Women Artists And The 1944 Canadianarmy Art Exhibition

摘要

In 1944, the Canadian Army held an art exhibition in Ottawa. Among the 33 exhibitors were five women: Cathryne Blackley, Beulah Jaenicke, Molly Lamb, H. E. Herbert, and Mary Wilson. Lamb went on to a stellar career but no trace of Wilson or Herbert or their exhibited paintings has yet been found. Unknown and invisible for more than 60 years, Beulah Jaenicke and Cathryne Blackley recently donated their war-related work to the Canadian War Museum. Why has it taken so long for their work to resurface? By exploring the circumstances that lie behind these artists' presence in the exhibition, their subject selection, their artworks' reception, and their own attitudes to their work at the time and after I hope to shed light on the relationship of women and art during the Second World War.