A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan opens at Canadian War Museum

Posted on: 10/12/2010

A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan
opens at Canadian War Museum

Ottawa, Ontario, December 9, 2010 — The Canadian War Museum is showcasing the richness and diversity of Canada’s post-Second World War military art in its newest special exhibition. A Brush with War: Military Art from Korea to Afghanistan opens tomorrow (December 10) in the Museum’s McCrae Gallery.

The exhibition brings together 64 extraordinary paintings from the Canadian War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection of War Art and other collections. Most of the works were created under the aegis of the Canadian Armed Forces Civilian Artists Program (CAFCAP), which ran from 1968 to 1995, or the ongoing Canadian Forces Artists Program (CFAP), established in 2001. The others are either individual contributions from the years when no official military art program existed or independent commissions from military units.

Together, these works provide a striking visual presentation of the Canadian military experience from 1946 to 2008. Highlights include well-known historic paintings by Alex Colville, A. Y. Jackson and Pegi Nicol MacLeod, and contemporary military masterpieces by Gertrude Kearns, William MacDonnell, Allan Harding MacKay and Scott Waters.

“The artist’s role in documenting conflict has evolved significantly since 1916, when Lord Beaverbrook established the first Canadian military art program,” said Mark O’Neill, Director General of the Canadian War Museum. “Contemporary war artists, with their nuanced and complex depictions of conflict, contribute immeasurably to our understanding of Canadian military history in its personal, national and international dimensions.”

Since 1968 nearly 70 Canadian civilian artists have witnessed this history as official artists, observing members of the Canadian Forces in challenging situations at home and abroad. They have chronicled military life in places as diverse as the Persian Gulf, Cyprus, Kosovo, Somalia, Haiti and Afghanistan.

The Canadian War Museum developed A Brush with War in partnership with the Directorate of History and Heritage, Department of National Defence (DND), and with the financial support of the Canadian Beaverbrook Foundation. The Museum and DND have worked closely together since 1971 to support the creation of a visual record of Canada’s military history. They have collaborated to select artists for each program and co-manage the CAFCAP and CFAP.

The Canadian War Museum is presenting A Brush with War along with The Navy: A Century in Art, which marks the 100th anniversary of the founding of Canada’s navy. Both exhibitions will close on March 20, 2011.

A Brush with War is a travelling exhibition that began its cross-Canada tour in 2009 at the McMichael Canadian Art Collection in Kleinberg, Ontario. It continued to Museum London and then to the Beaverbrook Art Gallery in Fredericton, New Brunswick before coming to Ottawa. Next summer the exhibition will travel to the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (June 24 to September 5, 2011), and then to The Military Museums in Calgary (October 2011 to January 2012).

Media Information:

Avra Gibbs Lamey