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58-690: Plans to create a new art museum in Saskatoon emerged after plans to renovate the Mendel Art Gallery were abandoned in 2009. The new art museum was formally incorporated on 9 July 2009 as the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan . In 2016, the institution was rebranded as Remai Modern by the Saskatoon City Council; after Saskatoon-based entrepreneur and philanthropist Ellen Remai announced a donation of CA$ 30 million on behalf of

116-498: A Sotheby's auction for $ 1.38 million. It had been stored in a backroom closet of a Toronto hospital for years and was almost forgotten about until cleaning staff found it. On May 23, 2007, Pine Tree and Red House, Winter, City Painting II by Harris came up for auction by Heffel Gallery in Vancouver, BC. The painting was a stunning canvas from 1924 that was estimated to sell between $ 800,000 and $ 1,200,000. The painting sold for

174-576: A gold medal at Sesquicentennial International Exposition of Philadelphia. In 1931, he won the Baltimore Museum of Art prize in the first Baltimore Pan-American Exhibition of Contemporary Paintings. In 1946, Harris was awarded an honorary degree from the University of British Columbia . He received an L.L.D. from the University of Toronto in 1951. In 1953, he received an L.L. D. from the University of Manitoba , Winnipeg. In 1961, he received

232-697: A new art museum at the River Landing location. The art museum was formally incorporated on 9 July 2009 as the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan Inc. The new art museum is not considered a direct continuation of the Mendel Art Gallery, although it did inherit its permanent collection after its closure in June 2015. The assets of the Mendel Art Gallery were split between the City of Saskatoon government and

290-705: A new art museum. The Mendel Art Gallery was closed on 7 June 2015, with its assets divided between the City of Saskatoon government and the new art museum. The permanent collection of the Mendel Art Gallery was transferred to the new art museum, the Remai Modern , after its opening in October 2017. The Mendel Art Gallery grew out of the Saskatoon Art Centre, which opened in 1944 in the Standard Trust Building and moved several times,

348-422: A period of experimentation, from 1936 on, Harris enthusiastically embraced abstract painting. When asked in 1937 by Emily Carr to describe his recent work, Harris wrote: Well, they are all different and yet alike—some more abstract than others—some verging on the representational—one never knows where the specific work in hand will lead. I try always to keep away from the representational however—for it seems

406-604: A record-breaking $ 2,875,000 (premium included). On November 24, 2008, Harris's Nerke, Greenland painting sold at a Toronto auction for $ 2 million (four times the pre-sale estimate). On November 26, 2009, Harris's oil sketch, The Old Stump , sold for $ 3.51 million at an auction in Toronto. In May 2010, Harris's painting, Bylot Island I , sold for $ 2.8 million at a Heffel Gallery auction in Vancouver , British Columbia. On November 26, 2015, his painting Mountain and Glacier

464-734: A travelling exhibition of Harris’ work, The Idea of North: The Paintings of Lawren Harris , curated by Steve Martin , opened at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California. In 2016, a film about Harris's life, Where the Universe Sings , was produced by TV Ontario . It was created by filmmaker Peter Raymont and directed by Nancy Lang. In 2017, guest curators Roald Nasgaard and Gwendolyn Owens, organized an exhibition titled Higher States: Lawren S. Harris and his North American Contemporaries , comprising some seventy paintings at

522-622: Is a solar shading device and provides a shadowing effect on the building as the sun arcs through the sky. The design of the copper patina was inspired by the roof of the Delta Bessborough , a hotel located nearby along the South Saskatchewan River. The building takes up approximately 11,582 square metres (124,670 sq ft) of space, and is made up of approximately four floors, and an underground parkade . Approximately 1,100 metric tons (1,200 short tons) of steel

580-641: The Arts and Letters Club of Toronto which he joined in 1909, making friends with journalist Roy Mitchell , another early member. In 1910, he became interested in philosophy and Eastern thought, likely through Mitchell, and began discussing Theosophy seriously (although it was not until 1924 that he formally joined the Toronto Lodge of the International Theosophical Society). From 1910 to 1918, he focused in his painting on

638-621: The Berlin Secession and a comprehensive review of 19th century German art. In 1908 he travelled to Austria, Italy, France and England before returning to Toronto. He brought back an influence not only from his teachers but from the Secessionist movement he had encountered in Berlin. Through his reading and teachers, he may also have learned about Theosophy . In Toronto, to which he returned in 1908, Harris found friends through

