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2. Background

2.1. About the Exhibition

Scheduled for presentation at the War Museum between May 2024 and January 2025, Outside the Lines (working title) brings together works by Canadian women war artists from the 19th century to the present day, exploring the influences and experiences that helped shape their work. The exhibition delves into these artists’ perspectives of conflict, linking their personal stories to the works of art they created.

Curated largely from the War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, the exhibition features a broad range of historical and contemporary women artists from across the country, including Henrietta Mabel May, Molly Lamb Bobak, Pegi Nicol MacLeod, Paraskeva Clark, Joyce Wieland, Shelley Niro, Rosalie Favell, and Gertrude Kearns.

Key exhibition messages:

War art by women is a window onto their experiences and perspectives of conflict.

  • The artists reflect different perspectives on war and Canada’s military history, influenced by their own experiences and identities.
  • Because of their gender, women artists experienced war in a distinct way, especially during earlier periods. This is reflected in their art.
  • The artists produced their works within the context of the times in which they lived. Through their work, we can trace shifts in Canada’s military history.

Major exhibition themes:

  • Voices from silent to loud, and invisibility to being seen: The perspectives of early women war artists were often ignored or overlooked. This changed over time, and the voices of contemporary artists are strong and vocal, and often disrupt how we think about war and conflict.
  • Distanced perspectives to highly personal perspectives: Early women artists were often observers and outsiders. They had little influence on the conflicts through which they lived, but could communicate their relationships and reactions to war through their art. This evolved over the decades, and today’s artists often take a highly personal approach to their art, frequently incorporating their personal histories in their work.
  • Changes and contrasts evoked through war art over time: What these works of art depict has also shifted over time. The people, events, conflicts and messages in these works tell us about historical change, allowing us to compare and contrast how conflict is portrayed in art.

    • The exhibition takes a chronological approach and is divided into four main content zones:

    • Early Women Artists (1800s)
    • Artists of the World Wars (1914–1945)
    • Cold War Artists (1946–1994)
    • Contemporary Artists (1995–2024)

    2.2. About the Canadian War Museum

    The Canadian War Museum is Canada’s national museum of military history. Administered by the Canadian Museum of History, the War Museum brings Canada’s military history to life through thousands of personal stories, objects, works of art, photographs, interactive presentations, and immersive environments.

    The War Museum’s collections are among the finest military holdings in the world, comprising rare vehicles, artillery, uniforms, medals, small arms, and rare books and archives, as well as the outstanding Beaverbrook Collection of War Art.

    2.3. About the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art

    The War Museum’s Beaverbrook Collection of War Art consists of over 13,000 paintings, drawings, sculptures, and other works of art. This internationally renowned collection presents a vivid visual depiction of notable military events that were often based on, or inspired by, the artist’s personal experience. The collection includes items created by individuals to guide, mark, remember, and celebrate the people and places encountered during conflict. The collection contains both completed works of art and preparatory sketches and drawings.

    Several important and celebrated artists from Canada are represented in the Beaverbrook Collection of War Art, such as Frances Loring, Florence Wyle, Molly Lamb Bobak, Henrietta Mabel May, Alex Colville, and four original members of the Group of Seven who were official war artists during the First World War (A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, and Frank Johnston). In addition, the collection houses works created by non-official war artists who were regular military personnel, or civilians.