The Ontario Collection, Fern Bayer,
Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Markham, Ontario, 1984, 389 pages (500 illustrations
of which 100 are in full colour).
The Ontario Collection testifies to both
provincial government commitment and lack of commitment to the visual arts in
Ontario from the 1850s to the present. Along with a series of informative
essays to describe this journey, the book also provides a detailed catalogue of
the art works acquired by the province. The author, Fern Bayer, who is the
Curator of the provincial art collection seems to have functioned as much as
detective as curator as she tracked down not only missing individual works but
whole bodies of objects and information that had disappeared. What she has
produced is a document that reveals the changes in taste, sophistication, and
values among Ontario's citizens over a period of 130 years.
The first of four essavs entitled
"Objects of Tastes" deals with the efforts of the Rev. Dr. Egerton
Ryerson, to build a fine art collection for Upper Canada in the mid-nineteenth
century. It was Ryerson's view, not uncommon at the time, that the collection
should begin with copies of Old Master paintings, plaster casts of ancient
statues, portrait busts of famous individuals and architectural ornaments. The
hundreds of objects that he assembled on his tours of Europe formed the basis
of the first fine art museum in Canada. This chapter describes in some detail
Ryerson's own background, attitudes toward art and education at the time, the
actual assembling of the collection, and the development of the museum. Bayer
credits Ryerson with encouraging sufficient interest in government support of
the arts that by 1875 there was a formal acquisitions policy that provided for annual
purchases from the Ontario Society of Artists.
The second essay, "Politics and
Painters," is devoted to that thirty-nine year period, beginning in 1875,
when the government, through the Education Department, acquired contemporary
works of art from the annual exhibitions of the Ontario Society of Artists. By
the time the last selection was made in 1914 several hundred works had been
acquired, of which only forty are still in the collection. Bayer recounts both
the assembling and the dissolution of this part of the collection as well as
the difficult relationship that existed between the government and the Society.
A key figure in this period was the Hon. George William Ross who, as the new
Minister of Education, inaugurated new art acquisition policies in 1895. Among
his important contributions were providing increased funding for purchases,
acquiring portrait busts of important Canadians, and commissioning portraits of
political figures for the Legislative Building. Bayer suggests that Ross and
Ryerson were "the most important figures in the formation of the art
collection as a whole." This phase of government purchasing ended in 1914
and was not resumed again until 1966. Decentralization of the collection, begun
in 1912, and poor record-keeping led to the disappearance of most of the works.
The development of a collection of portrait
paintings and plaster busts of leading politicians and other important figures
was a more traditional role for a government to play and most of this
collection, as descri6ed in the third essay, "Faces of History," has
survived. Portraits were commissioned of lieutenant governors, governors
general and speakers of the legislature as well as of figures of historical
importance. The chapter describes in some detail, events surrounding individual
commissions and the backgrounds of both the artists and the subjects. Portraits
are still commissioned of the lieutenant governor, the premier and the speaker
of the legislature.
The revival of the provincial commitment to
collecting fine art, under the leadership of Premier John Robarts in 1966,
forms the subject of the fourth and final essay, "Robarts ,and
Renewal." The new program rose out of a decision to allocate a percentage
of the construction costs of the Macdonald Block (Queen's Park) to commission
murals and sculptures by Canadian artists for public areas. When it was
completed, $328,550 had been spent on 23 murals and 6 sculptures the beginning
of what is now a collection of over 500 works of contemporary art. Again Bayer
describes the political as well as the artistic issues involved in the
selections which now grace government buildings throughout the province,
including the Middlesex County Court House in London, the Ontario Police
College in Aylmer and the Land Registry office in Kitchener. Although the
Macdonald block project was a national competition, the current policy of the
"art-in-architecture" program is to support the work of Ontario
artists. The scope of purchasing has also been broadened to include original
prints, other works on paper and other smaller works of art.
The catalogue portion of the book is divided
into four sections as well, each supporting the text areas described above. The
1100 works that comprise the Ontario Collection are described in detail medium,
size, method of acquisition, catalogue number, and brief information on the
artist. More detailed discussion is provided for some works, especially in the
portrait section where there are extensive notes on the sitters. Many of the
considerable illustrations are in colour. There are a series of useful
appendices, a detailed bibliography arranged by chapter and an index covering
both artists and subjects. Fern Bayer's scholarly and handsome book will be
appreciated by professionals and amateurs alike.
Merle Fabian, Librarian Canadian Embassy, Washington D.C.