Razzle Dazzle: The Uses of Abstraction

Opening Reception Thursday 22 January at 8 pm As an Official Canadian War Artist working in Halifax during World War One, it was Arthur Lismer’s job to document the naval activity in and around the busy wartime harbour. But as is evidenced in numerous sketches, drawings, and paintings, his aesthetic attentions were especially drawn toward the intensely abstract blocks and swirls of patterns and colour that clad many warships and converted ocean liners moving tens of thousands of troops overseas. These military vessels were painted with what came to be called ‘Dazzle,’ ‘Razzle Dazzle’ or ‘Jazz’ colour schemes. When viewed through the periscopes of torpedo-laden German submarines intended on halting the flow of men and materiel to the European theatre of war, these colour schemes disrupted the visual perception of the size, distance and even the direction of vessels. Over the course of the Twentieth century the use of abstraction may have shifted from the utilitarian needs of the military to the aesthetic concerns of the visual arts, but the intentions of both have a critically under-examined commonality. The optical employment of geometric shapes and colour could not only mislead the eye of submarine captains, but could also be aesthetically turned in upon itself in a critical inquiry into the very nature and meaning of painting and the development of modernist abstract art. This exhibition features the naval-themed artwork of John Everett, Arthur Lismer and C. E. Tarani juxtaposed with mid-Twentieth century Canadian abstract paintings by Jack Bush, Yves Gaucher and Jock Macdonald, to name a few, and Americans Kenneth Noland and Frank Stella. This exhibition is curated by Gil McElroy and is organized and circulated by The Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa, Ontario, with support from the Museums Assistance Program of the Department of Canadian Heritage.