Harry Hunkin

It's a rare English-language reader, or even self-styled art-lover, who can name a Canadian painter. That is true, sadly, even in Canada. But the odds are that if any such painter IS known, it will be one or another of The Group of Seven. This (other) magnificent seven was by no means a school, nor even (more generally) a gathering of artists with a shared body of subjects or techniques, though there is a visual "feel" which often makes it easy to identify a work, if not by its actual painter, then certainly as being by one of the Seven. The Group was, by contrast, a gathering of friends who worked together to raise the quality of Canadian art, and to raise the consciousness of art -- often against rabid opposition -- in Canadian society. Not surprisingly, all of the Seven -- plus non-member comrade Tom Thomson -- drew deep inspiration from Canadian landscape, but passionately went their own ways in their individual careers. Almost a century later, the work of Lawren Harris or A. Y. Jackson is revelation, and this spirited little book is an ideal survey, for the sophisticate or the newcomer.… (més)