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The University of Lethbridge is sending one of its exhibits to Germany for the first timed. The exhibit, called “Drawn from the Past: the portraits and practice of Nicholas de Grandmaison. The artwork portrays First Nations people and recorded interviews with them between 1930 to 1960.

The exhibit creates a truly engaging experience, because instead of wondering the meaning behind each portrait, visitors can hear it directly from the people the portraits are depicting. Archival material including letters, photographs, and audio recordings of interviews and songs are also being sent to Germany to be part of the exhibit.

“One of the reasons I’m really excited about this exhibition is because we’re sending it to a big city, Hannover,” says Josephine Mills, the director and curator of the U of L Art Gallery. “We’re sending it a really excellent museum, and it’s going to get the University of Lethbridge’s name out there,” says Mills.

“We’re reaching audience in other parts of the world by bringing the work to them.”

Mills says art galleries try to tour their exhibits as much as possible, and admits that it’s a lot easier to tour within Canada then having to worry about Customs and bureaucracy when bringing artwork to other countries. Though, by doing so, allows new audiences to see the artwork.

The exhibit has already been sent to a museum in Hannover, Germany, and will remain there from April 24 to Aug 2, 2009. Mills will attend the grand opening in Germany on April 24.

The focus of the artwork is on the First Nations portraits and the context of de GrandMaison’s life and career. The goal of the exhibit is to expand on the European interpretation of First Nations peoples and culture in Canada on European-trained artists working in Canada.

“The exhibition was selected from the University of Lethbridge’s extensive holding of Nicholas de Grandmaison pastels and paintings as well as our holding of achival material,” says Mill. “We are delighted to send an exhibition to such a significant museum.”

Unfinished sketch books are also included in the exhibit to provide a glimpse into de GrandMaison’s process.

“[The Hannover is] taking a major exhibition for the Canadian Museum of Civilization, of aboriginal objects, produced by aboriginal people,” says Mills. “They wanted to expand and have a perspective of the interpretation of aboriginal life by a European artist, their work changed with contact with aboriginal people. Our exhibition, plus some work for the Glengo Museum and from the White Museum in Banff. As well as providing more Western Canadian content.”

Gordon Synder is the guest curator for the exhibition, and he did a tremendous amount of research and work into deciding which of de GrandMaison’s works to include in the exhibition.

“The artist’s passion for depicting leaders and ordinary members of many different First Nations communities is clearly apparent in these powerful works,” says Snyder.

“He realized their traditional way of life would soon diminish and he began painting the Plains Indians in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta – eventually capturing subjects from as far north as the Queen Charlotte Islands and south to the deserts of the Southwestern United States.”

The federal government in has greatly cut funding to Canada arts and culture, and that includes costs to showcasing our culture outside of Canada with touring exhibits. This has led the U of L Arts Gallery to organize the exhibit by themselves, and via a Canadian-German arts consultant. The museum is paying the cost of bringing it to Hannover.

de GrandMaison  was born in 1892 in Russia. He studied art, music, history, languages, music, cartography, and topography before immigrating to Canada in 1923, after spending most of the First World War in a POW camp in Germany.

He settled in Winnipeg, where his passion for getting to know the First Nations people. “He painted business owners, ranchers, lawyers, politicians, that was were he earned his living,” says Mills. “His passion was recording the faces and stories of First Nations people in Western Canada, and that’s what shown in this exhibition.”

Originally posted 2009-04-11 20:47:29. Republished by Blog Post Promoter