Searching for Tom

Posted by Rich Crowley in art

I attended the “Searching for Tom” exhibit this morning at The Museum in Kitchener with my daughter and one of her friends. I had been very excited about attending as I am a big Tom Thomson fan and similarly enjoy the work of some of his good buddies in the Group of Seven.

My initial reaction was some degree of disappointment stemming largely from my expectations of a larger exhibition of his works. Perhaps this is typical of someone who isn’t a regular patron of the arts and who is not schooled in the finer curatorial subtleties of such an undertaking. However, aside from the scale of the exhibit, it was a really wonderful experience and well worth attending.

There was close attention provided to allowing the viewer to get to know Thomson a little as a person and a painter. There was a sampling of his early works, (sketches and paintings), including a couple of watercolours. There were excellent written summaries of the context of several of his paintings and some biographical details, photos of family etc.

What really struck me was the progression of his painting style over time. I knew that the Group of Seven and he were quite influential in breaking away from the European traditions of landscape painting and creating what was generally considered to be a much bolder style. This unique style, which did not meet with universal acclaim, nonetheless stoked sentiments of nationalism as Canada came of age early in the 20th century.

Seeing this progression by looking at his work across the span of just a few years was very intriguing. In some of his works in the 1909-11 period, the style is more muted when compared to the pieces he created in the post-1913 period. (He died in 1917).

None of his most iconic works were on display (The West Wind or Northern River, shown below, for example)

 

but there is such beauty in so many of his paintings that I must say it was fabulous to stare into such works right up close and drink in the details of each and every brush stroke. One that caught my particular attention was Pine Country, pictured below. Coffee table books simply cannot compare to the experience one gets from a gallery.

There were a number of other interesting aspects to the exhibit. Several paintings from the Group of Seven and background information on each of them as well as more contemporary works by artists who have been subsequently influenced by them were also featured.

I think my connection to Thomson’s work comes from my deep love of the Canadian shield landscape which goes back to my earliest days of cottaging at Weslemkoon Lake. My daughter’s love of Algonquin runs just as deep. In a world over-run by i-phones, cars, people and more, being close to something as heavenly as a little slice of rock and pine, whether it’s the real kind or that which Thomson’s painting legacy leaves us, is a privilege we Canadians are very lucky to have.

It is sometimes to fun to play the game that makes us answer the question of who, or what, would we be if we could wish it so. When I left the Museum on Saturday, my answer to that question would surely have been, “I wish I would paint like Tom Thomson did.”