Sandra Dyck, director of the Carleton University Art Gallery (CUAG), is delighted to congratulate Brydon Smith, winner of a 2014 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts. Smith was co-nominated by Sandra Dyck and Adam Welch, a PhD candidate in Art History at the University of Toronto.
“Brydon Smith is being recognized in the ‘outstanding contribution’ category for the indelible impact he has made on Canada’s cultural landscape through his landmark exhibitions and acquisitions, and his key role in the planning and realization of the National Gallery of Canada’s magnificent building in the nation’s capital,” Dyck and Welch stated. “Smith passionately championed a progressive and ambitious outlook for Canada. Working at a moment of Canada’s emergence on the world stage, he shaped with clarity and rigour our country’s position at the vanguard of the visual arts.”
Brydon Smith is particularly acclaimed for his exhibitions and acquisitions of American art, which occurred during a period when the United States was producing some of the most significant artists of our time. Smith worked at the Art Gallery of Ontario from 1964-67. His exhibition Dine, Oldenburg, Segal (1967) introduced Canadians to the radical, then-emerging style of Pop Art, and he purchased for the AGO the work of such leading artists as Robert Rauschenberg, Frank Stella, and Claes Oldenburg.
At the National Gallery of Canada (NGC), where Smith began working in 1967, he organized major solo exhibitions of James Rosenquist, Dan Flavin, and Donald Judd. fluorescent light, etc. by Dan Flavin (1969) was the artist’s first museum exhibition, and a sensation in North America. This was followed by Smith’s ambitious survey of Donald Judd’s work in 1975, accompanied by a catalogue raisonné that remains the essential reference for the artist. Smith made nearly one hundred acquisitions for the national collection, by artists including Andy Warhol, Agnes Martin, Michael Snow, Louise Bourgeois, Mark Rothko, and Jackson Pollock. Smith brought Canadians into direct and powerful contact with the work of significant international artists. He helped establish the National Gallery at the fore internationally of collecting, researching, and exhibiting contemporary art.
Smith famously purchased Barnett Newman’s Voice of Fire (1967) for the National Gallery in 1989. Commissioned for the American Pavilion at Expo ’67, Newman’s monumental painting is a singular icon of Canada’s emerging international status in the postwar period. The purchase price, although controversial at the time, was significantly below market value and the painting’s acquisition was a major coup for Canada. In the public debates that ensued, including at the House of Commons, Smith and NGC director Shirley Thomson engaged in open and passionate conversations with Canadians about the merits of abstraction, and of contemporary art.
In 1979, Smith was made assistant director at the National Gallery, where through the mid-1980s he was responsible for oversight of the gallery’s landmark building. Smith managed the technical and financial aspects of the mammoth project, including the two-year, $21.9 million relocation to its new building on Sussex Drive. Prior to that, he participated fully in planning for the new building, including the development of the architectural program, selection of the architect Moshe Safdie and the building design, and the approval of final design specifications. He then directed the reinstallation of the national collection in the new building, which opened in 1988. Smith retired from the National Gallery in 1999.
The Canada Council announced the winners of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts this morning at the TIFF Bell Lightbox in Toronto. His Excellency the Right Honourable David Johnston, Governor General of Canada, will present the awards on March 26 at Rideau Hall in Ottawa. Visit the Canada Council’s website to view photos, biographies, and images of the winners’ work along with short videos of each recipient, made by award-winning filmmakers from across Canada. (http://ggavma.canadacouncil.ca/)
Funded and administered by the Canada Council for the Arts, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts (including the Saidye Bronfman Award) recognize distinguished career achievements in the visual and media arts by Canadian artists, as well as outstanding contributions through voluntarism, philanthropy, board governance, community outreach or professional activities.
Media contacts:
Sandra Dyck
Director
Carleton University Art Gallery
613-520-2600, ext. 1357
sandra.dyck@carleton.ca
Adam Welch
613-864–9649
adswelch@gmail.com
Heather McAfee
Canada Council for the Arts
613-566-4414, ext. 4166 or (613) 222-8379 (cell)
heather.mcafee@canadacouncil.ca
To arrange interviews with Brydon Smith:
Lisa Robertson at The Hillbrooke Group
613-739-7032
lrobertson@hillbrooke.ca
To arrange interviews with Marc Mayer, Director and CEO, National Gallery of Canada:
Josée-Britanie Mallet
Senior Media and Public Relations Officer
National Gallery of Canada
613-990-6835
bmallet@gallery.ca
Tuesday, March 4, 2014 in News Releases
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