National Gallery of Canada

After more than 30 years of collecting British Victorian art, Dennis T. Lanigan of Saskatchewan has loaned some noteworthy pieces that are part of the exhibit “Beauty’s Awakening: Drawings by the Pre-Raphaelites and their Contemporaries” now showing at the National Gallery of Canada.

From the earliest days of photography, its use on the battlefield as a documentary tool was well-appreciated by the military. Matthew Brady’s photos of the American Civil War are but one well-known example of this. However, during the First World War, the medium of photography obtained important new tactical and strategic levels. Propaganda could be generated by the Allied command to look “really true.” Soldiers’ families, of course, wanted pictures of their loved ones.

The Ottawa School of Art’s Fifth International Biennale of Miniature Prints is a large, comprehensive exhibition of small prints from all over the world.

The National Gallery of Canada is the current stop of a tightly organized travelling exhibition of the work of celebrated Haida artist Charles Edenshaw (1839-1920). In his lifetime, Edenshaw’s genius was renowned among the Haida of Canada. Indeed, some called him “Master Carpenter.” In the Haida language, this title refers to a being of great power, one who gives form to thought. A hundred years later, Edenshaw’s reputation and honour, both as an artist and Haida leader, remain undiminished. About 450 works of art have been attributed to Edenshaw’s hand. His work has kept alive stories that might well have been lost. How were people made to be on the earth? That was Raven’s doing.

In England, in the heyday of Victoriana, one critic’s voice was foremost—John Ruskin (1819—1900). His subject matter ranged from art and architecture to arguments for the practice of art as a necessarily moral endeavour. Ruskin’s writing remains paradigmatic. “Seven Lamps of Architecture” and the five-volume “Modern Painters” are his best-known studies today. Ruskin was also an artist, and the National Gallery of Canada is currently displaying more than 130 of his drawings and watercolours in a joint exhibition organized with the National Galleries of Scotland.

Cyril Dabydeen is a writer who enhances the reader’s share of the narrative. A story that engages the whole person is what serious readers are always eager to find. Such novels and short stories are the gold standard of literature.

Glimpses of the supernatural world are what make the current exhibition of the work of iconic Haida artist Charles Edenshaw (1829-1920) so fascinating. On display at the National Gallery of Canada until May 25, the exhibit presents a wide range of objects that Edenshaw created during his lifetime.