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Worth Watching
  • Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
    Empires - The Medici: Godfathers of the Renaissance
    A fascinating and highly entertaining look at one of the most important families of the Renaissance era--the Medici.
  • Sister Wendy - The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass)
    Sister Wendy - The Complete Collection (Story of Painting / Grand Tour / Odyssey / Pains of Glass)

    “Sister Wendy Beckett has transformed public appreciation of art through her astonishing knowledge, insight and passion for painting and painters.” This set includes Sister Wendy's Story of Painting, Sister Wendy's Odyssey, and Sister Wendy's Grand Tour. Simultaneously delightful and scholarly--this is a must have for anyone interested in art history.

  • Exit Through the Gift Shop
    Exit Through the Gift Shop
    When British stencil artist Banksy traveled to Los Angeles to work, he came across obscure French filmmaker Thierry Guetta and his badly organized collection of videotapes involving the activities of graffiti artists. Inspired, Banksy assembled them with new footage to create this talked-about documentary, and the result is a mind-boggling and odd film (so strange as to be thought a hoax by some) about outsider artists and the definition of art itself.
  • The Impressionists
    The Impressionists
    A dramatization of the Impressionist movement as seen through the eyes of Claude Monet. Highly entertaining and informative.
  • The Impressionists: The Other French Revolution
    The Impressionists: The Other French Revolution
    A very personal and revealing look at the personalities that created Impressionism.

Entries in Canadian Art (2)

Monday
Jan202014

F.H. Varley - The Group of Seven

F.H. Varley - Birth of Clouds, c. 1929 - oil on plywood - 30.2 x 38.2 cm - Purchased 1958 - National Gallery of Canada (no. 6947r) (click photo for larger image)F.H. Varley (1881-1969) was one of the founding members of a Canadian group of painters initially known as The Group of Seven. Unlike the other members of the group, Varley was interested in figural painting as well as in landscapes. He believed art to be a spiritual vocation.


Friday
Jan032014

Tom Thompson: A Mystery

Tom Thomson - Evening, Canoe Lake, winter 1915–1916 - oil on canvas - 41.3 x 51.5 cm - The Thomson Collection - Art Gallery of Ontario (click photo for larger image)The Group of Seven were Canadian landscape artists inspired by the wilderness paintings of Tom Thompson (1877-1917) who died under mysterious circumstances while on a trek in Ontario's Algonquin Park in 1917. Thompson’s body was found floating in Canoe Lake (the subject of this painting), but an autopsy showed an injury to the head and no evidence of water in his lungs. The artsts of the Group of Seven were strongly influenced by Post-Impressionism, creating bold, vividly-colored canvases, and infusing elements of the landscape with symbolic meaning.