From the Collection

July 11, 2008

This image and short article are part of a back-page series in On Campus News that celebrates the University of Saskatchewan art collection. Begun in 1911, the collection comprises more than 4400 objects, including many important examples from various artists and eras. OCN asked Kent Archer, director of the collection, to select and discuss the works in this series.

Arthur Lismer was born in Sheffield, England on June 27, 1885. He studied at the Sheffield School of Art from 1899 to 1906 and at the Académie royale des beaux-arts in Antwerp from 1906 to 1907. Lismer moved to Canada in 1911 and settled in Toronto where he worked as a commercial illustrator.

The content of his early work involved highly eroticized and politicized subjects with elements of social protest. Of particular interest to Breeze during this early period was the violence depicted via television. His work later evolved to incorporate less politically charged messages, became increasingly abstract and explored more benign subjects like the Canadian landscape.

Lismer began his distinguished career as an art educator as the principal of the Victoria School of Art and Design (later known as the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) in Halifax from 1916 to 1919. In 1919, he returned to Toronto to become vice-president of the Ontario College of Art, and in 1920, became a founding member of the Group of Seven.

Lismer was instrumental in advancing attitudes surrounding children’s art, and he has emerged as an artist with a social conscience, who captured the hearts and minds of thousands who heard him speak, or were among his students. Arthur Lismer remained active as an educator, writer and painter until his death in 1969.

As is evident in Pines, Georgian Bay, shown here, Lismer’s paintings are characterized by his use of raw colour, heavy impasto, coarse brushwork illustrating simplified organic forms and an implied spiritual connection with the Canadian landscape. Pines, Georgian Bay is frequently requested for exhibition loans by major galleries and museums.

Artist:	Arthur Lismer
Title:	Pines, Georgian Bay
Date:	1927
Media:	Oil on canvas
Dimensions:	91 cm x 111 cm
Credit:	Collection of the University of Saskatchewan. Purchased 1928.