Showing 197 results

Mary Augusta Stewart Houston Bagnani (1903–1996), known after marriage as Stewart Bagnani, was an administrator at the Art Gallery of Toronto (now the Art Gallery of Ontario) and a lecturer in fine art. Born in Toronto of a distinguished family, she was the daughter of Stewart Fielde Houston (1868–1910), manager of Massey Hall in Toronto and first editor of The Financial Post. Her mother was Augusta Louise Beverley (Robinson) Houston (1859–1935), daughter of Mary Jane (Hagerman) Robinson (1823–1892) and John Beverley Robinson (1821–1896), mayor of Toronto (1856), member of Parliament in Ottawa (1872–1880) and Lieutenant-Governor of Ontario (1880–1887). Augusta Robinson was one of five children: John Beverley, Napier, Christopher, Minnie Caroline (d. 1923; from 1881 Mrs William Forsyth Grant) and Augusta herself (from 1898, Mrs Stewart Fielde Houston). Stewart Bagnani’s great-grandfather was Sir John Beverley Robinson (1791–1863), Chief Justice of Canada West (now Ontario) from 1829 to 1862. (Mary Augusta) Stewart Houston attended school in England and in Toronto (Bishop Strachan School), and later studied art history in Rome, where she met Gilbert Bagnani. After her marriage to Dr Bagnani in Toronto in 1929, Stewart Bagnani worked beside her husband in the excavations at Tebtunis entrusted to the Royal Italian Archaeological Expedition in Egypt of which Dr Bagnani was director. On site, she drew and painted watercolours (now at Trent University) of early Coptic church frescoes, and recorded observations of excavation workers and of local customs to accompany Dr Bagnani’s photographs. When Gilbert and Stewart Bagnani moved to Canada in 1937, they worked at enlarging the farmhouse on their estate Vogrie to accommodate collections of books and works of art. In the 1950s, a mural was commissioned for a room in the house from Canadian artist William Ronald (1926–1998) of the Painters Eleven. In 1951, while her husband was teaching at the University of Toronto, Mrs Bagnani became head of Extension at the Art Gallery of Toronto, a position she held until 1963. When Dr Bagnani accepted a post at Trent University in Peterborough, Ont. in 1965, Mrs Bagnani gave lectures there on fine art, worked on promoting the Mackenzie Gallery at the university and volunteered at Kingston (Ont.) Penitentiary. A pamphlet and transcripts of two lectures by Stewart Bagnani are in the library collection of the AGO.
After her husband died in 1985, Stewart Bagnani lived in Toronto until her death in 1996 at the age of 93. She was buried with her husband Gilbert in Cobourg (Ont.).

