Is This Art Canadian? Sarah Milroy on Emily Carr

Few artists impact the world equally with their paintings and paragraphs. Van Gogh was one, Emily Carr (1871-1945) another, and she was one of the first Canadian artists of national significance to emerge from the West Coast. During her life she felt her artistic career was a failure. Saddled with a sense of professional and personal isolation and rejection, she persevered and her vision of Canada is now iconic. Carr travelled extensively, learning from European, American, and indigenous forms and receiving formal training at art academies as well as with private tutors. She continued to grow in artistic power throughout her life as a result of her own intense observation and of her vigorous experimentation with a variety of methods and media, reflecting the fusion of wide-ranging influences.
Sarah Milroy is chief curator of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection. She was editor and publisher of Canadian Art magazine from 1991 to 1996, and the co-founder of the Canadian Art Foundation. Milroy served as chief art critic of the Globe and Mail from 2001 to 2011, and has contributed to many scholarly art publications, newspapers, and magazines. Milroy has also co-curated three exhibitions for the Dulwich Picture Gallery: From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia in 2014; Vanessa Bell in 2017; and David Milne: Modern Painting in 2018.
To read Emily Carr: Life & Work by Lisa Baldissera, visit aci-iac.ca.