Frances K. Smith Public Talks in Canadian Art and Queen’s University Archives Annual Lecture: Dr Sandra Campbell

“Time’s Judgements Are Best”? :  Lorne Pierce and The Queen’s University Art Foundation

Starting in the 1930s, publisher Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press and other Toronto alumni—organized as the Queen’s University Art Foundation—gifted Queen’s University with works of art, some by famous Canadian and European artists. Over the decades of giving, issues of taste, of modernism versus traditionalism, of rivalries for power and prestige unfolded along with the best intentions of both Foundation and University. Dr. Campbell’s talk unpacked this lively history, including the involvement of figures like André Biéler and A.Y. Jackson.

Both Hands: A Life of Lorne Pierce of Ryerson Press (2013), Dr. Sandra Campbell’s biography of Canada’s leading mid-20th century Canadian publisher, was a finalist for the Ontario Historical Society’s Creighton Prize.

This lecture was presented in conjunction with the exhibition Mind, Heart and Spirit: The Queen’s University Art Foundation, on view at the Agnes, 10 May — 9 November, 2014.