National Gallery of Canada

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National Gallery of Canada

Atrium from Major's Hill Park.

The National Gallery of Canada (French: Musée des beaux arts du Canada), located in the capital city Ottawa, Ontario, is one of Canada's premier art galleries.

The Gallery is housed in a glass and granite building on Sussex Drive with a notable view of the Canadian Parliament buildings on Parliament Hill. The acclaimed structure was designed by Moshe Safdie and opened in 1988.^[1] The Gallery's former director Jean Sutherland Boggs was chosen especially by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau to oversee construction of the national gallery and museums.^[2]

History
Collection
Noted works
References
External links

History

View of the National Gallery of Canada from Parliament Hill.

The Gallery was first formed in 1880 by Canada's Governor General John Douglas Sutherland Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll, and, in 1882, moved into its first home on Parliament Hill in the same building as the Supreme Court.^[3] In 1911 the Gallery moved to the Victoria Memorial Museum, now the home of the Canadian Museum of Nature. In 1913 the first National Gallery Act was passed outlining the Gallery's mandate and resources.^[4] In 1962 the Gallery moved to a rather nondescript office building on Elgin Street. Adjacent to the British High Commission, the building now serves as office space for various governments departments, especially the Department of National Defence. It moved into its current building on Sussex Drive in 1988, beside Nepean Point.

In 1985 the newly created Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography (CMCP), formerly the Stills Photography Division of the National Film Board of Canada, was affiliated to the National Gallery. The CMCP's mandate, collection and staff moved to its new location in 1992, at 1 Rideau Canal, next to the Château Laurier. In 1998 the CMCP's administration was amalgamated to that of the National Gallery's.

Collection

The interior of National Gallery of Canada.

The Gallery has a large and varied collection of paintings, drawings, sculpture and photographs. Although its focus is on Canadian art, it holds works by many noted European artists. It has a strong contemporary art collection with some of Andy Warhol's most famous works.^[5] In 1990 the Gallery bought Barnett Newman's Voice of Fire for $1.8 million, causing a storm of controversy as the painting was no more than three strips of paint. Since that time its value has appreciated sharply, however. In 2005 the Gallery acquired a painting by Italian Renaissance painter Francesco Salviati for $4.5 million.^[6]

Also in 2005 a sculpture of a giant spider, Louise Bourgeois's Maman, was installed in front of the Gallery.^[7]

The Canadian collection holds works by Tom Thomson and the Group of Seven as well as Emily Carr and Alex Colville.^[8]

The Gallery organizes its own exhibits which travel across Canada and beyond, and hosts shows from around the world, often co-sponsored with other national art galleries and museums.^[9]^[10]

The Gallery's collection has been built up through purchase and donations. Much of the collection was donated, most notable are the British paintings donated by former Governor General Vincent Massey and that of the Southam family.

Noted works

Maman stands outside the building's main entrance

The largest work in the Gallery is the entire interior of the Rideau Street Chapel, the ornate chapel of a demolished girls' school, which also features Cardiff's Forty-Part Motet.^[11]