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696-716: The Canada Council medal for 1961. In 1969, he was given a Medal from the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts . In 1970, he was made a Companion of the Order of Canada , conferred posthumously. Harris has been designated as an Historic Person in the Directory of Federal Heritage Designations. On January 20, 1910, Harris married Beatrice (Trixie) Phillips. The couple had three children: Lawren P. Harris , Margaret Anne Harris, and Howard K. Harris, all born in

754-762: The Group of Seven . After disbanding of the Group of Seven in 1933, Harris and the other surviving members, were instrumental in forming its successor the Canadian Group of Painters . Harris served as its first president. In 1938, he helped organize the Transcendental Group of Painters in the United States. In 1941, he was a founder of the Federation of Canadian Artists , founded in Toronto and President (1944-1947). In 1926, his work won

812-916: The International Exhibition of Modern Art organized by the Société Anonyme (of which he was a member) and shown at the Brooklyn Museum in New York: he helped bring the show to Toronto in 1927. In 1934, he painted his first abstract pictures, which depended partly on his desire to express ideas of the spirit, partly on his earlier landscapes of Lake Superior, the Rocky Mountains and the Arctic. In these years, he moved to Hanover, New Hampshire in 1934, then Santa Fe, New Mexico in 1938 and finally, Vancouver in 1940. After

870-568: The McMichael Canadian Art Collection . It featured works by Canadian and American contemporaries of Harris' such as Bertram Brooker , Emily Carr , Lionel LeMoine FitzGerald , Arthur Dove , Georgia O'Keeffe , Raymond Jonson , Emil Bisttram and Marsden Hartley . In 1981, South Shore, Baffin Island was sold for $ 240,000, a record price for a Canadian painting. On May 29, 2001, Harris's Baffin Island painting

928-511: The SS. Beothic, for two months, during which time he completed over 50 sketches. The resulting Arctic canvases that he developed from the oil panels marked the end of his landscape period. Harris's artistic career was one of constant exploration. He was the only member of the Group of Seven to align himself with European and American forms of Modernism. He always had been deeply interested in developments in modern art. In 1926, he represented Canada in

986-607: The 10th Royal Grenadiers and served as a Musketry Instructional Officer at Camp Borden until May 1918 when he was medically discharged, suffering a nervous breakdown. In 1918 and 1919, Harris financed boxcar trips for the artists of the later Group of Seven to the Algoma region, traveling along the Algoma Central Railway and painting in areas such as the Montreal River and Agawa Canyon. His work showed

1044-581: The 1950s, he painted his version of abstract expressionism . In 1954, in a separate publication that developed from his earlier essay on abstraction, he praised abstraction, writing: ...(in abstract art), we have a creative adventure in harmony with the highest aspiration and search for truth, beauty and expressive evocation and communication in our own day". In May 1920, Harris, J. E. H. MacDonald , and Franklin Carmichael , A. Y. Jackson , Frank Johnston , Arthur Lismer , and Frederick Varley , formed

1102-510: The 2011 Canadian Architect Award of Excellence. The opening date was originally to be 2015 but was later postponed to 2017. The decision to close the Mendel Gallery and replace it, which superseded earlier plans for expansion, was controversial. Former mayor Henry Dayday called for a plebiscite on the new gallery, and made it part of his short-lived bid for re-election in 2012. The gallery closed its doors on June 7, 2015, to begin

1160-670: The Albright Gallery (today, the Albright-Knox Gallery ) in 1913. Seeing it, they realized that they too could create a landscape art that was distinctly Canadian and modern. In 1913, Harris took the first step that would cement a group of like minded artists together in Canadian art, by inviting A. Y. Jackson , then in Montreal, to Toronto. The following year, he and his friend Dr. James MacCallum , financed

1218-467: The Art Gallery of Saskatchewan following the Mendel's closure. In 2011, lead patron Ellen Remai donated $ 15 million toward construction costs of a new art museum, $ 15 million to support international exhibition programs, and also donated the most comprehensive collection of Picasso linocuts to the future art museum's permanent collection. As a result of the donation, the museum announced it was rebranding as

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1276-562: The Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation to fund the construction and programming for the museum. Construction for the art museum took place from June 2013 to 2017, and was opened to the public in October 2017. The museum's permanent collection features over 8,000 works from Canadian and international artists. Its collection includes the collection of the former Mendel Art Gallery; and a collection of more than 400 linocuts and ceramics by Pablo Picasso. In addition to exhibiting works from its collection,

