Canadian Painting in the Thirties in Context

Thirty-six artists were selected for inclusion in the exhibition Canadian Painting in the Thirties to exemplify the main currents of ideas and innovation during the decade.

Many other artists active during the Thirties, such as Elizabeth Wyn Wood, Walter J. Phillips, Alfred Pellan, and Homer Watson, were excluded from the show for a number of reasons. Some worked principally in media other than painting (e.g. drawing, printmaking, sculpture, silver). Others were working outside Canada throughout the decade. Still others were primarily artists of earlier generations, whose art and ideas had been defined in previous decades.

The works by these artists dating from the 1930s and held in the collections of the National Gallery provide additional contexts for understanding Canadian art of the 1930s.