“Greg Curnoe: What About Me?”

By Annie Taran& Cassie Dugsin-porchuk

Wed., Nov 3, 2021 | reading time 2 minutes ⏰

Thank you to the McIntosh Gallery for inviting our Blyth London art students to the exhibition: “Greg Curnoe: What About Me?” Students were given a personal tour of the exhibition by curator, Brian Lambert followed by an individualized glance at all of the pieces.

The McIntosh Gallery is Ontario's oldest university art gallery. It began with a show at the National Gallery of Canada featuring paintings by war artists. In 1959, the first exhibition of contemporary Canadian art was inaugurated, featuring pieces by Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jack Shadbolt, and Kazuo Nakamura. The following year, paintings by Edgar Degas and Marc Chagall were included in a major international show featuring Michael Snow and Gordon Rayner.

Sheila Curnoe gave McIntosh Gallery around 500 paintings by her late husband, the acclaimed London-based artist Greg Curnoe, in 2018. Many early paintings made while a student at the Ontario College of Art from 1957 to 1960 were included in the bequest. They display the unusual colour and line that would subsequently define his trademark style.