Nationally Touring Exhibition curated by McMichael’s CEO – Tom Smart
Miller Brittain: When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears
Kleinburg, ON 29 October 2007 …A retrospective exhibition of the work of the late Miller Brittain, curated by McMichael Canadian Art Collection CEO Tom Smart will be opening at the public gallery on November 16th. Mr. Smart has also written a 180 page, hard-cover companion book about the celebrated New Brunswick artist. Miller Brittain: When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears is both the name of the exhibition and the title of the book co-published by Goose Lane Editions and Beaverbrook Art Gallery,
Miller Brittain: When the Stars Threw Down Their Spears will be at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection until February 10th, 2008. Organized and circulated by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Presenting Sponsor Bell Canada, this project has been made possible in part through a contribution from the Museums Assistance Program, Department of Canadian Heritage.
Although not well known in Central Canada, Miller Brittain (1912-1968) was a driving force within Maritime’s burgeoning art circle before, during and after the Second World War. His life as an artist is defined partly by the large and diverse body of drawings and paintings that trace a course of self examination, interpret the life and people around him, and probe his spiritual and emotional landscapes.
Brittain was a figurative artist at a time when landscape painting of the Group of Seven and their followers held sway in Canadian art. He studied at New York’s Art Students’ League between 1930 and 1932 where he developed his artistic voice. He was interested in depicting his immediate environment, and this direction led him to create dynamic social realist paintings of his native Saint John when he returned home from New York.
From the 1930s to the early 1940s, Brittain created portraits, satirical drawings, and cartoons as well as large-scale drawings for murals. A promising artistic trajectory was interrupted in 1942 when he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force; he spent two years in training and on active duty as a bomb aimer, and later as an Official War Artist. His experiences during the war led to the development of three symbolic devices and motifs that were often repeated in his post-war work: the radiant burst, the vertical shaft or spear, and a trailing plume.
In June 1946, Brittain, a decorated veteran, returned home to Saint John and established a studio. During this time, up until 1951, he interpreted biblical stories almost to the exclusion of all other subject matter. He was also deeply influenced by the English poet, watercolourist, and printmaker William Blake, and as a figurative artist by England’s Henry Moore. He modelled himself after Gulley Jimson, the fictional artist and soothsayer in Joyce Cary’s novel The Horse’s Mouth.
After his wife’s death in 1958, Brittain turned to a violently distorted manner of describing the figure. His compositions were often wildly imaginative tableaux of nudes. Trial, error, and absurdity define the work of Brittain’s last decade. He continued to experiment with gesture and form, and to transform the orb and trail motif. By 1962 Brittain was exploring its possibilities in drawing after drawing of flowers – some in pots, and others in bouquets. They held all possible meanings simultaneously in a taut visual tension as the floral motif morphed into many different incarnations.
“Ordinary urban narratives, New Testament parables, figurative abstractions, and variations on organic metaphors, all contribute to the wide iconography of an artist who constantly pushed himself into new, perhaps dangerous, creative territory,” explained author and curator Tom Smart. “From innocence through experience to peace and Higher Innocence, Miller came full circle completing a visual mythology of mankind.”
Following its showing at the McMichael, the exhibition will travel to the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery, New Brunswick Museum, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, and the National Gallery of Canada.
The McMichael Canadian Art Collection is an agency of the Government of Ontario and acknowledges the support of the Ministry of Culture. It is the foremost venue in the country showcasing the Group of Seven and their contemporaries. In addition to touring exhibitions, its permanent collection consists of more than 5,500 artworks, including paintings by the Group of Seven and their contemporaries, First Nations and Inuit artists
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