Not Another Fucking Landscape.
I have been working nights in a gas station, namely Petro-Canada, which used to be public, but is now owned 72 per cent privately. They push the Canadian identity thing pretty far, with a red and white colour scheme; stylized neon maple leafs and gas cards featuring the work of the group of seven.
The group of seven were Canadian landscape painters from the turn of the century until the mid 50s, and were mostly responsible for the self mythologizing hinterland we are known for (Canada is one of the most urban nations on the planet, and we are located mostly within 5 hours of the US border, but we avoid these facts and replace them with images of shield and arctic countries.) For the avant or pseudo avant gaurdists in this nation these 7 are the enemy’not for their work, which ranges from banal to brilliant but for what they represent.
They are the painters that are taught first as Canadians, as examples of our virtues, as documenters of who we are as a nation. They are our painters, and they are popular for that reason. They have become a brand. On these Gas Cards, you cannot tell the difference between Carimacheland Jacksonand they have no details on the back of title, date or medium. They are also eastern, with occasionally, an 8th from Vancouver added (this would be Carr.) Sometimes there is an effort to show them as visiting the west, like a show ofHarrisand Jackson’s work in the Edmonton Art Gallery two years ago or the huge survey show of the Seven and the West in Calgary 6 months ago, but mostly its Ontario and Quebec plus Vancouver. Once again our mythology is decided by Eastern elites, and we have to be begged to let in.