The Baldwin Street Gallery of Photography, also known as Baldwin Street Gallery, was Canada's first independent photography gallery and was founded by John F. Phillips (1945-2010) and Laura Jones (1948-) in June, 1969. Its first location was at 23 Baldwin St. in Toronto, a house Phillips and Jones rented after immigrating to Canada from the United States during the Vietnam War. In 1968, Phillips and Jones had opened their home as an informal daycare and photography school for neighbourhood children, called the Baldwin Street Club. The couple were volunteers of the Company of Young Canadians which funded the educational project alongside the National Film Board. After a year and a half, the club became a gallery for the exhibition of independent photography, though they continued to teach children's photography courses throughout the lifespan of Baldwin Street Gallery. Jones and Phillips ran the Gallery on the first floor of the house, lived on the second floor, and offered a women's only darkroom in the basement in response to the number of men's only darkrooms in Toronto.
Jones and Phillips dedicated much of their own photography towards documenting the everyday lives of those who lived on Baldwin Street, which at the time was comprised largely of immigrants such as themselves. Notably, the couple photographed and were involved with the 1970 Hydro Block Protests during which the community successfully blocked a proposal for an 18 story hydro transformer station to be built on Baldwin Street. The Gallery was an extension of their own socially concerned photography, and was dedicated to supporting and exhibiting the work of documentary photographers that served to further honest expression, rather than to profit or exploit. The Gallery curated photography exhibits of primarily Canadian photographers such as Barbara Astman, Pamela Harris, Jeremy Taylor, and Marian Bancroft though it also featured travelling exhibits from American photographers such as Barbara Morgan and Nikolaus Walter. In addition to being a key space for exhibition, the Gallery also became an essential meeting place for photographers, a center that carried information about the photography field at large, a bookstore and library, and an informal photography school offering educational workshops and courses.
In 1972, after Phillips began teaching photography full-time at York University and left his role as co-director, the Gallery was run co-operatively run by the Women in Photography Co-op, comprised of June Greenberg, Judy Holman, Laura Jones, Pamela Harris, Liz Maunsell, Lynn Murray, Linda Rosenbaum, and Lisa Steele. Frustrated by sexism in the photography industry and the lack of representation of women photographers, the Women in Photography Co-op curated the exhibit "Photographs of Women by Women" for the University of Toronto's Festival of Women. In response to a call-out for photographs by women about women, the Co-op received over 1,500 photographs from women in Canada and the United States of which they selected 230 for the exhibit.
In 1973, with many of the members of the Co-op pursuing other projects, the Gallery was run primarily by Laura Jones with occasional assistance from other members. In 1974, the landlord of 23 Baldwin Street sold the property and served Jones and Phillips an eviction notice which forced the gallery to close. The gallery continued to function in various pop-up locations and in 1978 was situated at 38 Baldwin Street for a year. After the final closure of the Gallery, due to economic pressure, its emphasis shifted towards the creation of photography exhibitions for other galleries and institutions and the sale of photographs for publication.

Charles Shaw Band (1885-1969) was a Toronto business executive, philanthropist and collector of Canadian art. He was born in Thorold, Ontario and educated at Upper Canada College in Toronto. In 1914 he married Helen Huntington Warren (whose mother Sarah Trumbull Van Lennep Warren was a founder of the Art Gallery of Toronto) with whom he began collecting artworks. During his career, he worked with many Canadian firms, including Canadian Surety, Goderich Elevator and Transit Co. Ltd., Manufacturers Life Insurance, Toronto General Trust, as well as Gutta Percha and Rubber Limited of Toronto.

In addition to his business interests, Band was affiliated with various community organisations including the Canadian Chamber of Commerce, the Canadian National Institute for the Blind, the John Howard Society, the Red Cross, the Art Gallery of Toronto, and the National Film Board.

Band was a friend of members of the Group of Seven, especially Lawren Harris and Fred Varley. He was President of the Art Gallery of Toronto 1945-1948 and again in 1964-1965. In 1948 he was made Officier d’Académie by the French government for his role in bringing an exhibition of French masters to Canada the previous year. The noted Collection of Mr and Mrs Charles S. Band was the subject of exhibitions in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Vancouver, Los Angeles and other cities. C. S. Band died in Toronto in 1969, leaving the bulk of his collection to the Art Gallery of Ontario.

Iain Baxter& is a Canadian conceptual artist with a wide-ranging career. He was born Iain Joseph Wilson Baxter in 1936 in Middlesbrough, England, and moved to Calgary, Alberta with his family one year later. While studying biology at the University of Idaho, Baxter met Elaine Hieber, whom he married in 1959. Following studies in the U.S. and Japan, the Baxters moved to Vancouver in 1964, when Iain accepted a teaching position at the University of British Columbia. In subsequent years, he also taught at Simon Fraser University and the Emily Carr College of Art. Early collaborative art ventures culminated in the development of the N.E. Thing Company in 1967. The company functioned as an “aesthetic umbrella,”
allowing Iain and his wife to work collaboratively and anonymously to produce a wide range of art forms and projects. The N.E. Thing Co. was formally incorporated in 1969, with Iain Baxter as President and Elaine as Vice President; the two later became co-presidents. Elaine Baxter adopted Ingrid as her preferred name in 1971. Among the company’s projects was the Eye Scream Restaurant, in operation from 1977 to 1978. Following the Baxters’ divorce, the company dissolved in 1978. Iain Baxter returned to Calgary in 1981, where he taught at the Alberta College of Art. For a brief period (1983-84), he was employed as Creative Consultant to the Labatt Brewing Company. Since 1988, Baxter has lived in
Windsor, Ontario, where he teaches at the University of Windsor. He married Louise Martin in 1984. In 2005, he legally changed his surname to Baxterand, commonly using the forms “Baxter&” or “BAXTER&”. Baxter&’s work is particularly informed by the ideas of Marshall McLuhan and communications theory. He also cites the art of Giorgio Morandi, Zen Buddhism, and his early studies in biology and ecology as conceptual influences. Baxter& has explored a broad range of media and genres, including vacuum-formed plastic, inflated vinyl, telex, polaroid prints, environmental art and multimedia installation. His work is included in the collections of numerous major Canadian and international galleries.

