Tom Thompson: Not Dead Enough?

Visiting the Plovdiv Museum of Art today, I was tremendously impressed at how good their Group of Seven collection was. Maybe a half-dozen canvases in that very distinctive style, all painted in the 1920s.

Except that the landscapes were all Bulgarian.

I remember being taught back in high school that the Group of Seven were historic for forging for the first time a genuine Canadian artistic aesthetic, free from European models.

Well, no. This was pure hype. They were doing exactly the same thing at exactly the same time that European artists were. Seeking out wild landscapes, without sign of human habitation, and painting them in an Impressionistic style.

They simply happened by luck to have a distinctive landscape in front of their easels. Big deal. A good model does not make a good artist, or good art. Otherwise, a photograph would do just as well.

Their art, in fact, is bad art. It is trivial, purely decorative. It depends on a distinctive style, but one easily imitated by anyone who might want to do so.

There is great Canadian art out there: Kurelek, Colville, Aislin. But as with everything else, it is the phonies and imitators most people prefer. Good art makes you think. This is not something most people are inclined to do.

They'd rather just have something that matches the drapes.


(I owe a hat tip to Cathy Shaidle for my head here--purely derivative of her style.)