Lame Group Of Seven Painting Fails To Sell

And no wonder.  Five dead trees, four rocks, a cloud, and an island.  And that is it. The trees aren't even blowing over the lake as in more ambitious G-of-7 pics.  This is very shoddy work, barely up their usual "rocks and trees" standard.  Yes it has all the required elements.  Rocks.  And trees. But just barely.  Like it was phoned in.  "Throw in some rocks.  Some trees.  Add Water.  Hey presto! More than they deserve!"

And I must say I am not generally impressed by this Lawren Harris charactor.  He apparently did all his painting sitting in the same chair out back his cottage.

Group of 7 In The News

Apparently, Canada is getting back the so-called "Arthur Lismer Collection", comprising hundreds of personal items accumulated during the life of this obscure Group of 7 artist.  So obscure in fact that I haven't even heard of  him, and as you might know, I study these guys.

So lets analyze one of his pics, shall we?

Yeah...*SIGH*...with the Group of 7 its always rocks and trees time.  Tree (center left)?  Check!  Rocks (beneath tree)?  Check!  There's water, which in this case is green, and I imagine counts as a minor formal innovation in the 7's oeuvre,  because mostly they painted water  its traditional blue colour.  And the wind appears to be blowing from right to left.  Or Lismer painted the thing at an angle.  A lot of these guys drank, you know.

In any case, that's really all there is to it.  Of the Group of 7, this guy finishes a distant 7th.

Have You Seen These Trees?

If you have, you're looking at Gatineau Hills, by Group of Seven painter Frederick J. Varley,  which was stolen from the Canadian Fine Arts Store.  Please wrestle it from the thief, run away,  and call police from a safe place.

As to the stolen painting itself, Gatineau Hills illustrates how the Group of Seven typically responded to an environment relatively denuded of trees, which was to use their artist's eye to zero in on whatever trees the landscape offered, however unimpressive, and paint those.  However, you can see in this instance  that Varley became dissatisfied with the quality of tree available, and finally decided "Fuck it!  I'll throw in a few rocks for good measure!" 

The date on this work is unknown ( more specifically: I'm too lazy to look it up), but it may have presaged the Seven's later Trees AND Rocks period, when they realized that painting foliage alone was not enough to satisfy the soul.

Source.

PS.  This one is actually rather purty.

Another Group Of 7 Painting So, Yeah, That Means MORE Trees And Rocks

Apparently, Landscape with snow was once considered bogus. But no, it wasn't a case where the artist tried to palm-off multiple pictures of the same damn tree.

And note how this painting runs the whole gamut of Group of 7 concerns, featuring rocks, a tree, AND snow. Artist Tom Thomson must have really been stoked, as he went ahead with it even after running out of red and green pigment, which he probably blew on this painting.

Heffel Fine Art Auction House is hoping that Landscape fetches +$1,000,000 at auction, but I think the lack of reds and greens will mean they get docked a few bucks.

Hey! Its The Same Fricking Tree!

So I'm surfing around and I notice that this item--"The Old Stump, Lake Superior" by Group of Seven Artist Lawren Harris-- just sold for 3.5 mill. Not bad, I thought, for what was after all just another painting from the group's "Tree" period (albeit--and this is unusual for one of The 7--this time its a dead tree).
Except I surf around a bit more and find this baby, which goes by the name "North Shore, Lake Superior":

Notice anything peculiar? Its...the...same...tree! The gallery sold a previously painted tree! A used tree!! Harris didn't even employ that old Group of 7 trick where he paints the tree red or yellow or some other weird color to disguise it. No! It's just like Monet and endless goddamned water-lilies. The people want water lilies, give 'em more fucking water lilies! Give 'em the same lily, painted at dawn, and noon, and at dusk! Here's the water-lily under a full moon! Now hand over your money, sap! But in this case Harris was thinking: people want pictures of a dead tree, I'll give 'em pictures of a dead tree. The same dead tree, so I won't even have to get out of my chair!

WHAT IS THE CANADIAN ART ESTABLISHMENT COMING TO?

Group Of 7 Painting Of Bunch Of Fucking Trees Sold For Great Wad Of Cash!

Winter Morning, by Tom Thomson, confirms my theory that the Group of 7 were Canada's pre-eminent painters of rocks and trees. Note, in this particular scene, all the trees. Here they have been painted mostly white, which either indicates that they are covered in snow or that Mr. Thomson ate a whack of acid about an hour before he took up his brushes. Unfortunately, the trees are not actually doing anything here, like leaning out over a lake , or blowing in the wind while leaning out over a lake. Therefore I think $970,000 was far too much to pay.

Here is a recently uncovered Group of 7 picture from their "rocks" phase, entitled "What No Trees"?

PS. Meanwhile Barnett Newman continues to suck.

Unknown Group of Seven Piece Surfaces: Its Just More Rocks!

Man, I saw enough of these guys at the National Gallery. Apparently, between the 7 of them they painted every tree in Canada: Green trees, sure, but red and yellow trees, blue trees, and trees leaning out over bodies of waters.

They also were heavily into rocks, and painted rocks up the yin-yan. This small oil (12 x 15 inches), by Lawren Harris, entitled "Greenland", is definitely from their "rocks" period, with a bit of snow thrown in for good measure.

(PS. Barnett Newman sucks as well)