Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Time Machine Series, 1961, oil on canvas, 65/25. Art Gallery of Ontario, gift from the McLean Foundation, 1966. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo AGO
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Time Machine Series, 1961, oil on canvas, 65/25. Art Gallery of Ontario, gift from the McLean Foundation, 1966. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo AGO
Celebrating the radical art-making of Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), this large-scale exhibition offers an in-depth look at one of the most influential Canadian artists of her time.
This ambitious career retrospective – her first in nearly forty years– is also the most comprehensive, and positions Wieland as a critical international figure of 20th-century art and film.
Encompassing the full arc of her career that spanned four decades, Heart On brings together over one hundred works of drawing, painting, collage, film, textile and print. Spotlighting the concerns that informed Wieland’s creative output, namely her engagement with feminism, social justice and ecology, this exhibition explores her unique approach to art-making and the enduring relevance of her oeuvre to contemporary issues.
Co-organized with the Art Gallery of Ontario, this exhibition benefits from a close collaboration with Cinémathèque québécoise on Wieland’s films, as well as with the National Gallery of Canada, which has generously loaned a significant number of the artist’s major works.
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Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), March on Washington, 1963. Art Gallery of Hamilton, gift of Irving Zucker, 1992. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo Mike Lalich, 2008
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Myself, 1958, oil on canvas, 56 x 71 cm. Collection of Margaret J. Break. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo AGO, Craig Boyko
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Young Woman’s Blues, 1964. The University of Lethbridge Art Collections; purchased with funds provided by Canada Council Special Purchase Grant. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Mozart and Wieland, 1985, oil on canvas, 137.2 x 129.6 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, gift of Hyman and Ruth Soloway, 2012. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo AGO, Craig Boyko
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Untitled (Sinking Liner), 1963, oil on canvas, 81 x 61 cm. The University of Lethbridge Art Collections, purchased in 1985 with funds provided by the Province of Alberta Endowment Fund. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo The University of Lethbridge Art Collections
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Larry’s Recent Behaviour, 1966, plastic, thread, batting, gelatin silver print, offset lithograph, 58 x 37 x 6 cm. MMFA, gift of Luc d’Iberville-Moreau. © National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Photo MMFA, Jean-François Brière
Joyce Wieland (1930-1998), Still from Handtinting, 1967, 16 mm colour film without sound (digital restoration), running time: 6 min. Joyce Wieland Fonds, Cinémathèque québécoise Collections. Photo Stéphanie Côté, courtesy of the Cinémathèque québécoise
Born and raised in Toronto, Joyce Wieland was one of Canada’s most prominent and prolific 20th-century artists. By 1960, she was represented by the celebrated Isaacs Gallery (Toronto), with whom she continued to exhibit until the late 1980s. Beginning in late 1962, she spent a decade in New York City where she became an active member of the burgeoning experimental film scene. New York heightened the artist’s ecological, political and feminist consciousness.
In 1966, her practice expanded to textile works and plastic assemblages, challenging the notion that art functions apart from politics and daily life. Wieland began making her signature quilts, collaborating with crafts women from across Canada, as a celebration of their artistic heritage.
She was the first living woman artist to have a retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada (in 1971) and the Art Gallery of Ontario (in 1987). In the 1980s, her films were shown in the United States, Japan and throughout Europe. In the early 1990s, Wieland was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and died in Toronto in 1998. Her work has been collected by MoMA, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Vancouver Art Gallery and the National Gallery of Canada, among other institutions.
Michel Thomas Henry Lambeth, Joyce Wieland in Her Studio, Toronto, 1962, gelatin silver print, 33.7 x 25.5 cm. Art Gallery of Ontario, gift of Av Isaacs, Toronto, 1994, 94/445. © Estate of Michel Lambeth
Publication
The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue that is the first to offer a comprehensive view of Wieland’s multifaceted career and delve deeper into who this trailblazing artist was. Edited by the exhibition’s curators, Anne Grace and Georgiana Uhlyarik, it features texts by art history scholars, artists, and curators, as well as personal reflections from Wieland’s friends and collaborators.
For sale at the MMFA’s Boutique and Bookstore. Museum Members enjoy a 10% discount on the retail price.
The restoration of Joyce Wieland’s works – an art in itself!
In this short video, Richard Gagnier, former Head of Conservation at the MMFA (2007 to 2024), explains how he cleaned and restored the plastic works that are on view in the exhibition.
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Photo Thibault Carron
Credits and curatorial team
An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Art Gallery of Ontario.
The exhibition is curated by Anne Grace, Curator of Modern Art, MMFA, and Georgiana Uhlyarik, Fredrik S. Eaton Curator of Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario.
The AGO and MMFA extend their deep appreciation to the conservation specialists at the Canadian Conservation Institute for their insights and assistance in the care of Wieland’s plastic works.
Presenting Sponsor
In collaboration with
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Photo Thibault Carron
