Welcome back The West Wind
Tom Thomson, The West Wind, winter, 1916–1917. Oil on canvas, 120.7 x 137.9 cm. Gift of the Canadian Club of Toronto, 1926 © 2016 Art Gallery of Ontario.
Since last September, Tom Thomson's The West Wind had been on loan to the Tom Thomson Art Gallery in Owen Sound. Luckily for AGO visitors, the painting recently returned to the Gallery’s walls and now hangs in the newly reinstalled Fudger Rotunda on Level 1 of the AGO.
Thomson’s painting was experimental for its time, with the shape of the tree and the rocks verging on abstraction. The West Wind now rests next to a contemporary work by Siksika (Blackfoot) Nation’s member Adrian Stimson, Old Sun, which sits at the centre of the Fudger Rotunda. Stimson’s work speaks to colonialism’s destructive history and there is an important reason why it’s located with The West Wind.
Renée van der Avoird, Assistant Curator, Canadian Art, recently explained why in a Facebook live about Thomson’s iconic painting.
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Looking to reconnect with The West Wind? The work is included in General Admission and AGO Members see our Collection for free.
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