John Hartman: Many Lives Mark This Place

Exuberant exhibition at Canada House of large portraits of contemporary Canadians authors by John Hartman.

Hartman chooses the authors based on his own reading and preferences then invites them to choose a landscape that means something to them. He then sets the mainly head and shoulder portraits in front of the landscape rather than placing them in it. Both the portraits and landscapes were impressive, working best from a distance but close to you could see the way the brushstrokes shaped the image.

The commentary by each picture was by the author which was a nice touch but I would have liked a bit more about them and what they’d written. I did get that from the catalogue as well as learning that these nine pictures were part of a larger series.

Closes 1 April 2023

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