The Exhibition The Development of Painting in Canada (1945) or the Demonstration of the Unity of the Founding Peoples
In the eight months, between May 1944 and January 1945, Canada’s four major art museums brought together their resources to produce the first comprehensive exhibition of the history of painting in Canada. The Development of Painting in Canada 1665-1945 succeeded by grouping together nearly 200 paintings which displayed a continuous reading of the production of more than 150 artists arranged by chronological periods, styles and pictorial genres. Given the political context, the result led to an ideological reading of the project, interpreted as a manifestation of the symbiosis between the two founding nations of Canada capable of developing a common culture.