Unsettling Encounters radically re-examines Emily Carr’sachievement in representing Native life on the Northwest Coast in herpainting and writing. By reconstructing a neglected body ofCarr’s work that was central in shaping her vision and career, itmakes possible a new assessment of her significance as a leading figurein early-twentieth-century North American modernism. Gerta Morayvividly recreates the rapidly changing historical and socialcircumstances in which the artist painted and wrote. Carr lived andworked in British Columbia at a time when the growing settlerpopulation was rapidly taking over and developing the land and itsresources. Moray argues that Carr’s work takes on its fullsignificance only when it is seen as a conscious intervention inNative-settler relations. She examines the work in the context ofimages of Native peoples then being constructed by missionaries andanthropologists and exploited by promoters of world’s fairs andmuseums.
close this panelGerta Moray is a professor of Art History at theUniversity of Guelph. She has previously taught at the Universities ofSheffield, Edinburgh, Stirling, and Toronto.
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