1334-546: The Massey firm in 1891, forming the Massey-Harris Company, later known as Massey Ferguson . Lawren Harris's share of the fortune that resulted made him free from financial cares the rest of his life. Although born to wealth, he was an individual who made his own path in his own individual way. In 1894, his father died and the family moved to Toronto. In 1899, he began to board at St. Andrew's College , which

1392-639: The Mendel Art Gallery decided to replace the building, which had come to be too small and needed expensive upgrades, with a larger facility on a different site. A new gallery, associated with the Remai Arts Centre , was opened at River Landing, in south downtown Saskatoon, named the Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan for the Frank and Ellen Remai Foundation, the major donors. The design, by Kuwabara Payne McKenna Blumberg Architects and Smith Carter Architects and Engineers, won

1450-544: The Mendel's sister institution, the Saskatoon Civic Conservatory. In 1999, it was the 16th largest public art gallery in Canada by budget size and had the sixth highest overall attendance in the country. By 2010, it had more than 180,000 visitors. Plans to expand the Mendel Art Gallery began in the 2000s, although they were later abandoned by the City of Saskatoon government in favour of establishing

1508-524: The Province of Saskatchewan. In 1965 he also donated 15 works by the Group of Seven which became the nucleus of the permanent collection. The modernist building, which opened on October 16, 1964, was designed by the Winnipeg architectural firm Blankstein, Coop, Gillmor and Hanna of Winnipeg (now numberTEN architectural group), led by partner-in-charge Al Hanna and design architect Doug Gillmor, who won

1566-535: The Remai Art Gallery of Saskatchewan. The inaugural director and CEO of the museum, Gregory Burke , was appointed in May 2013. Construction for the museum building began on 7 June 2013. Funding to build the museum building came from the federal, provincial, and municipal governments, as well as private donors. The federal government contributed $ 13,020,000; the provincial government contributed $ 16,744,000, and

1624-575: The Remai Modern after it receives "Category A" status from Heritage Canada . An area of the museum's permanent collection is the Picasso collection, featuring ceramics and linocuts by Pablo Picasso . In 2012 Ellen Remai donated 405 Picasso linocuts to the museum. Valued at $ 20 million in 2012, the linocut collection is the world's largest collection of Picasso works in this medium, representing 194 out of 197 subjects known to exist. In addition to

1682-535: The Remai Modern's permanent collection includes Rebecca Belmore , Eli Bornstein , Georges Braque , Stan Douglas , Brian Jungen , Jimmie Durham and Haegue Yang . The Mendel collection, now known as the Mendel Art Gallery Collection at Remai Modern, was the permanent collection of the former Mendel Art Gallery and was inherited by Remai Modern. The Mendel collection includes the historical works in Remai Modern's collection, with most of

1740-633: The United States. In 1940 they moved to Vancouver, British Columbia . Bess died in 1969. Harris died in Vancouver in 1970. His ashes and those of Bess are buried on the grounds of the McMichael Canadian Art Collection , Kleinburg. In Toronto, a park in Rosedale at 145 Rosedale Valley Road was named for him. A solo exhibition of Lawren Harris was shown in the United States at the Americas Society Art Gallery in New York. In 2015,

1798-557: The beginning of Harris' mountain subjects, which he continued to explore with annual sketching trips until 1928, exploring areas around Banff National Park , Yoho National Park and Mount Robson Provincial Park . In 1930, Harris went on his last extended sketching trip, travelling to Greenland, the Canadian Arctic and Labrador aboard the Royal Canadian Mounted Police supply ship and ice breaker,

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1856-400: The board while an independent third-party review was performed. In January 2016, the third-party review found Gormley was not in breach of the Remai Modern's code of conduct. On April 12, 2016 Gormley resigned from the Remai Modern board of directors. In June 2016, the museum rebranded again as Remai Modern, with the museum's logo stylized as "rRemai mModern". Karlssonwilker was contracted by

1914-499: The building, and its walls being made of glass and overlooking the South Saskatchewan River. The main atrium also features a communal fireplace. The building includes eleven galleries dedicated to exhibiting artworks. The building also includes an in-house cafe, community atrium, a restaurant, a retail store, two learning studios, a 150-seat theatre, rental spaces, a rooftop patio, and a lounge. As of December 2020, Remai Modern had over 8,000 works in its permanent collection when including

1972-608: The construction of a Studio Building in Toronto which provided artists, among them Tom Thomson , with an inexpensive space to work. In 1915, Harris fixed up a shack behind the Studio Building for Thomson whose art and dedication to his career proved inspirational for Harris. In March 1916, Harris enlisted in the Canadian Army for service in the First World War . He was appointed a Lieutenant attached to

