Canadian Moderns, an outstanding show and sale of abstract, semi-abstract and impressionist paintings by some of Canada's foremost artists of the past 50 years, opens at Westwind Gallery in Gibsons on Saturday, May 29, with a reception from 4 to 7 p.m.Co-curated by Westwind Gallery owner Morley Baker and Vancouver art expert Brian Dedora, the show aims to push the arts envelope a little and provide a sense of the work being created across the country, where there was similar movement in diverse areas. The contemplative abstract expressionism grounded in landscape that is common to Western Canadian artists in the last half-century is illustrated in Irene Hoffar-Reid's impressionist treatment of an Osoyoos beach scene, as well as a vintage 1958 piece by Toni Onley and works by B.C. artists Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Don Jarvis and printmaker Alistair Bell. While the Western heartland was contemplating nature, the urban centres were turning out harder-edged, jazzier work by Jarvis, Shadbolt and Onley. Onley's vintage 1958 work is a revelation for those too familiar with his later, softer work. At about this same mid-century point, Toronto's William Ronald was creating the bravura watercolour on display, and the very underrated Richard Gorman was producing the bravura abstract, Inside, which Dedora terms the highlight of the show. Baker is particularly pleased the collection will include a series of smoky, feathery paintings created by Gershon Iskowitz, an artist who survived the holocaust camps and came to Canada in the post-War period.The show also includes a wonderfully exuberant guache by Quebec's Marcel Barbeau, one of the members of the great French Canadian artistic group known as the Automatiste - the group that essentially launched the Quiet Revolution in the 1940's."The Coast is changing and we thought we could have fun exhibiting the artwork we like ourselves to people who would be interested," said Baker.
