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The Group of Seven and Northern Development by Paul Walton tells the Great Transformation of Canada and related opposing viewpoints, driven by the agrarian myth and the myth of progress. It began with the acquisition of vast resource-rich areas located on the Precambrian shield (Walton, 1990). The Group of Seven were commercial artists attracted by the picturesque northern landscape and demonstrated their interest indirectly helping commerce. However, there was a certain tension between their patrons and critics, which is the article’s central theme.
The article describes a profound and disturbing viewpoint about the impossibility of understanding the relationship between wildlife, industry, and the arts. The Group’s strictest critic, Hector Charlesworth, vehemently objected to their description of the Primitive Rock and Jack Pine regions, which he believed constituted Canada’s most severe economic problem (Walton, 1990). Thus, he thought it would be the most complicated obstacle to its social and political unity. However, it was a curiously outdated point of view at that time.
The patrons’ point of view, according to the article, was that there was no need to create a gap between beauty and utility. Vincent Massey, an essential patron of the Group of Seven, expressed the view that Canada must mobilize art museums, technical schools, and universities to train industrial designers in order to compete (Walton, 1990). As a result, he said the opinion that Canada’s treasure-rich wilderness would fill art with a unique spirit, and the nation should seize these opportunities.
There was also the opinion that natural resources’ development is the primary means of creating statehood’s material basis. Arthur Lismer saw it as an activity in which the artist could draw from the full reserve of the national beauty of the North used by industry and apply his discoveries (Walton, 1990). Thus, he called to support the spiritual and aesthetic life of the inhabitants of this country.
To summarize, bringing the Group of Seven according to their patrons was interpreted in the article as creating a new alliance between art and industry. In turn, in obedience to their critics, driven by the agrarian myth, the activities of commercial artists created, in their opinion, a comforting myth of the continuing health of wildlife. Simultaneously, the author’s perspective is for better or worse, their work served as an antidote to the fear of technology.
Reference
Walton, P. (1990). The Group of Seven and Northern Development. RACAR: Revue D’art Canadienne / Canadian Art Review, 17(2), 171-208. Web.
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