Art History's Brian Foss Featured in CBC Documentary on The Beaver Hall Group
Director of the School for Studies in Art and Culture and Professor of Art History Featured in CBC Radio Documentary for curating 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group
Brian Foss, Director of the School for Studies in Art and Culture and Professor of Art History, has spent the bulk of the last decade researching an unsung but intriguing collective of Canadian artists known as the Beaver Hall Group. Professor Foss鈥檚 tenacious research culminated last fall in an exhibition for the titled 1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group, which contains nearly 200 items from a number of institutional collections as well as from 42 private collections. The exhibition features many paintings, sculptures, drawings and miscellaneous objects, borrowed from approximately 75 institutional and private collectors scattered across the country. Foss followed the lead of the primary curator of the show, Jacques Des Rochers, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Curator of Qu茅bec and Canadian Art before 1945. Their teamwork paid tremendous dividends and was a fine example of scholarship undertaken jointly by the university and outside institutions.
1920s Modernism in Montreal: The Beaver Hall Group received 92,000 visitors over the course of its three-month showing at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and has won this year鈥檚 highly coveted Canadian Museums Association鈥檚 Award of Outstanding Achievement for Art Exhibitions. In addition, the exhibition catalogue has captured the 2016 Melva J. Dwyer Award, given to exceptional reference or research tools relating to Canadian art and architecture.
The Beaver Hall Group was a diverse assortment of like-minded Montreal-based artists, many of whom shared a studio and exhibition space on the city鈥檚 Beaver Hall Hill in the early 1920鈥檚. Like Toronto鈥檚 celebrated Group of Seven, the Beaver Hall Group offered a creative portrayal of life in Canada; but they did so in a very different way. 鈥淯nlike the Group of Seven鈥檚 vast interpretations of Canada鈥檚 natural, unblemished backdrops, Beaver Hall Group art featured portraits of contemporary Canadian individuals, rural life and urbanized, populated cityscapes,鈥 explains Foss.
Listen to CBC Radio鈥檚 featuring 杏吧原创 University鈥檚 Brian Foss and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts鈥 Jacques Des Rochers.
For more information about Foss and the exhibit read: Remembering The Beaver Hall Group 鈥 Canada鈥檚 Unsung Modernists (PDF), the cover story fo FASSinate 2016.