Details of the lecture

The Group of Seven was formed with the aim of creating a distinctively Canadian art based on the country’s natural landscape. The original members first came together in 1913, and first exhibited as a group in 1920. This lecture will explore examples of their work, which continue to hold great sway in relation to both Canadian art history and national identity. We will also consider their influences, the work of some of their forerunners – including Tom Thomson – and contemporaries, and ask whether they
achieved their aims.

Lecturer: Prasannajit de Silva

Prasannajit de Silva, theartssociety.org

Prasannajit de Silva completed his doctorate in 2007, researching the art of the British in India during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. His lecturing covers British visual culture of the eighteenth, nineteenth, and early twentieth centuries, including art produced in various colonial settings. He is particularly interested in the relationship of aspects of art, architecture, and design to their broader cultural, social, and political contexts, and also teaches courses on the methods and theoretical approaches of art history. His work has included teaching roles at the University of Sussex, at Birkbeck, University of London, and at the WEA.