Biographical Index of Artists in Canada (review)

A random search for the names of Canadian artists - historical and contemporary, well known and obscure - quickly confirms that Evelyn McMann's Biographical Index of Artists in Canada is comprehensive. The index (published posthumously) is a quick and cursory guide to artists with whom a researcher is otherwise unfamiliar.

McMann's Biographical Index of Artists in Canada is the fourth in a series of indices she produced since the early 1980s. All but one of these publications, Canadian Who's Who. Index 1898-1984: Incorporating Canadian Men and Women of the Time, provides historical records of the fine arts in Canada. McMann's Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: Exhibitions and Members, 1880-1979 (reprinted in 1997) and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Formerly Art Association of Montreal: Spring Exhibition, 1880-1970 are staples in the Canadian curatorial world. The author's tailoring of the books to Canadian collectors, dealers, gallery staff, and - arguably less so - to art historians is effective. Both volumes provide a handy compilation of the titles of exhibited works with each artist's name. McMann positions the two volumes as a comprehensive record of 'the entire field of the visual arts [as] is represented in the Membership and the exhibitions; painters, sculptors, architects, engravers, etchers, graphic artists, industrial, stained glass and theatrical designers, tapestry weavers, photographers and film makers.' Painters, nevertheless, are best represented. The volumes reconfirm the canon - the history of painting that still defines the history of art in Canada. McMann extended her representation of artists in Canada with the Biographical Index. The question is: How far?

A search for the names of a random handful of artists might be the best way to demonstrate the parameters of McMann's Biographical Index. Zacharias Kunuk, Jeff Thomas, Norman McLaren, James Hill, George Lonn, H.N. McEvoy, James Hoch, Robert Clow Todd, Paraskeva Clark, and Kosso Eloul are among the artists whose work I happen to be researching. The first two artists - Kunuk and Thomas - are of Aboriginal ancestry.

Kunuk, the director of the feature-length film Atanarjuat (The Fast Runner) and an internationally recognized contemporary Inuit artist, does not appear in the book. Some of his predecessors do, like Kenojuak Ashevak. The names of a few well-known Inuit artists born prior to the 1950s are sparsely listed through the index with their 'E' (disc) numbers and alternate names. As such, McMann provides a compromised view of Inuit art, which she under-supports by a grossly inadequate 'Works Cited.' Standard specialized sources for information on Inuit artists (including the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs Inuit Artist indices) are not included. A search for Jeff Thomas, a First Nations artist who is increasingly active in the Canadian museum world, reveals a similar problem. Thomas is not listed, but his more famous predecessor Norval Morrisseau is - if only because his name (like the Inuit artists listed by McMann) happens to have been published previously in mainstream biographical sources. The index is conspicuously skewed to non-Aboriginal artists in general and, as a result, to non-Aboriginal readers.

If McMann's cultural focus is symptomatic of her dependence on a narrow range of published sources, then her Biographical Index might also limit the representation of artists working in varied media. Ostensibly, her fine arts lens (capturing painting, sculpture, and drawing) played into her selective representation of Aboriginal artists. Do Canada's non-Aboriginal filmmakers and commercial artists suffer the same fate? McMann includes the National Film Board's Norman McLaren as an animator, painter, printmaker, and sculptor. She also lists James Hill, whose commercial work ruled women's magazines of the late 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s. He is described only as a painter, however, as is George Lonn, whose portraits illustrated newspapers, magazines, and books during the same decades. McMann's publication skirts the strength of these artists' contribution to Canadian visual culture.

A couple of further searches for fine artists whose contributions sit squarely within the Canadian art canon show...