First exhibition in 40 years features oil paintings, watercolours, and paper collages drawn from artist’s family, AGO collection, and Guggenheim Museum
Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum opens Saturday, February 28 at 2 p.m. with remarks and live music
TORONTO — Long before abstract painting was commonplace in Canada, Edna Taçon’s luminous paintings, collages and watercolours were dazzling audiences and critics alike in New York and Toronto. This winter, the Art Gallery of Ontario pays homage to this under-recognized Canadian artist with a vibrant solo exhibition of rarely-seen works. Opening February 28, 2026, Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum is curated by the AGO’s Associate Curator of Canadian Art Renée van der Avoird, and highlights Taçon’s work throughout the 1940s, the decade in which she exhibited widely and received acclaim for her stunningly imaginative paintings.
On view in Galleries 140 & 141, Verve and Decorum is the first exhibition in 40 years to consider Taçon’s work, and brings together works from the artist’s family, the AGO, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, Robert McLaughlin Gallery, private lenders and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. The Edward P. Taylor Library & Archive at the AGO is home to Tacon’s archive, and the exhibition illuminates aspects of her personal life through sketches, correspondence, and photographs of the artist.
Born in Milwaukee and raised in Ontario, Taçon (1905–1980) earned renown as a concert violinist before pursuing a career in art. For Toronto audiences of the 1940s, her intimately scaled, carefully plotted compositions were radical for their reliance on flowing line, abstract shapes, and vibrant, blended colouration. Unlike other abstract artists of the era, her works were not inspired by nature but instead came entirely from her imagination. The influence of other non-objective artists like Wassily Kandinsky and Kazimir Malevich can be detected in Taçon’s work: geometric forms, invented shapes, and colour that she described as “a means of expressing the inner life—call it soul, spirit, or mind...all conditions and outbursts of the soul.”
Many of Taçon’s titles reference music, and in describing her work she often used the allegory of music, especially when explaining concepts of non-objective art. “Just as an orchestra produces a symphony through sound,” Taçon told Toronto’s Evening Telegram in 1941, “non-objective art produces a symphony through colour.”
In early paper collage works like Primavera (1940), Taçon balances delicate floating forms of metallic and matte paper to evoke gentle movement. Fleeing (1946), one of her most colour-saturated canvases, reflects Taçon’s evolution through the decade towards more emotional, organic imagery.
In 1941, Taçon became the first artist to present an exhibition of non-objective art in Canada, precipitating a Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation Scholarship, which allowed her to work and exhibit in group shows at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum). The museum subsequently acquired five of her artworks, two of which Untitled (1941) and Swinging (1945) are featured in the exhibition. Throughout the 1940s, she moved between New York and Toronto exhibiting at the Hamilton Women's Art Association and The Art Gallery of Toronto (now Art Gallery of Ontario). In 1947, the AGO acquired Improvisation No. 2, an intimate watercolour, that solidified the artist’s relationship with the Gallery. After 1948, Taçon stepped back from the artworld.
“The foremost non-objective painter in Canada during the middle of the 20th century, over the course of a decade Taçon created a singular body of work that feels incredibly contemporary today,” says van der Avoird. “She was the movement’s biggest proponent in Canada, and her work demands greater recognition in the development of modernism in Canada. I am grateful to her family for so generously sharing both art works and archives with us and am excited to reintroduce this long-overlooked artist to our public.”
Launching in tandem with the exhibition comes Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum, a 128-page catalogue published by Goose Lane Editions. Featuring texts and interviews by Renée van der Avoird and Carl Taçon, Verve & Decorum arrives this February at the AGO’s Shop for $45 CAD.
Admission to the AGO is always free for Ontarians under 25, Indigenous Peoples, AGO Members, and Annual Passholders. For more information on how to become a Member or Annual Passholder, visit ago.ca/membership/become-a-member.
Programming Highlights:
- On Saturday, February 28, at 2 p.m., join Renée van der Avoird, AGO Associate Curator of Canadian Art, for the opening celebration of Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum, an exhibition of artworks by one of Canada’s foremost non-objective painters. Free with General Admission. For more details, visit ago.ca/events/edna-tacon-verve-and-decorum-public-opening.
- Make something artful this March Break, as the AGO celebrates the return of half-day family workshops. From March 17 through 21, children and their guardians, age 2 to 10 can explore Making Together: Abstract Art, a hands-on introduction inspired by the exhibition Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum. All materials are included. For more details and pricing, visit ago.ca/learn/courses/making-together-abstract-art-0.
Edna Taçon: Verve & Decorum is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts
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ABOUT EDNA TAÇON
American-born and raised in Canada, Edna Taçon (1905–1980) was a trained violinist who considered music and abstraction as similarly intuitive and creative pursuits and wrote about the “sublime summit” attainable by both. She exhibited her collages and paintings throughout the 1940s, splitting her time between Toronto and New York. She was a member of the Ontario Society of Artists and the Canadian Group of Painters. Today, her work can be found in the collections of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa.
ABOUT THE AGO
Located in Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, attracting approximately one million visitors annually. The AGO Collection of more than 120,000 works of art ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art to significant works by Indigenous and Canadian artists and European masterpieces. The AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, including solo exhibitions and acquisitions by diverse and underrepresented artists from around the world. The AGO is embarking on the seventh expansion it has undertaken since the museum was founded in 1900. When completed, the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery will increase exhibition space for the museum’s growing modern and contemporary collection. With its groundbreaking Annual Pass program, the AGO is one of the most affordable and accessible attractions in the GTA. Visit ago.ca to learn more.
The AGO is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Gaming. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts, and generous contributions from AGO Members, donors, and private-sector partners.
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