Customer Reviews

Defiant Spirits

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For someone like myself who has only a cursory knowledge of the modern Canadian art scene, reading King's "Defiant Spirits" offered me a great opportunity to journey into the past and discover a dynamic movement that continues to reshape our country's national image both at home and abroad. In this book, King very methodically and descriptively pieces together the story of how a number of landscape painters came together in the early part of the 20th century to develop a radically new concept of how Canadians might choose to see the land they called Canada. Based on a strong influence of impressionism and post-impressionism coming out of Europe in the late 19th century, these seven men and their many associates developed an interpretation of rural and urban Canada that was representative of many deep spiritual encounters with the natural, social and economic forces shaping this young nation. To assist his readers to come to grips with the emotive power of their expressive paintings, King takes them through the transformation that each painter like Jackson, Varley, Harris, Lismer, Johnston, and Thomson experienced on their road to creating a made-in-Canada art form. Along the way, there were many bumps and reversals that were only overcome by their ability to feed of each other and refine the signature product. Mixed in with the discussion of their personal lives is considerable reference to the famous technique of painting that embodied the innovative use of gaudy colors to unlock extraordinary sensations from a natural landscape. The two parts of the account that really hit home with me were the personal struggles and tragic death of Thomson and the war experiences of Jackson and Varley as they worked on the Western Front as war painters. Their personal demons and inadequacies found their way into their work in such a way as to capture both the solace of beauty and the harshness of reality. Included in this book is an excellent set of prints that allows the reader a fair representation of the many pieces this fraternity produced. This is truly an enlightening and inspiring biography that needs to be read by all Canadians who admire the role that the natural world plays in making our country a great place to live and love.

The Group of Seven has always been of interest to me as I am an artist myself. I also feel it is important to promote our own canadian artists.
The author, Ross King, has done an extensive amount of research to put this book together. I found the style of his writing made the collection of artists and the history of Canada well done. Especially the political troubles of the First World War.
This excellent piece of writing is the kind of book that I enjoy being an artist who is still studying, I also have a deep love for Canadian history.