National gallery, Ottawa

Ottawa National Gallery
After my tirade against museums the other day I feel hypocritical to be visiting this one, but the thing is this one sounds interesting. I’m not very familiar with Canadian art, and in fact, don’t know one Canadian artist’s name (this reminds me of a kind of funny anecdote that has nothing to do with the art museum. When we were eating at the horrible restaurant that we hated in Wawa, behind us was a grandma, grandpa and young boy, about 13. Their conversation was loud so we could overhear them and they were playing a game of name that designer. So they would all shout out designers they knew. As we were leaving they were changing the game to name that art gallery. Now, what self-respecting 13 year old knows a long list of art galleries?! Not mine!).
Okay, sorry about that diversion, let me get back to the gallery. I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it. I went by myself (Asha was sleeping) and I stayed about 1.5 hours which is just the right amount of time for me and I got one of those listening things and just listened to the talks about pictures that interested me. I headed first for the Indigenous art gallery in the basement (well, I got lost first and wandered around the cloak rooms and other antechambers on the first floor trying to figure out where the galleries were). I was the only person in that gallery (and pretty much was the only person in all the galleries I visited except for the many guards).
I was expecting similar art to the native American exhibits I’ve seen but it was completely different. The art was very specific to the individual artist, at least that’s how I interpreted it. Many pictures were of items that the artist used or people the artist knew (most were simplistic—I don’t mean this as a criticism but as a description. The art was not complex but closer to the form of stick drawings that fully realized portrayals. This may be a cultural approach to art or just a choice, but it was distinctly different from the art in the other galleries or the more utilitarian art of most native American galleries. This was also fairly contemporary.
After that gallery, I headed to the Canadian gallery. There were some absolutely wonderful pictures but also some great displays. They had several rooms with only 5 or 6 pieces in it and this structure really emphasized the art. I entered the room thinking, “wow” and just standing and staring. There were several modern art paintings that I found especially striking because of their unusualness—unusual for what I think of modern art. I’m not too fond of Mondrian or other artists who use a block of color or colors but there was this one really cool circle with lots of colors that seemed to be moving and some other installations that were pretty cool. In one room was a row of bricks on the floor which seemed a bit silly. In another room was an exhibit called, “Nomads”. The exhibit included film and music and the juxtaposition of both as well as furniture and other structures. But the coolest things were these puppets, hundreds of them that were three dimensional figures reflecting the diversity of one individual. I can’t really describe it, but it was something I wish they had art kits of. The materials state that the art is from Vancouver based artists interpreting nomadism “a way of life that takes place in a non-structured environment where movement is paramount”. Just this exhibit was worth the admission, but I enjoyed most of the Canadian art.
Also, it still fascinates me how art follows the same trajectory no matter what country you are in (western countries) so you see impressionism in all museums and then modernism and contemporary art, etc. The most interesting because of its glaring uniqueness is the contemporary, from my perspective. If I knew more about art, I could probably discern differences even in the impressionistic style, but I’ve just figured out which characteristics embody that style. Another cool part of the art was having just come from Algonquin, it was great to see so much of the art reflecting that region.
Unfortunately, you can’t take pictures of the art work. I tried to find some examples of the Canadian national gallery website, but the best things weren’t there.