Untitled (Near North #84-90), 1990, watercolour on paper, 22.5 x 30 inches
August 6 – 2 0, 2 0 1 1
Opening: Saturday, August 6, 2 – 4pm
BAU-XI GALLERY
340 Dundas St. West
Toronto, Ontario M5T 1G5
T: 416.977.0600
E: toronto@bau-xi.com
www.bau-xiphoto.com
Hours: Mon-Sat 10-5:30, Sun 11-5:30
Frederick Hagan’s (1918-2003) upcoming exhibition at Bau-Xi Gallery offers the unique opportunity to experience some of the earliest watercolour paintings produced by this important Canadian artist. These watercolour paintings are vivid, colourful works painted with the fluidity and fascination of Hagan’s talented hand.
‘The Near North’ complements two other significant exhibitions taking place in Ontario public gallery institutions this Summer and Fall. FIGURE IN PLACE / FIGURING THE LANDSCAPE: These two exhibitions, to be held at the MacLaren Ar t Centreand the Georgian College Campus Galler y respectively, are an intimate look at how the regional landscape of Muskoka Ontario has played an important role in the landscape and figurative paintings of ar tist Frederick Hagan. Selected landscape paintings dating from the 1940s to the 1990s within the context of his figurative work will establish the importance of “place” and “identity” that underpin the conceptual premise and interest with his use of the figure, establishing a “humanist” trajector y for his highly personalized and innovative compositions in oil and acr ylic painting. Regarding these impor tant exhibitions, Dennis Reid states, “I have every confidence that one day the significance of [Hagan’s] contribution, as celebrated here and in a small handful of earlier exhibitions, will be widely acknowledged, and more to the point, deeply understood. We will all be better for it.” – Dennis Reid, Professor of Ar t Histor y, University of Toronto
Born in 1918 in downtown Toronto, Frederick Hagan exhibited with the Royal Canadian Academy by the age of twenty-one, and taught at the Ontario College of Ar t for thir ty seven years. Hagan’s long career as a printmaker and painter has awarded him placement in the National Galler y of Canada and the Ar t Gallery of Ontario, among many other important collections.