2030-473: The design contest. The Civic Conservatory was built as part of the same project, at the suggestion of the then mayor, S. L. Buckwold. The building was extended in 1975. On September 18, 2006, the gallery suffered smoke and water damage from an early morning fire in the loading dock area. It reopened nine weeks later with increased focus on national and international art. In 2009, the Board of Trustees of

2088-483: The discovery of Lake Superior as a source of subject material meant the depiction of features of the landscape in light over a vast body of water to compose a "sublime order", as described by Jackson. Harris conveyed the spiritual side to the scene through a more austere, stylized style, with a limited palette. In 1924, a sketching trip with Jackson to Jasper National Park in the Canadian Rockies marked

2146-481: The effect of such trips: he began sketching in oil en plein air as a regular practice and used the sketches as a guide in constructing his major canvases. In May 1920, Harris, J. E. H. MacDonald , and Franklin Carmichael , A. Y. Jackson , Frank Johnston , Arthur Lismer , and Frederick Varley , formed the Group of Seven . In the fall of 1921, Harris in the company of Jackson ventured beyond Algoma to Lake Superior 's North Shore, where he would return annually for

2204-468: The first decade of their marriage. Harris later fell in love with Bess , the wife of his school-time friend, F.B. Housser, but divorce was seen at the time as causing an outrage, particularly for a man as socially prominent as Harris. Harris eventually left his wife of 24 years, Trixie, and married Bess Housser in 1934. He was threatened with charges of bigamy by Trixie’s family because of his actions. Later that year he and Bess left their home and moved to

2262-437: The further I can keep away and into abstract idiom the more expressive the things become—yet one has in mind and heart the informing spirit of great Nature. In time, he left all reference to landscape behind, and his work underwent changes towards a more organic form. He wrote about the path an abstract artist took from representation to abstraction to become fully abstract in an Essay on Abstract Painting published in 1949. In

2320-406: The last time in 1963 to a back room on Fourth Avenue North. It was endowed by Frederick "Fred" Salomon Mendel , a refugee from Nazism who founded Intercontinental Packers (now Mitchell's Gourmet Foods, a unit of Maple Leaf Foods ) and announced in 1960 that in celebration of his 20th anniversary in Saskatoon, he would give the city money to establish a public art museum. His gift was matched by

2378-590: The linocuts, the collection features 23 Picasso ceramics, donated to the museum by Frederick Mulder in 2014. He also donated an additional linocut subject to the museum at that time. Remai Modern offers a variety of programming. In addition to the permanent collection and rotating exhibitions on display, the museum screens films, hosts talks, runs art programs for students and visitors, and offers offsite art programs. The museum also presents live performance art programs including dance, sound, music and other live media. A variety of online programming can also be viewed on

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2436-464: The municipal government contributed $ 30,287,000. The final budget approved to build the museum was $ 84,634,160, with the remaining $ 24,095,160 collected through fundraisers and private donors. The museum was later rebranded as Remai Modern Art Gallery of Saskatchewan in April 2014. In doing so, it became the first art museum in Canada to brand themselves specifically for modern art. During construction for

2494-621: The museum building had exceeded the approved budget by $ 2.5-$ 4 million, due to delays relating to drawing corrections and clarifications. The museum property is situated in River Landing, a development area of the Saskatoon's Central Business District , and is positioned in an area that overlooks a bend in the South Saskatchewan River . The design for the museum building was by Bruce Kuwabara of KPMB Architects , in association with architectural firm Architecture49. EllisDon

2552-455: The museum building, the museum's Board of Directors became the subject of controversy. In December 2015, local artists submitted a letter to the Remai Modern's board requesting the removal of board member, John Gormley . In the letter, the artists referred to a Twitter post made by Gormley suggesting violence against Muslims in the wake of the November 2015 Paris attacks . Gormley remained on

2610-440: The museum for $ 90,000 to design the museum's logo, website, and other merchandise. Although the institution's rebranding saw "Art Gallery of Saskatchewan" omitted from its name, the museum remains formally incorporated as the Art Gallery of Saskatchewan Inc., under the province's Non-profit Corporations Act . A civic ceremony to open the museum was held on 21 October 2017, which featured First Nations and Métis performances. On

2668-554: The museum organizes exhibitions and hosts a number of travelling exhibitions . Plans to develop a modern and contemporary art museum began in the late 2000s and early 2010s. These plans originated from expansion and moving plans of the former Mendel Art Gallery , which announced its intention to move to the River Landing development in April 2009. However, in November 2009, the city council of Saskatoon voted to establish