Ingrid Baxter (1938-) is a Canadian conceptual artist known for her work as part of the N.E. Thing Company.

Paul Bennett (1928-2014), curator and arts administrator, was the first Field Director / Adviser of the Art Institute of Ontario (1959-1964). He then became Director, serving until 1968.

Michael Bidner (1944-1989) was an Ontario artist who worked in print and mixed media, perhaps best known for his works in xerography and mail art. Born in London, Ontario, Bidner graduated from the technical high school H.B. Beal Secondary and briefly attended the Ontario College of Art before dropping out to pursue his art independently. During his career, Bidner worked with various media, including silkscreening, collage, slides, photography, and video. Bidner used the name “Cloud” in some of his projects and often incorporated the shape of an upside down “Y” as a signature symbol. In the 1970s, Bidner produced or co-created a number of alternative art-based publications: Adz magazine (founder), Rag magazine (co-founder), and Rude magazine (co-founder/art director). In the mid-1970s, Xerox Canada Ltd. provided the McIntosh Gallery at the University of Western Ontario with one of their new colour copier machines to help promote its use. In the spring of 1976, Michael Bidner and artist Michael Hayden exhibited their copy art and led a number of public workshops. Later that year, Bidner and Hayden were part of the “Colour Xerography” group show at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which also included the work of
Jaan Poldaas, Flavio Belli, Barbara Astman, and Robert Arn.

Bidner was also interested in philately and mail art, coining the term “artistamp” to refer to his postage art. In 1984, he organized the first international exhibition of mail art, titled “Artistampex,” in London, Ontario. Networking and letter-writing with mail artists in Canada and abroad, Bidner began compiling a groundbreaking database of artists and artwork entitled “Standard Artistamp Catalogue and Handbook.” Unfortunately, his declining health prevented him from finishing the project. Following unsuccessful attempts to place his collection at a Canadian art institution, Bidner’s personal collection of original postage art was given to the Artpool Art Research Center in Budapest, Hungary in 1989. Michael Bidner
passed away of AIDS in 1989.

David Blackwood (1941-2022) was a Canadian artist known for his prints depicting Newfoundland life and culture. Born in Wesleyville, Newfoundland in 1941, Blackwood was exposed to subjects which influenced the themes represented in his art: fishermen and sealers and their families; relationships with the land; harsh landscapes; and the importance of tradition to communities on Canada’s east coast. Blackwood attended the Ontario College of Art from 1959-1963, where he studied printmaking. Subsequently, he was the first artist-in-residence at Erindale College at University of Toronto Mississauga, from 1969 to 1975. The Erindale College Art Gallery was renamed The Blackwood Gallery in 1992 in the artist’s honour. In 1976, Blackwood was the subject of a documentary produced by the National Film Board of Canada – titled Blackwood – which was nominated for an Academy Award. Blackwood was a member of the AGO Board of Trustees and the Inuit Art Foundation in Ottawa. He was also the recipient of numerous other awards and accolades, including honorary doctorates at the University of Calgary and Memorial University of Newfoundland (1992); a National Heritage Award (1993); the Order of Ontario (2002); and the Order of Canada (1993).

