Art Gallery of Alberta

Founded in 1924, Art Gallery of Alberta reopened its door in the new building on January 30, 2010. I spent a few pleasant hours there on a Sunday morning during my weekend visit to Edmonton in April. It is a beautiful modern building designed by Los Angeles architect Randall Stout with broad spiral staircase leading to spacious lobbies of two higher floors with large exhibition halls. As far as the art galleries go, it is small. Of the total area of about 85,000 square feet about half is the exhibition space. The building also has a theatre and three studios in the basement. The gallery is perhaps unique for not having some of its permanent collection of over 6,000 artifacts on display. The main floor has an elegant restaurant on the ground floor which served a set brunch this Sunday. There is a coffee counter on the third floor which sells a small selection of sandwiches obtained from a supplier and some simple snacks with coffee from flasks. There is a good gift shop with an interesting selection of merchandise on the ground floor. Unusual for a gallery, there was no restriction on bags and coat racks were unattended.

The gallery opened with five exhibits which are on for another few weeks. The curators are to be complimented for their broad range. I took a 45 minute guided tour and also went around the exhibits by myself. First exhibit most visitors will see is titled Francisco Goya: The Disasters of War and Los Caprichos. It is a set of copper plate prints inspired by Spanish resistance to France and the civil war that followed during first twenty years of the nineteenth century. Goya focused on the miseries due to the war rather than the justification or the condemnation of the warring parties. Caprichos is a bound book of prints which satirizes all levels of the society. It was severely criticized when published in 1799 and was promptly withdrawn. The book is displayed in a glass case open on the most famous plate: Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. There is a computer version of the book where a visitor can flip through the pages. Unfortunately, the screen was not responsive to my fingers and I gave up after several attempts.

Other exhibit on the ground floor displays 40 bronze sculptures by the nineteenth century French artist Edgar Degas. Although Degas exhibited only one bronze sculpture in his life time, more than a hundred wax models were found in his studio after his death. Only the models in good condition were cast and these are on display here along with the one he exhibited. Some sketches and paintings supplement the sculptures. Degas is credited with introducing motion in art and the sculptures are the studies of dancers, bathers and horses in various stages of motion. AGA deserves kudos for bringing these sculptures to Alberta.

First floor had two exhibits. A small room displayed a half built cabin with some scattered tools on the floor. This is one of the two exhibits by two artists Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller who trained in Edmonton. I needed more explanation to appreciate it than was provided. Most of the floor is taken by the display of portraits of celebrities by Armenian Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh. One large room has the portraits of the major personalities of the twentieth century – Mandela, Churchill, Martin Luther King, Nehru, Einstein, actress Anita Ekberg and almost every body who was anybody. Portraits succeed in bringing out the character of the personalities, e.g. single-minded determination of Churchill, honesty of Mandela, fighting spirit of King, sexuality of Ekberg. Some artifacts from Karsh studio are also on display. Another display throws light on the developing techniques used by the artist.

Entire top floor is taken by a large sound exhibit The Murder of Crows by Janet Cardiff and George Bures Miller. The work was inspired by Goya’s Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters. 98 amplifiers are placed at various elevations in a large hall surrounding carefully placed wooden chairs. A thirty minute collage of music, sounds of birds including crows and monologues in male and female voices is fed into specific amplifiers. In absence of some explanation, the sounds were meaningless noise to me and perhaps to most visitors.

I enjoyed the visit to the gallery and would heartily recommend it. However, I expected Art Gallery of Alberta to be much more than it turned out to be. I was hoping to see a permanent collection of Alberta art and craft and a selection of critical works from the past. I found the exhibits interesting but not outstanding. I suppose my disappointment originates from the name. If I were visiting City Art Gallery the exhibits and the gallery may have exceeded my expectations.

The gallery has an excellent website which describes current and future exhibits. A visit to the website before the gallery is strongly recommended.