EMILIA-AMALIA’s 20 Questions for the AGO

This gallery includes painting and sculpture from the 1890s to the 1920s. The works all depict women and were produced by male, European artists. How else would you describe the concerns and the constitution of the display?

Who would you consider to be the female contemporaries of these male artists?

The text panel suggests this room of the permanent collection demonstrates “changing social roles.” What are the roles for women you see depicted in these paintings, and how are they changing?

Can you describe the relationship between modernism and gender?

Art can tell us as much about the artist as it does about its subject. If this room communicates something about the status or identity of the male modern artist, what would that be?

Often we speak about the flattening effect of the “male gaze” on representations of women. How is the male gaze present in this hanging, and what is its effect on the way these women are depicted?

The exhibition is described as modernist paintings and sculptures “of women.” Presented in the adjacent gallery is a display of modernist paintings “of landscape.” What is the difference in the way these male artists approach the two subjects? What is the difference in the way that you have framed them here, as curator?

Is there a suggested connection between women’s bodies and the land as subjects of the male gaze? If so, what is the position of the viewer in being able to visually consume these two themes, side by side?

This group of works is what’s known as a “permanent collection display.” Can you describe for us what that is and how a permanent collection display comes together?

How many works by women working in the modernist period are currently in the AGO collection?

How many works by people of colour from the modernist period are currently in the AGO collection?

Do you perceive this imbalance to be something that can be redressed at this point in time, and if so, how can that be accomplished?

Can you describe some of the processes and mechanisms by which artworks are acquired by the AGO?

What are an institution’s responsibilities in terms of representation, particularly in regards to historical works and movements?

What are the limitations to an exhibition that is hung by time period or chronological order? How can these limitations be stretched and challenged?

The past cannot be changed, but our reading and presentation of it can. What is to be learned from this reading and representation of the modernist era through the AGO’s permanent collection?

How does this hanging reflect what was happening in Canada during the modernist era?

How do you expect audiences who view this gallery to react or respond to the works presented?

How can we encourage viewers to question the authority of historical artists when they are representing subjects such as women and racialized and Indigenous people through outmoded and reductive imagery?

The AGO has set for itself the goal of representing “excellence” in the visual arts. What does excellence in the arts look like to you, as a curator of modern art?