From The Vault

The Tom Thomson Art Gallery's Permanent Collection has been acquired by purchase, donation or bequest over many years, and is continually growing. It contains over 2000 works, including contemporary and historical paintings, drawings, prints, sculpture, photography, mixed media works and artifacts.  2008 and 2009 were active and productive years for acquisitions, with the addition of over 200 works of art.

One of the many highlights of 2008 was the acquisition of forty–one works from internationally acclaimed photographer Edward Burtynsky, donated by the artist himself.  These prints give the Gallery the ability to mount a retrospective show of the artist career. For more than two decades Burtynsky’s photographs, taken using a large-format view camera, have garnered widespread acclaim in solo and group exhibitions in Canada and internationally, and are represented in major art galleries throughout the world. In 2003 the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa gave Burtynsky a mid-career retrospective exhibition, which toured to the United States and Finland. His work has reached a broad audience, in part through Jennifer Baichwal’s 2006 documentary Manufactured Landscapes.

 The acquisition of important landscape art is central to the mandate of the Gallery, and Burtynsky’s work fits squarely within that mandate. The gift includes examples of work from across Burtynsky’s career, which particularly enhances its educational and research value. All but the earliest work deals clearly with human incursion. The exception, the 1981 Grasses, Bruce Peninsula, has an appropriate local resonance. The donation adds significantly to the Gallery’s collection of contemporary photographic works, which includes such artists as Marlene Creates, April Hickox, Suzy Lake, and Greg Staats. 

The Gallery is please to announce new acquisitions of work by local artists Joan Hawksbridge, Charles Meanwell, Caron Cooper, Elizabeth Willmott, Michele Carleton McGillis and Audrey Holrod (among others)culminating with generous donations from Roly Fenwick and Allen Smutylo in 2009.

Two important watercolours by David Milne, East Storm with Rain, 1920 and At Outlet of the Pond, 1921 are in the initial stages of much needed conservation.  If you would like to support the ongoing conservation needs of these works, please contact Rachel Monckton at 376-1932 x228. 

Donations to our Collections Fund are always needed and very much appreciated. Each of the pieces donated to us must be appraised and processed by professionals. With your support, we will be able to continue to acquire new works of art for the Gallery.