Sold for: $2,000

PROVENANCE
The Isaacs Gallery Ltd., Toronto
Private Collection, Montreal

Joyce Wieland is widely regarded as one of Canada’s most important female artists of the twentieth century. A self-described “cultural-activist,” Wieland addressed issues of feminism and Canadian identity through her experimental use of film and mixed media.

Wieland married artist Michael Snow in 1956. Her first solo show was held in 1958, and by 1960 she was represented by Isaacs Gallery. Wieland's early work was predominantly paintings, which reflected Abstract Expressionist influences. Her use of bold, colourful shapes, such as in the Time Machine Series (1961), has been interpreted as both pure abstraction and as alluding to female genitalia.

In 1962, Snow and Wieland moved to New York City. Influenced by the Greenwich Village’s underground film community, Wieland soon began producing her own experimental films. Her work from these years showed her interest in Pop Art and Conceptual Art. While living abroad, Wieland became increasingly disenchanted with America's political system, particularly in its treatment of the environment and its involvement in Vietnam. Wieland reflected on Canada as distinct from, and fundamentally more progressive than, the United States. In the mid-1960s, Wieland began to express her understanding of what it meant to be Canadian in her art and films. Confedspread (1967), a colourful quilt, was created in the year of Canada's centennial, and incorporated the newly inaugurated Canadian flag. In 1967, Wieland traveled across Western Canada, collecting images of the land for her first full-length film, Reason Over Passion (1968). The film, whose title is derived from a Prime Minister Elliott Trudeau speech, celebrates Canada's vast landscape, while delving into issues of bilingualism and nationalism.

In 1971, the National Gallery’s retrospective True Patriot Love became the gallery's first major exhibition devoted to the work of a living female artist. The show contained a wide variety of media - from bronze sculpture that alluded to political monuments to needlework, quilting and cake decoration. By including materials typically associated with the domestic arts and crafts, Wieland sought to challenge the traditional hierarchies of the fine art world – “I wanted to elevate and honour craft, to join women together and make them proud of what they had done,” she stated. Wieland received wide recognition for True Patriot Love, and soon after this show, Wieland and Snow returned to live in Toronto. Wieland was awarded multiple public commissions in the years following, including: a 1972 Canada Post stamp; Defend the Earth / Défendez la terre, a quilted wall mural for the National Science Library, Ottawa (1972 - 1973); Barren Ground Caribou, the quilted cloth assemblage for the Toronto Spadina Subway stop, (1977 - 1978); and The Ocean of Love, for Via Rail's Transcontinental train (1990).

In 1987, the Art Gallery of Ontario held a major traveling retrospective exhibition of Wieland's works. Wieland received the Order of Canada in 1982.

All prices are in Canadian Dollars

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