2726-460: The museum's website and through their social media channels. Mendel Art Gallery The Mendel Art Gallery was a major creative cultural centre in City Park , Saskatoon , Saskatchewan . Operating from 1964 to 2015, it housed a permanent collection of more than 7,500 works of art. The gallery was managed by the city-owned Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation, which also managed

2784-468: The next seven years. They took the Algoma Central Railway north to Franz, where they caught the Canadian Pacific train travelling west. Harris would return to paint and draw on the north shore of Lake Superior almost every October until 1928. While his urban and Algoma paintings of the late 1910s and early 1920s were characterized by rich, bright colours and decorative compositional motifs,

2842-420: The same day, Remai Modern opened its first exhibition, Field Guide . The museum-spanning exhibition included select works from the museum's contemporary collection, as well as the 13 works donated by Fred Mendel that formed the basis of the Mendel Art Gallery, including works by Lawren Harris , Emily Carr and David Milne . Shortly after the museum opened, the City of Saskatoon was informed that construction for

2900-636: The transition to the Remai Modern . The City of Saskatoon approved plans for the Children's Discovery Museum to move into the Mendel Art Gallery Building after the new art gallery opens. In early 2019 the Children's Discovery Museum was rebranded as the Nutrien Wonderhub and opened in the old gallery's space in June 2019. Lawren Harris Lawren Stewart Harris CC LL. D. (October 23, 1885 – January 29, 1970)

2958-526: The urban landscape of Toronto, featuring a significantly brightened palette, an attention to light, and a layered development of space in order to convey a sense of place. In 1911, he met and became friends with J. E. H. MacDonald who was exhibiting sketches in the clubroom of the Club. Harris and MacDonald went on sketching trips and together visited the exhibition of contemporary Scandinavian art in Buffalo at

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3016-526: The works dating back to the early 20th century. The Mendel collection has 7,700 works by artists including Emily Carr , Lawren Harris , Cornelius Krieghoff , and murals by William Perehudoff . Works from the Mendel collection have been exhibited at the museum since its opening in October 2017. As of March 2019, the Mendel collection formally remains in the possession of the Saskatoon Gallery and Conservatory Corporation, and will be transferred to

3074-420: The works from the former Mendel Art Gallery. Acquisitions for the Remai Modern's permanent collection began in 2014, with modern and contemporary artworks being the primary focus of the museum's collecting efforts. The majority of the works in the museum's collection were acquired through donations, although the museum has also purchased works directly from the artist or vendor. Artists whose works are featured in

3132-540: Was a Canadian painter , best known as one of the founding members of the Group of Seven . He played a key role as a catalyst in Canadian art, as a visionary in Canadian landscape art and in the development of modern art in Canada. Harris was born on October 23, 1885, in Brantford , Ontario . He was the son of Thomas Morgan Harris and Annabelle Stewart. His father was secretary to the firm of A. Harris, Sons & Company Ltd., merchants of farm machinery, which merged with

3190-435: Was contracted to construct the museum building. The building's design is influenced by Frank Lloyd Wright 's Prairie style . The design of the building's exterior was based on region's open prairie landscape, and the barns, field sheds, and silos that occupy that space. The exterior features cantilevered stacks that extend towards the South Saskatchewan River; and its glass and copper mesh exterior. The exterior steel mesh

3248-639: Was located in Rosedale in Toronto at the time, then in 1903 attended University College at the University of Toronto . From 1904 to 1908 he studied in Berlin under Adolf Schlabitz , Franz Skarbina , and most likely Fritz von Wille , gaining an academic foundation similar to that which was offered by the Paris academies. Harris stayed in Berlin for three years, learning about Impressionism and Post-Impressionism as well as seeing exhibitions of German and European modern art. Among these exhibitions were several of

3306-404: Was sold for a record of $ 2.2 million (record up to that time). Before the auction, experts predicted the painting done by one of the original Group of Seven would top $ 1 million, but no one expected it to fetch more than twice that amount. The painting, which has always been in private hands, depicts icy white mountains with a dramatic blue sky. In 2005, Harris's painting, Algoma Hill, was sold at

3364-468: Was used for the construction of the building; most of which was supplied by the Walters Group. The glass walls on the ground floor are intended to provide visitors with a sense of "transparency between the interior and the outdoors". The "openness" of the prairie landscape were also reflected in the interior design of the building, with the ceiling of the main atrium extending to the fourth level of

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