Thursday 21 November
6°C and Broken Clouds
Another milestone: Agnes is closed to the public as we prepare for Agnes Reimagined. Stay tuned for plans for off-site programming!
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In the Present features Canadian paintings, drawings and sculptures that were donated, soon after they were made, as part of a larger gift from Samuel and Ayala Zacks. Cutting edge in 1962, these works provided a major boost to the fledgling gallery, then five years old, and continue to be a core of collecting strength for the Agnes.
The Zacks gift captures a vibrant moment in Canadian art and reflects the spirit of an age on the cusp of cultural change. Artists were exploring tensions between abstract and figural expression, in a bohemian world of beat poetry, cool jazz and existential thought. Meanwhile, the Space Race, Cold War, civil rights movement, Cuban Revolution and Quiet Revolution unfolded in the news.
Represented in the exhibition are artists from across Canada, with works dated 1958 to 1962, including Ron Bloore, Jack Bush, Graham Coughtry, Marcelle Ferron, Richard Gorman, Anne Kahane, Roy Kiyooka, Jock Macdonald, Robert Markle, Jean McEwen, John Meredith, Gordon Rayner, Jean Paul Riopelle, William Ronald, Michael Snow, Harold Town and Tony Urquhart.
“The importance of this collection cannot be ignored because it shows the very best pieces of contemporary painting—the expression of a time.”
Financier Samuel J. Zacks was born in Kingston and graduated from Queen’s University and Harvard. At the end of World War II, he met Ayala Zacks in Europe, who brought a love of art into the relationship. The Toronto-based couple became eclectic and daring collectors, often purchasing directly from the artists. With the Zacks gift in 1962, the Agnes was the first of several institutions, in Canada and Israel, to benefit from the couple’s patronage.
Marcelle Ferron, Untitled, 1960, oil on canvas. Gift of Ayala and Samuel Zacks 1962 (05-035). © Oeuvres Ferron / SOCAN (2018)
Jack Bush, Spot on Red, 1960, oil on canvas. Gift of Ayala and Samuel Zacks 1962 (05-025). © Estate of Jack Bush / SOCAN (2018)