Blackwood exhibited nationally and internationally, with over 90 solo shows throughout the span of his career. In 1999 he donated 242 archival prints to the AGO, making the gallery an international research centre for the artist’s work. He was named an honorary chair of the AGO in 2003. The AGO presented a major retrospective of Blackwood’s work in 2011, titled Black Ice: David Blackwood Prints of Newfoundland. Blackwood’s works are also in the collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Montreal Museum of Fine Art, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Winnipeg Art Gallery, National Gallery of Florence, and Uffizi Gallery in Florence, amongst others. Blackwood has resided in Port Hope, Ontario since the 1970s, where he was a teacher of drawing and painting at Trinity College School.

Ruth Jean Blodgett (American-Canadian, 1945-2020) was a curator known for her work on Inuit art and associated with a number of Canadian museums including the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the Winnipeg Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Ontario. Blodgett was born in Moscow, Idaho and grew up in Prosser, Washington. She completed her undergraduate studies at the University of Colorado before pursuing a Master’s degree at the University of British Columbia (1974). Blodgett’s MA thesis on multiple human images in Inuit sculpture proved foundational to her career. As a curator at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (ca. 1976-1979) she produced exhibitions on Jessie Oonark, Inuit shamanism and the artists of Povungnituk, among other topics. Through the 1980s, Blodgett worked as a freelance curator, producing significant exhibitions for the Art Gallery of Ontario (Grasp tight the old ways : selections from the Klamer family collection of Inuit art, 1983, and North Baffin drawings: drawings collected by Terry Ryan on North Baffin Island in 1964, 1986), the London Regional Art Gallery (Etidlooie Etidlooie, 1984), and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Selections from the John and Mary Robertson collection of Inuit sculpture, 1986). By 1984 she had moved to Ottawa where she taught courses at Carleton University. Blodgett was Chief Curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection from 1988 to 2000, where she co-led the borrowing of the Kinngait archive of drawings and produced exhibitions and publications on Inuit graphic arts. Her major book on Kenojuak Ashevak was published in 1981 and went through 6 editions. Blodgett moved to Fairbanks, Alaska in 2004, where she was a visiting professor in Arctic Art at the University of Alaska and participated as an expert team member in travel expeditions for Adventure Canada. During this time she continued to do freelance research projects such as In the Shadow of the Midnight Sun for the Art Gallery of Hamilton (2007). Jean Blodgett died in Fairbanks in 2020.

On March 15, 1900, Mr. George Agnew Reid, then President of the Ontario Society of Artists, convened a meeting of representatives from various top educational, government, business and arts organizations, as well as prominent citizens to discuss the organization of a public art gallery. The meeting was chaired by Sir (Byron) Edmund Walker and included representation from the Ontario Government, Canadian Institute, Public Library Board, Public School Board, High School Board, University of Toronto, Trinity University, Ontario Society of Artists, Board of Trade of Toronto, City Council, Guild of Civic Art, Women’s Art Association, Ontario Association of Architects, Canadian Club, Women’s Historical Society, and Central Ontario School of Art and Design. A group of approximately 50 representatives from this initial meeting met again on March 31, 1900 where they elected the first Provisional Council and agreed upon the first articles of incorporation. The Ontario Legislature passed the Act of Incorporation July 4, 1900, forming the Art Museum of Toronto.

In order to recognize the importance of its role in hosting art exhibitions, and it help distinguish the Art Museum of Toronto from the Royal Ontario Museum, the Council passed an amendment to change the name of the institution to the Art Gallery of Toronto. A Statute Law Amendment Act 1919 reflecting this name change was assented to April 24, 1919. Later, due to its rapidly expanding role throughout the province, the Art Gallery of Toronto became the Art Gallery of Ontario by an act of Parliament in July 1966. The Gallery has remained a private institution with a governing body of appointed and elected Board of Trustees. The Board of Trustees was briefly named the Board of Directors from 1966 to 1968.