Isaacs Seen: Closet Collector
| Date | May 19, 2005 - Sep 4, 2005 |
|---|---|
| Curated by | Megan Bice |
Exhibition Overview
When Avrom Isaacs closed The Isaacs Gallery in 1990, he realized he had been a “closet collector of textiles.” The works in this exhibition were drawn from his personal collection, including those by Dennis Burton, Jessie Oonark and Joyce Wieland. Isaacs professes an enduring love of all things woven, dyed, beaded and embroidered. This 2005 exhibition examines Isaacs’s fascination with textiles from around the world.
Additional Information
The Textile Museum of Canada partnered with three Toronto public galleries to present Isaacs Seen - four interconnected exhibitions illustrating the career of Toronto pioneer art dealer and avid collector, Avrom Isaacs. The interrelationship of artist, dealer, promoter and collector, as well as Isaacs's impact on Toronto and Canadian art history, was demonstrated in this collaboration by the University of Toronto Art Centre; the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery; Hart House at the University of Toronto; the Art Gallery of Ontario, and; the Textile Museum of Canada. These four exhibitions ran concurrently from mid-May to September 2005. At the Textile Museum,Closet Collectorexamined Isaacs's fascination with textiles from around the world, including artworks by Dennis Burton, Jessie Oonark and Joyce Wieland.
Avrom Isaacs professes an enduring love of all things woven, dyed, beaded and embroidered. When closing out The Isaacs Gallery in 1990, he realized that he had been a “closet collector of textiles.” He has commented that the sight of First Nations deerskin robes alerted him to his own mistaken preconceptions about what constituted art. He came to understand that art knows no boundaries and is revealed through everyday, functional objects. The colour, design, technique and craftsmanship of textiles from around the world mirror the cultures from which they came, as much as traditionally defined “fine arts” reflect their times and makers.
Over the years, Isaacs's gallery programs incorporated exhibitions of textiles from around the world. The programs emerged in a number of ways; by happenstance, when a stranger offered a group of exquisitely embroidered women's tunics purchased in Baluchistan; by intent, when artists such as Joyce Wieland and Jessie Oonark chose the medium of thread and fabric, and; by a simple love of what people make, exemplified by the delicate workmanship of a woman's beaded headdress from Siberia.
The works in this exhibition were drawn from Isaacs's personal collection; items he has donated to the Textile Museum over the years and memorable pieces that passed through his gallery to private hands. The exhibition presents an overview of Isaacs's enduring passion for textile arts. Closet Collector's variety is wide-ranging in purpose, technique, place and time. Its commonality rests in Isaacs's personal, appreciative eye, and in the individualism of the hand of the maker. Isaacs Seen was accompanied by a 176-page illustrated scrapbook titled, Isaacs Seen: 50 Years on the Art Front, compiled and edited by Donnalu Wigmore, co-published by The Justina M. Barnicke Gallery, Hart House, the Textile Museum of Canada, the University of Toronto Art Centre and the Art Gallery of Ontario. The publication includes contributions by Megan Bice, Sarah Milroy and Dennis Reid, as well as reminiscences by Dennis Burton, Martha Black, Robert Fulford, Pam Gibson, David Silcox, Donnalu Wigmore and others. Entries by Avrom Isaacs are found throughout the scrapbook.
Isaacs Seen: Closet Collector
By Megan Bice, 2005
The Textile Museum of Canada is partnering with three fellow public institutions to present Isaacs Seen - four interconnected exhibitions illustrating the career of pioneer art dealer and avid collector, Avrom Isaacs, and his impact on the Canadian art scene.
For five decades, The Isaacs Gallery showcased textiles and folk art and hosted poetry readings and performance art. Experimental and avant-garde film screenings were regular events, and Isaacs oversaw the production of a multitude of fine-art catalogues, artists' prints, poetry books and albums. In 1970, Isaacs opened the Innuit Gallery of Eskimo Art, the first venue in Canada devoted exclusively to Inuit art. It became the Isaacs/Innuit Gallery in 1991, and featured early North American aboriginal art until it closed in 2001.
In post-World War II decades, in which The Isaacs Gallery and The Innuit Gallery flourished, fresh artistic attitudes were formed. Sometimes these attitudes arose in reaction to the well-established traditions of Canadian landscape painting; sometimes in an embrace of international approaches such as abstraction, and; sometimes in exploration of new and non-traditional media such as modern fiberglass, or the age-old genres of folk art and fibre work. Isaacs centred his galleries on Canadian art, but he has also described himself as a "wanderer, just going in directions that present themselves."
His wanderings have taken him physically and imaginatively to both nearby and far-off places, leaving him open to the new and the diverse. He supported artists' experiments with untried media and championed the images and craftsmanship of cultures previously unknown to him. He acknowledges a moment of self-discovery while visiting New York's Museum of the American Indian in 1962, when he recognized that "Art can appear in many guises."
Over the years his gallery programs incorporated exhibitions of textiles from around the world. The programs emerged in a number of ways; by happenstance, when a stranger offered a group of exquisitely embroidered women's tunics purchased in Baluchistan; by intent, when artists such as Joyce Wieland and Jessie Oonark chose the medium of thread and fabric, and; by a simple love of what people make, exemplified by the delicate workmanship of a woman's beaded headdress from Siberia. On closing out his Yonge Street gallery in 1990, Isaacs recognized, somewhat to his surprise, that he had become a "closet collector of textiles."
The works in this exhibition are drawn from Isaacs's personal collection; items he has donated to the Textile Museum and memorable pieces that passed through his gallery to private hands. The exhibition presents an overview of Isaacs's enduring passion for textile arts. Closet Collector's variety is wide-ranging in purpose, technique, place and time. Its commonality rests in Isaacs's personal, appreciative eye, and in the individualism of the hand of the maker.
Isaacs Seen is accompanied by a 176-page illustrated publication edited by Donnalu Wigmore, titled Isaacs Seen: 50 Years on the Art Front, which includes contributions by Megan Bice, Sarah Milroy and Dennis Reid, as well as reminiscences by Dennis Burton, Martha Black, Robert Fulford, David Silcox, Donnalu Wigmore and many others. Entries by Avrom Isaacs are found throughout the scrapbook.
Quotations
- Avrom Isaacs (on seeing traditional First Nations clothing at New York's Museum of the American Indian in 1962)
- Avrom Isaacs
- Avrom Isaacs
© 2007 Textile Museum of Canada
