The exhibition of the work of Group of Seven contemporary Fred Haines which opens in Meaford on Friday, September 10th will be the largest of its kind ever held. The exhibition will require three sites – Meaford Hall, Meaford Museum and Georgian Bay Secondary School – to display the over 90 Haines works that have been gathered from public and private owners and institutions across the province.
There isn’t much doubt that Haines, a native of Meaford who died 50 years ago, was a talented and prolific artist. However, the works on display in this large retrospective exhibition attempt to make the case that Haines was indeed one of the singular Canadian talents of the Group of Seven era.
The exhibition attempts to demonstrate not just how good he was but how multi-dimensional. It will include selections of the many media in which Haines worked - his oils and etchings, his watercolours, aquatints, pencil drawings, woodblocks, and silk screens.
The exhibition will display his various genre explorations as well – his early pastoral scenes replete with wonderful renderings of domestic animals, sheep, cattle, horses and dogs; his rural/semi-wild landscapes caught by his painter’s brush before they were irrevocably changed (see his “Don Valley” for example}; his local landscapes (“In the Beaver Valley” is an example); his elemental and evocative “Group of Seven”- style northern landscapes (“Passing Showers”, an example) ; and his masterly portraits (of Franklin Carmichael for instance).
The exhibition runs from September 10th through September 30th at the three sites. The exhibition committee has announced that, because of the support being provided by a number of local institutions, there will be no admission charge. However, a $5.00 souvenir exhibition catalogue will be on sale at the Meaford Hall site.
The exhibition begins officially on Friday, September 10 with an opening reception from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. in the galleries of Meaford Hall to which the public has been invited. Refreshments will be served.
