Lawren Harris (1885–1970) was a pioneering modernist whose visionary paintings have virtually defined 20th-century Canadian art. His scenes of an evocative northland, isolated peaks, and vast expanses of shimmering water are considered essential images of the country. This exhibition—guest curated by collector, actor, writer, and musician Steve Martin and organized by the Hammer Museum (Los Angeles) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto)—will include approximately 30 major paintings of Harris’s idealized northern landscapes from the 1920s and 1930s, one of the most significant periods of the artist’s career. The exhibition draws from the AGO’s substantial holdings, as well as from major public and private collections across Canada—including the National Gallery of Canada and the McMichael Collection—and is the first major solo exhibition of Harris’s work to be shown in the United States.
Above: Lawren Harris, Mountains in Snow: Rocky Mountain Paintings VII, about 1929. Oil on canvas. The Thomson Collection at the Art Gallery of Ontario. © Art Gallery of Ontario. © Family of Lawren S. Harris.
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
March 12, 2016 – June 12, 2016
Saundra B. and William H. Lane Galleries (Abstraction) (Gallery 332)
Courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
