Current & Upcoming

Simon Glass: The Ten Commandments / Prohibited Weapons and The Thirteen Attributes of God

17 August – 2 December 2017

An exhibition of Simon Glass’s photo-hybrid series The Ten Commandments/Prohibited Weapons recently donated to the McMaster Museum of Art (a 2016 gift) and his series, The Thirteen Attributes of God, from the Art Gallery of Hamilton collection.
Simon Glass is an artist and educator based in Toronto. In his artistic practice, archival and original photographic imagery is combined with mystical, biblical and liturgical Hebrew.

Public Reception: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
Artist Talk: Thursday September 28, 12:30 – 1:20 pm

Image: Installation view of The Ten Commandments / Prohibited Weapons suite, 2005. Courtesy of the artist

Struck by Likening: The Power & Discontents of Artworld Analogies
19 August – 2 December 2017
Guest curator:  Mark A. Cheetham

PUBLIC RECEPTION: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
CURATOR’s TALK - Getting Some Distance on Likening:  Wednesday October 4, 12:30 – 1:20 pm

Struck by Likening explores commonplace declarations such as “Tom Thomson is the Van Gogh of Canada” and Norval Morrisseau is “the Picasso of the North” and the issues raised by such comparisons. These include national aspiration, genius, gender, anachronism, inter-media comparison, humour, and cultural appropriation.

Works of art in the exhibition are drawn from the historical, modern and contemporary collection of the McMaster Museum of Art, and loans from the Art Gallery of Hamilton, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, Museum London and the Corkin Gallery, Toronto.

Professor Cheetham gratefully acknowledges the research support of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.

Image: Tom Thomson (Canadian 1877 – 1917) The Birch Grove, Autumn 1915–16, oil on canvas, Art Gallery of Hamilton, Gift of Roy Cole in memory of his parents, Matthew and Annie Bell Gilmore

A Cultivating Journey: The Herman H. Levy Legacy
1 September – 9 December, 2017

This exhibition examines and celebrates the collection of significant European historical and modern art donated to the McMaster Museum of Art by Hamilton businessman Dr. Herman H. Levy, O.B.E. in 1984. Featured are paintings by Claude Monet, Gustave Caillebotte, Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissarro, Chaim Soutine, J.M.W. Turner, Vincent van Gogh and many more.

RECEPTION: Thursday, September 14 from 6 - 8 PM
CURATOR’S TALK by Ihor Holubizky: Tuesday October 24, 12:30 – 1:20 pm
TALK  |  CURATING AND COLLECTING: Thursday November 23, 6 – 8 pm
by Tobi Bruce (Director, Collections &  Exhibitions, Art Gallery of Hamilton) and
Ihor Holubizky  (Senior Curator, McMaster Museum of Art)

Image: Claude Monet, Waterloo Bridge, Effet de Soleil, 1903, Oil on canvas, Collection of McMaster Museum of Art, Gift of Herman Levy, Esq., O.B.E., 1984

This touring exhibition, including a forthcoming publication, is generously supported by the Museums Assistance Program, Canadian Heritage.

TH&B, a creative partnership of Hamilton-based artists Simon Frank, Dave Hind, Ivan Jurakic and Tor Lukasik-Foss, have produced a new work of art for the McMaster Museum of Art’s Artist Garden. The installation is titled Basin and its foundation is a metal structure with forms of the Great Lakes on it. The artists will add a mix of plants to this to reflect contrasting elements of the geography that we share and occupy.

“Our plan is for the Great Lakes billboard to function as a trellis. Over two seasons we essentially want to see it grown over and integrated into the garden site as if it had always been there—a modern ruin,” says Ivan Jurakic.

About TH&B
Artist's Talk at McMaster Museum of Art

Domestic Vessels from the Greek and Roman World
Ongoing
This new antiquities exhibition presents a picture of daily domestic life in the ancient world through objects familiar to Greek and Roman households. All vessels are drawn from McMaster Museum of Art's permanent collection.

more information

Curated by Dr. Spencer Pope
Ongoing

This is an exhibition of twenty-two coins, mostly from the Roman Republic, dating back to Alexander the Great. They are significant for both their value to McMaster's Teaching Collection and their provenance. The Collection was generously gifted to McMaster University by McMaster astronomy professor Ethan Vishniac, who inherited it from his grandfather, renowned photographer Roman Vishniac.

Image: Vishniac 12: Roman Orichalcum Coin of Emperor Galba (AD 68-69)
OBVERSE: Laureate head of Galba, facing right, "IMP SER GALBA CAES AUG TR P".
REVERSE: Libertas (deity representing Liberty) standing left, holding pileus and rod, "LIBERTAS PUBLICA SC".