An exhibition of Emily Carr paintings — many of them from Victoria — has drawn rave reviews in British newspapers, including one heralding the artist as a Canadian Vincent Van Gogh.
Laura Cumming of The Guardian wrote: “Against all the odds, Emily Carr captured the wild landscapes and seascapes of early 1900s British Columbia in paintings so vivid you can almost hear them.”
Although she is often compared with contemporary Georgia O’Keeffe, Carr at her best has more in common with “fellow outsider” Van Gogh, Cumming said.
English critics expressed surprise over the quality of works from an artist little known in Britain.
“Emily who?” wrote Richard Dorment of The Telegraph in a review headlined: “Emily Carr’s first show in England is a fascinating introduction to the unappreciated 20th-century artist. You’ll never ask who Emily Carr is again.”
The Independent’s Karen Wright wrote that the show “deserves to be one of the biggest blockbusters of the season.”
Many of the artworks in the exhibition at London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery come from Victoria. Twenty-five pieces were lent by the Royal B.C. Museum, seven are from the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and two are from the University of Victoria’s Legacy Art Gallery.
The exhibition, From the Forest to the Sea: Emily Carr in British Columbia, is the first U.K. show dedicated solely to Carr. It is the Dulwich Picture Gallery’s biggest-budget show for a single artist to date.
Featuring almost 100 oil paintings, watercolours and drawings, the show opened Saturday and continues to March 8, 2015. It will then travel to Toronto’s Art Gallery of Ontario, running April 11 to July 12, 2015.
