1897 - 1960
Jock Macdonald
Evolving Form
Art now reaches the place where it becomes the expression of ideals and spiritual aspirations. The artist no longer strives to imitate the exact appearance of nature but, rather, to express the spirit therein.
Jock Macdonald: Evolving Form is a travelling exhibition celebrating the artist’s life and exhibiting many previously unknown works for the first time. Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, the exhibition begins with Macdonald’s early painting career in Vancouver, surveys his move toward abstraction and his extraordinary automatics, and concludes with the later abstractions he produced as part of the Painters Eleven, the Toronto-based collective of abstract artists. Evolving Form is the first major retrospective of the artist’s work in over thirty years and is a fresh look at the influential artist’s career.
Over the course of his career, the subject of Jock Macdonald’s work slowly shifted from the outer to an inner landscape. A contemporary of the Group of Seven, his early work mirrors theirs in appearance and intent. As his career progressed, landscape painting became an inadequate visual language for his artistic voice and he instead turned to abstraction to express a higher reality. Influenced by spirituality and Surrealist thinking, Macdonald believed that the artist’s task was to “break out of the tangible reality of daily existence to realize the highest planes of art expression”. (Pg 15, Thom, The Early Work: An Artist Emerges) His career was an artistic journey in a perpetual state of evolution and growth. As a founding member of Painters Eleven, Macdonald’s contribution to abstract painting in Canada is seminal.
When it first opened in 1951, the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria exhibited art in the historic 1889 mansion that is now adjacent to its seven modern galleries. With almost 18,000 works of art, the Art Gallery has the largest public collection in BC and is a vibrant and active part of Victoria's artist community.
In our 80-year history, the Vancouver Art Gallery has expanded three times. Currently operating at and beyond capacity after nearly 30 years in the renovated former provincial courthouse building, the Gallery is now planning a new, purpose-built facility that will meet the community’s needs for the next 50 years and beyond.
The RMG is a vibrant, engaging public art museum located in Oshawa's civic centre between City Hall and the McLaughlin Public Library. The largest gallery in Durham Region, the RMG occupies an inspired 36,000 square foot building designed by noted architect Arthur Erickson.
GROUP OF SEVEN
1926
Macdonald moves to Vancouver to become Head of Design at the Vancouver School of Decorative and Applied Arts (now the Emily Carr University of Art and Design). Here he meets Group of Seven member Frederick Varley who is head of the painting department.
PAINTERS ELEVEN
1953
1953 marks the inception of Painters Eleven and Macdonald becomes a founding member.
The Vancouver Art Gallery, The Robert McLaughlin Gallery and the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria are grateful to our sponsors, donors and patrons for their support of this exhibition.
Art now reaches the place where it becomes the expression of ideals and spiritual aspirations. The artist no longer strives to imitate the exact appearance of nature but, rather, to express the spirit therein.