- Art Gallery of Hamilton
Art Gallery of Hamilton, is located in the heart of downtown
Hamilton, Ontario on King Street West and is one of Canada’s oldest galleries with a collection of over 9,000 works of art. cite web| title = Art Gallery of Hamilton| url=http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/aa_index.php| accessdate = 2008-07-21]History
Artist William Blair Bruce, born and raised in Hamilton and successful internationally, died suddenly in 1906. In 1914, his family, including his widow, sculptor Caroline Benedicts-Bruce bequeathed 29 of his paintings to the city of Hamilton, with the understanding that a properly equipped art gallery be established to house and present the collection.cite web| title = Art Gallery of Hamilton| url=http://http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/aa_brucebo.php| accessdate = 2008-07-22]
Today, the William Blair Bruce memorial donation is displayed in a dramatic salon-style hanging in what is the Art Gallery of Hamilton’s third home.
From 1914 until 1953, the Gallery’s first home was the second floor of the
Hamilton Public Library building located on Main Street West near James Street.In December 1953, a new purpose-built gallery was opened at "Forsyth Avenue" and Main Street in west Hamilton. A little over a decade later,
McMaster University unveiled plans to expropriate the lands on which the Gallery was built, halting plans to expand the Gallery in this location.In 1977, the Gallery opened in its present location in the heart of the city as part of a downtown redevelopment project. ["Art Gallery of Hamilton: Seventy-Five Years (1914-1989)". ISBN: 919-153-11-99, Interkom Inc. 1989.]
In 2005, a renovated Gallery reopened, with new gold-coloured steel cladding protecting the building, a glass-enclosed front entrance on King Street, a new multi-purpose pavilion, and larger and renovated exhibition spaces.
Collection Highlights
The AGH primary collection is based on Canadian historical, Canadian contemporary and European historical art. Each year, the Gallery organizes, hosts and/or circulates approximately 25-30 exhibitions throughout the world. [cite web| title = BMO Financial Group| url=http://www2.bmo.com/news/article/0,1083,contentCode-6399_divId-4_langId-1_navCode-116,00.html| accessdate = 2008-07-22]
The Art Gallery of Hamilton’s collection of modern Canadian art is one of the strongest in the country, due, in no small part to the vision and efforts of Thomas Reid (T.R.) MacDonald (1908-1978), the Gallery’s first full-time director and curator. [Bruce, Tobi. “Modern Ambition: A Canadian Collection Comes of Age” in "Lasting Impressions: Celebrated Works from the Art Gallery of Hamilton", edited by Tobi Bruce. Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2005, pg. 17.]
MacDonald soon inaugurated the Annual Winter Exhibition at the Gallery; this yearly exhibition was held from 1948-1973. These juried exhibitions provided artists with an important exhibition venue and also brought works to Hamilton that might be acquired by the Gallery. [Bruce, Tobi. “Modern Ambition: A Canadian Collection Comes of Age” in "Lasting Impressions: Celebrated Works from the Art Gallery of Hamilton", edited by Tobi Bruce. Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2005, pg. 24-25.]
Usually about one hundred works were featured in each exhibition, with the purchase prize (generally donated by a local patron or business) entering the AGH permanent collection. In this way, such important works as
A.J. Casson ’s "First Snow", Lilias Torrance Newton’s "Keith MacIver", and the iconic "Horse and Train" byAlex Colville . [Zemans, Joyce, “Considering the Canon” in "Lasting Impressions: Celebrated Works from the Art Gallery of Hamilton", edited by Tobi Bruce. Art Gallery of Hamilton, 2005, pp. 177-189.]Selected as the purchase prize in 1954, "Horse and Train" was panned by
The Hamilton Spectator art critic Mary Mason, who wrote: “There are undoubtedly some very fine paintings out at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in this year’s Winter Show, but the winner of the purchase prize is not, alas, one of them.” [Mary Mason, “Fine Pictures at the Winter Show – But Prize-Winner Isn’t One of Them,” The Hamilton Spectator, 1 February 1957, as quoted in ibid., p. 26.]
=References
External links
* [http://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/ Art Gallery of Hamilton]
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