THE DRAWINGS AND PAINTINGS OF DAPHNE ODJIG: A RETROSPECTIVE EXHIBITION
Daphne Odjig
Central Gallery
June 8 to August 31, 2008
Daphne Odjig was instrumental, along with a handful of Anishnabe artists in the 1960s, in bringing to public prominence the pictorial style of the Algonkian painters of Northern Ontario. This exhibition is the first major touring survey of her drawings and paintings since the Art Gallery of Thunder Bay organized a retrospective exhibition in 1985. The Kamloops Art Gallery produced and hosted a very successful survey of her prints from the last four decades in the summer of 2005, and the exhibition is touring until 2008.
In bringing together 40 years of Daphne Odjig’s paintings and drawings, this retrospective exhibition facilitates a long overdue critical assessment of Daphne Odjig’s extensive aesthetic, philosophical, cultural investigations during the last decades of the twentieth century. Examples of her contribution to the early Woodland School are contrasted with the lyricism of her colour work in the 1980s and the sharp political content of her large history paintings. The years within which these works were created represent a complex watershed in the cultural and political history of the First Nations in Canada. Odjig’s experimentation with numerous genres and styles and her determination to give voice to a particular political reality make her an uncommon vehicle for an examination of our country and ourselves. Moreover, the assembly of First Nations writers who have contributed to the catalogue provide culturally cohesive positioning of the work within a critical discourse based on the aesthetic and philosophical traditions of the Anishnabe.
The exhibition comprises nearly 60 works, including examples of Odjig’s history paintings, murals, legend paintings, erotica, abstractions, and landscapes. As a group, these works articulate the breadth of Odjig’s engagement with her personal and cultural history. They also trace the remarkable aesthetic development of the artist from her initial experimentation to the mature mastery of her media.
Organized by the Art Gallery of Sudbury and the National Gallery of Canada
Generously sponsored by Museums Assistance Program - Department of Canadian Heritage, British Columbia Lottery Corporation, Simmons, Black and Emsland Insurance Services, TD Securities, Kamloops Daily News, Kamloops Thompson Nicola Review, Radio NL
Installation view of The Drawings and Paintings of Daphne Odjig: A Retrospective Exhibition
Photo: Kamloops Art Gallery
