to the old tear 'em down, build 'em back up routine - I was still living in denial five minutes ago after all. The tearing down part only worked 'cause I wasn't expecting it.

― Kim (Kim), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 05:21 (twenty-three years ago)

For what it's worth, I'm like that with music most of the time. ;)

― Sean Carruthers (SeanC), Wednesday, 27 November 2002 05:27 (twenty-three years ago)

one month passes...
Dulcie Foo Fat? What the hell are you talking about, boy?

― Bryan (Bryan), Thursday, 2 January 2003 07:35 (twenty-three years ago)

damn i saw the thread title and thought somebody had ripped a hole in a canvas and...oh never mind

― dave q, Thursday, 2 January 2003 11:20 (twenty-three years ago)

one year passes...
On a side note: a coffe table style book I got for Christmas explores Colville and his more depressed levels and attempts to trace it back to his WW2 paintings of concentration camps and how it haunted him.
I've always thought something was off about his work. Maybe thats it. There was a giant mosiac in one of the lecture halls he did that is bright, airy but after 5 minutes it starts getting distant and vaguely evil. Perfect place for the university senate and board of regeants to hold their meetings.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 29 January 2004 03:24 (twenty-two years ago)

I forget but supposedly there is a long and winding connection between The Bonaduces and Kate's band.

Ha ha, I see this, like, a year later? Our drummer co-founded Endearing Records or something like that. I know *nothing* about Winnipeg bands but I'm somehow connected incestuously to every single one.

I was hoping this would be a thread about actual Canadian art. Cause my Aunt is a proper Canadian artist. (As opposed to me, honourary Canadian Content.)

― The River Kate (kate), Thursday, 29 January 2004 03:29 (twenty-two years ago)

Gee, thanks for reviving THIS thread. ;) You're right about Colville being creepy once you start looking - the surface of his stuff is so cold to begin with that I always used to assume any creepiness was due to style. All the guns though - what's with those?

― Kim (Kim), Thursday, 29 January 2004 03:31 (twenty-two years ago)

The guns only start reappearing when he starts doing all the nudes. Which makes it even worse.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 29 January 2004 03:42 (twenty-two years ago)

http://national.gallery.ca/exhibitions/past/alex_colville/english/images/content/visualpreview/toprincedwardisland.jpg

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:00 (twenty-two years ago)

I'm sorry, that is one of the most disturbing paintings I've seen in ages, and I have to get it off the new answers blog.

― The River Kate (kate), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:04 (twenty-two years ago)

Gollum, new spokesmodel for Carnival Cruises.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:05 (twenty-two years ago)

It's not Gollum, it's the creepy guy in the background whose face you can't see.

― The River Kate (kate), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:07 (twenty-two years ago)

His work is all unsettling. I love it because its wrong and I can't figure out what. That one is To Prince Edward Island, sadly the ferry has now been replaced by a giant bridge.
http://national.gallery.ca/exhibitions/past/alex_colville/english/images/content/visualpreview/horseandtrain.jpg
Is the last I'll post of National Art Gallery's old exhibit.

― Mr Noodles (Mr Noodles), Thursday, 29 January 2004 04:18 (twenty-two years ago)

Well, for a start, the perspective on that horse's head is all wrong... ;-)

― The River Kate (kate), Thursday, 29 January 2004 13:27 (twenty-two years ago)


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