However by the 1930s, the Canadian press and general art community complained about the exclusive Canadian identity generated by the Group of Seven. The Group of Seven artists were from Ontario and Quebec and tended to paint these landscapes to shape their Canadian identity. Many critics argued that what emerged was not an overall Canadian identity but more of an Ontario or Quebecois variation. To appease the community, the Group of Seven expanded to include twenty-eight progressive, English-speaking artists drawn from every province by 1933, and it was renamed the Canadian Group of Painters. A more abstract approach emerged with these twenty-eight new artists. According to A. J. Casson, an editor of the magazine, Canadian Review of Music and
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The ‘boringness’ of the war was memorialized rather than forgotten like in previous generations’ war art. As naval war artist, Tom Wood, said: “War is boring. It’s routing for a soldier who in the span of weeks of tedious duty might experience a few minutes of danger and excitement.” Second World War Official War Art artists had been sent out to record the war in all its forms, which included the mundane and routine tasks usually not recorded. One of the most well-known examples of this kind of war art is Leonard Brook’s Potato Peelers (see Figure 7). Brooks, who was part of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve as a war artist, argued that the majority of the war was won by daily activities like peeling potatoes. Soldiers did not stand idly waiting for a fight; they still had daily duties and in some manner were consistently contributing something to the war effort. Potato Peelers paints two sailors in wool toques and life vests, peeling potatoes. While the sea in the background appears calm in the painting, the clouds foretell a storm and Brooks’ color palette makes the painting appear cold. The detail in this painting is an accurate record of the average experience of a Canadian sailor, even going farther as to specify a particular soldier with his identification number: RCN L42310. Brooks painted exactly what he saw and gave his own interpretation of what the Second World War meant to him and to some extent, to the navy. The war resulted in new experiences for Canadians, even mundane experiences. To provide an accurate representation of the Second World War, all of reality had to be
The ‘boringness’ of the war was memorialized rather than forgotten like in previous generations’ war art. As naval war artist, Tom Wood, said: “War is boring. It’s routing for a soldier who in the span of weeks of tedious duty might experience a few minutes of danger and excitement.” Second World War Official War Art artists had been sent out to record the war in all its forms, which included the mundane and routine tasks usually not recorded. One of the most well-known examples of this kind of war art is Leonard Brook’s Potato Peelers (see Figure 7). Brooks, who was part of the Royal Canadian Naval Volunteer Reserve as a war artist, argued that the majority of the war was won by daily activities like peeling potatoes. Soldiers did not stand idly waiting for a fight; they still had daily duties and in some manner were consistently contributing something to the war effort. Potato Peelers paints two sailors in wool toques and life vests, peeling potatoes. While the sea in the background appears calm in the painting, the clouds foretell a storm and Brooks’ color palette makes the painting appear cold. The detail in this painting is an accurate record of the average experience of a Canadian sailor, even going farther as to specify a particular soldier with his identification number: RCN L42310. Brooks painted exactly what he saw and gave his own interpretation of what the Second World War meant to him and to some extent, to the navy. The war resulted in new experiences for Canadians, even mundane experiences. To provide an accurate representation of the Second World War, all of reality had to be