Art For War And Peace: How a Great Public Art Project Helped Canada Define Itself

(Hardback)

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Description

The idea that launched the Sampson - Matthews project was simple: get Canada's best painters to contribute to the war effort by creating new works in conjunction with the Canadian National gallery. Launched at the start of the second world war, the project ended up running for 22 years, costing 10 million dollars and containing work from all of Canada's great artists. Containing full colour reproduction of 112 silkscreens by eminent Canadian artists such as David Milne, Emily Carr and B.C.Binning.

Reviews

"Ian Sigvaldason and Scott Steedman's Art for War and Peace: How A Great Art Project Helped Canada Discover Itself uncovers an important chapter in the adolescent years of Canadian identity, detailing how these landscapes -- mostly of the Canadian Shield and painted mainly by Toronto urbanites -- came to be imprinted on our national DNA. In gorgeous, full-colour reproduction and stuffed with supplementary material such as sales catalogues, pages about framing options, and decals with care instructions ("Should the surface become soiled it may readily be cleaned by sponging with soap and water"), the book is an expertly collected document of the early efforts made by a young, spirited country desperate to define itself."
Toronto Star, Chris Hampton
"This is a gorgeous book."
Stephen Quinn, Host of CBC Radio's On the Coast

Author Bio

Ian Sigvaldason is the owner of the Pegasus Gallery of Canadian Art on Salt Spring Island, British Columbia; he has been mesmerized by the Sampson-Matthews prints for many years, and curates the website sampsonmatthewsprints.com.

Scott Steedman is an editor, writer and publishing consultant, and an Adjunct Professor at Simon Fraser University, Vancouver. He co-edited Visions of British Columbia, winner of the 2010 City of Vancouver Book Award.