Exhibiting a world class experience
New Brunswick art gallery holds reputation dear with array of renowned international works
FREDERICTON — Jon Shrubsole made the pilgrimage all the way from Dayton, Ohio.
On the edge of the Saint John River, Fredericton’s Beaverbrook Art Gallery has a backstory — and a collection of works — ordinarily unlikely to be found in a sleepy provincial capital.
“There are many famous artists — the Group of Seven, really great world class artists,” Shrubsole says as he walks through the gallery for the first time.
“I knew they had added the new wing about a year ago and rehung everything, and I wanted to see it.”
Shrubsole said he’s visited many galleries around the world and was impressed.
The gallery — which turns 60 next year — is home to more than 5,300 works by artists including Salvador Dali, Lucian Freud, JMW Turner and Thomas Gainsborough.
“It has an international reputation and is one of the finest art galleries in Canada of its kind,” director Thomas Smart says on a stroll through the building.
The gallery was given to New Brunswick by Ontario-born British press baron Lord Beaverbrook in 1959. He built the original building and endowed it with a collection.
That collection has grown ever since, and the building has seen numerous additions including an impressive new pavilion that opened in 2017 — expanding the gallery by about 30 per cent and making it the largest in Atlantic Canada.
“If you haven’t been here for a few years, you’re seeing a whole new Beaverbrook Art Gallery, not just in the new pavilion, but in the way the whole space has been retrofitted,” Smart said.
“We have some of the finest international works, British modern paintings, French paintings, some medieval ivories. It really is a large collection that shows not only Beaverbrook’s hand as a collector but his taste as an international collector of young contemporaries. We have a beautiful Freud. It was purchased by Beaverbrook when Freud was really at the beginning of his career,” he said.
The gallery is divided into different areas, some small, some large, featuring different collections and themes. There are new things at every turn, giving an impression that the inside of the building is much larger than the outside view would imply.
The gallery gets more than 40,000 visitors each year, and on any given day that can include classes of students and tourists who have travelled from points across the country and around the world.
There are many famous artists — the Group of Seven, really great world class artists. Jon Shrubsole