- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Firefly Books; 1 edition (Sep 6 2003)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 155297605X
- ISBN-13: 978-1552976050
- Product Dimensions: 29 x 25.6 x 4.2 cm
- Shipping Weight: 2.7 Kg
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #433,202 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
From Amazon
Art historian David Silcox's The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson looks and reads like a dream project, and indeed, Silcox and Firefly Books first envisioned the volume while preparing the 25th anniversary edition of Silcox's own Tom Thomson: The Silence and the Storm. As managing director of Sotheby's Canada, Silcox has taken full advantage of his access to little-known works in private and small regional collections to ensure that this volume is packed with plates that won't be found in other Group of Seven overviews. The book opens with a selection of the Group's greatest hits, but Silcox quickly moves on to introduce works in such genres not usually associated with the Group as the still life, portraiture, and cityscape. While the Group's collective style helped define "The Idea of North," which dominated Canada's national identity through the 20th century, Silcox weighs in on the current round of Group revisionism by casting light on the impact of the urban experience on the artists. "Toronto, not the wilderness, was the place in which the Group of Seven spent most of their time together," he observes in his lucid text prefacing the nearly 400 spectacular colour reproductions that form the heart and soul of the book.
Cumulatively the Group of Seven embodied a distinctive style, but Silcox deftly demonstrates the extent to which founding members (Lawren Harris, J.E.H. MacDonald, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, F.H. Varley, Frank Carmichael, and Frank Johnston) and later additions (A.J. Casson, Edwin Holgate and LeMoine Fitzgerald) and Group precursor Tom Thomson each pursued a deeply personal view of their surroundings. In debunking some common Group myths, Silcox reveals the depths of individual members. "Harris, the most progressive and open-minded of the Group, was not quite as provincial and ignorant of modern movements as might appear," he writes. "He formed a connection to the influential Societé Anonyme in New York, and in 1927 arranged for its founder, Katherine Drier, to lecture in Toronto on modern art. Harris was a constant explorer, like Kandinsky and Cézanne, and sought out new ideas and new forms of expression through his long life." Smart, compelling, and loaded with rare reproductions, The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson makes an essential addition to the Group's canon. --Deirdre Hanna
From Booklist
*Starred Review* The circle of gifted and zealous Canadian painters that dubbed itself the Group of Seven in Toronto in 1920 after working together a good dozen years would have been the Group of Eight if Tom Thomson, who, along with Lawren Harris, painted the most recognizable of the influential band's resplendent images, hadn't drowned in 1917. Art historian Silcox, a wonderfully lucid stylist, describes this pioneering group as "socially responsible, serious, fervent, egalitarian, and sensitive to the concerns of ordinary people," even though they failed to accept women artists as their equals, and expertly chronicles their mission to create an "all-Canadian art." Guided by the transcendentalists Emerson and Thoreau, they sought to capture the spirituality inherent in nature, and consequently painted astonishingly rich, dramatic, even exalted landscapes. This definitive volume presents 400 supreme color reproductions, many of works never published before, thus covering the entire spectrum of the proficient and prolific group's magnificent output, which includes moody industrial, urban, and war scenes as well as idealized visions of pristine wilderness. Although each artist has his distinct style, every painting is vibrantly, radiantly, and gloriously alive: a veritable hymn to life. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
WE DEFINE ourselves as citizens and as a country by the images we think of when we describe our place in the world - what we call 'here.' Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
WE DEFINE ourselves as citizens and as a country by the images we think of when we describe our place in the world - what we call 'here.' Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
article intéressant,
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This review is from: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson (Paperback)
J'ai reçu le livre dans un très bon état et je dois dire que les reproductions des toiles sont belles et souvent dans un format qui permet d'apprécier les oeuvres.
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Canada Remembered,
By Stewart Widdess (Minneapolis, MN USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson (Hardcover)
David Silcox's beautiful blending of Canada's best-loved artists captures the magnificent richness of the northern landscape. I particularly like the way the paintings have been grouped thematically into portraits: wilderness, rural life, and the Canadian Arctic to name a few. The author's written commentary is clear and concise about what the Group of Artists was trying to accomplish without overpowering the visual impact of the work. It is a book that is incredibly satisfying to the eye. One you'll not set aside easily.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic product; Awesome deal!,
By Cynthia Glen (Miramichi, NB, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson (Hardcover)
This book is a wonderful depiction of the birth of great art in Canada and the artists, who by fortunate coincidence, all became recognized as true genius within a relatively short timespan. Their works changed the path of fine art in our country and this treatise of their artistry makes a fabulous addition to any art lover's collection. I was somewhat concerned that this "compact edition" would not have the quality I was looking for but that happily is not the case. It is minimally smaller than the original and cannot be said in any way to be a substandard product. It is well worth the price (and more!) and a quality product that will be enjoyed by anyone who appreciates art.
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