Ronald Hawker's insightful examination focuses on the complex functions that Northwest Coast objects, such as the totem pole and ceremonial masks produced between 1922 and 1961. He demonstrates how these objects asserted the integrity and meaningfulness of First Nations identities, while simultaneously resisting the intent and effects of assimilation enforced by the Canadian government's denial of land claims, its ban of the potlatch, and its support of assimilationist education.

Unsettling Encounters radically re-examines Emily Carr's achievement in representing Native life on the Northwest Coast, and her goals and achievements in representing Native villages and totem poles in her paintings and writings. Reconstructing a neglected body of Carr's works that was central in shaping her vision and career makes possible a new assessment of her significance as a leading figure in the history of early twentieth-century Modernism.

Unsettling Encounters includes a vivid recreation of the rapidly changing historical and social circumstances in which...

An ambitious cross-disciplinary collection of essays on contemporary art and artists in Vancouver, home to one of the world's most celebrated and intriguing visual art scenes, and the subject of a major European exhibition in 2006. The book, which links Vancouver's reputation to the rise of the city's photoconceptualists such as Stan Douglas and Jeff Wall (both subjects of book retrospectives by Phaidon), examines how cities can better -use- art and its artists to articulate a larger purpose for themselves and their citizens. Includes essays by Michael Turner, Clint Burnham, Tim Lee, and...

The illustrated account of the Group of Seven leader.

Lawren Harris was born into the enviable position of having the means to fully devote his life to his art. He was also born with vision, determination, and talent. As a result, Harris became the driving force and leading proponent of the Group of Seven. He was also an accomplished artist who captured the unique magnificence of Canadian life and landscape.

Born into the wealthy Harris family (of the Massey-Harris farm machinery company), Lawren was able to study art in Berlin and absorb the rich European art culture....

A compact edition of an award-winning best-seller -- more affordable than the celebrated original, but otherwise identical.

At a critical time in Canada's history, the Group of Seven revolutionized the country's appreciation of itself by celebrating Canada as a wild and beautiful land. These paintings of the wilderness evoke the same response in viewers today as they did when first exhibited.

The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson includes many never -- before reproduced paintings and presents the most complete and extensive collection of these artists' works...

Winner of the 1999 International Gallery of Superb Printing Gold Award for Superb Craftsmanship in Production

Franz Johnston is the missing man of Canadian painting. The most prolific and financially successful of the original Group of Seven, Johnston s paintings were among the most sought after in Canada in the years between the mid-1920s and his death in 1949. They appear in the collections of dozens of discriminating private collectors, and in institutions such as the National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the McMichael Canadian Collection, and the Canadian War...

Will Gorlitz: nowhere if not here examines the art, background, and theoretical concerns of contemporary Canadian artist Will Gorlitz. Appreciated especially for his painting and drawing, Gorlitz produces imaginative and highly visual artwork that is further distinguished by its fundamentally restructured and critically extended approach to representational painting. With differing emphases from several contributing writers, this book identifies the contexts, methodologies, and motivations that comprise the artist's practice over the past 25 years.

The book is published in...

First Peoples of Canada offers readers a rare opportunity to experience a celebrated exhibition that has toured the world, yet has never been shown in Canada. This beautifully designed, full-colour book presents a collection of 150 archaeological and ethnographic objects produced by Canada's First Peoples - including some that are roughly 12,000 years old - that represent spectacular expressions of creativity and ingenuity.

Curators Jean-Luc Pilon and Nicholette Prince sought out pieces held by the Canadian Museum of Civilization that could be considered "masterworks" based...

Woldemar Neufeld (1909-2002) emigrated with his Mennonite parents from Ukraine to Canada in 1924. By the late 1920s, he had begun his lifelong project as documentarist, responding especially to the built environment, whether close to his home in southern Ontario or farther afield: northern Ontario, the prairies and the west coast, the Maritimes and Quebec. His work passed through a number of styles, from the coolly abstract to the vividly "realistic." Although he never abandoned oils, he produced a substantial body of watercolours and block prints--the latter influenced by German...

"Missus couldn't run the studio without me," says Billie the dog.

This perpetual calendar is much more than 12 pictures with spaces for notes. Join Emily Carr's faithful companion, Studio Billie, on this light-hearted journey through a year in his life. It's 1909 and "the missus" runs a painting studio in Victoria, where she gives lessons to students and paints her own works. Studio Billie is with her always, except when "chained to a wretched kennel" when visiting relatives, or when having to spend time "down on cold rheumatic wind-swept lower decks, when they travel with...