Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Location within Southern Ontario
Established	1957 (1957)
Location	36 University Avenue, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
Coordinates	44°13′31.4″N 76°29′46.5″W
Type	Art museum
Director	Emelie Chhangur
Website	agnes.queensu.ca

The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is located in Kingston, Ontario, in the heart of the historic campus of Queen's University. Situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory, the gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries and others.

History

The Agnes has its roots in the Kingston Art and Music Club, founded in 1926, and owes its existence to Agnes McCausland Richardson Etherington (1880–1954), a driving force behind the club. Agnes Etherington's grandfather had founded the grain dealer James Richardson & Sons in 1857 and the family had become very wealthy. Agnes's brother George Richardson, who died fighting in World War I in 1916, left a legacy for her to use as she felt fit to stimulate development of the arts at Queen's University. She used this to found the George Taylor Richardson Memorial Fund, which still provides an important source of arts funding to the university.

Agnes Etherington bequeathed her house, an elegant Neo-Georgian mansion, to Queen's University for use as a university and community art gallery. The Agnes Etherington Art Centre opened to the public in 1957. The building was extended in 1962, 1975, 1978 and 2000, and now has an area of 1,720 square metres.

Facilities

In addition to the historical Etherington House and nine galleries, the Agnes Etherington Art Centre features a studio, atrium, a publications lounge and the David McTavish Art Study Room.

Events and public programs

Through the fall and winter, lectures, discussions, tours, custom seminars and screenings. Each summer, the gallery offers an art-intensive summer day camp for children and an art course of teens.

Collections

Agnes Etherington Art Centre holds over 17,000 works ranging from the 14th century to the present, placing it among the largest galleries in Ontario. It includes paintings, sculptures, and graphics by major Canadian artists, European old master paintings, African art, historical dress, quilts, silver and decorative art.

Canadian Historical Art

The Canadian Historical collection primarily representing the history of Canadian fine art in the Euro-American tradition, it also reflects the evolving Canadian cultural matrix through Inuit and Indigenous art and artifacts, as well as historic dress and decorative arts. The collection is notable for fine early topographical watercolours and major 20th-century paintings, and encompasses material connected to regional history in the Queen's University Collection of Canadian Dress, the Heritage Quilt Collection, and the Silver Collection. The Canadian historical collection includes works by: Andre Charles Bieler, Tom Thomson, Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Edwin Holgate, LeMoine FitzGerald, Fernand Leduc, Ozias Leduc, David Milne, William Ronald, Carl Beam, William Henry Bartlett, William Brymner, Kananginak Pootoogook, Pitseolak Ashoona

Contemporary Art

The Contemporary Art Collection features visual art, with emphasis on the emerging generation of artists and works that reflect contemporary life and Canadian society. It is national in scope. The Contemporary collection includes works by: Charles Stankievech, Rebecca Belmore, Judy Radul, Brendan Fernandes, Luis Jacob, Vera Frenkel, David Rokeby, Norman White, Robert Houle, Shary Boyle, AA Bronson, General Idea, Ian Carr-Harris, Sarindar Dhaliwal, Andre Fauteux, Kim Ondaatje, Derek Sullivan

Historical European Art

The European Art Collection holds many paintings, prints, and drawings of exceptional quality and depth. The heart of the European collection is The Bader Collection, with over 200 paintings donated by philanthropist Alfred Bader and Isabel Bader. The European collection includes works by Rembrandt van Rijn, Willem Drost, Jan Lievens, Govert Flinck, Aert de Gelder, Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, Godfrey Kneller, Philip de Koninck, Ferdinand Bol, El Greco, Dosso Dossi, Michael Sweerts, Luca Giordano, Georg Pencz, Sebastien Bourdon, Peter Lely, Joseph Wright of Derby, Raphael, Parmigianino, Guido Reni, Gustav Klimt, Pablo Picasso

African Art

Numbering over 500 objects, the Justin and Elisabeth Lang Collection of African Art ranks among Canada's most comprehensive and significant African Art collections. Comprising primarily works by West and Central African peoples.

Selected Works from the Collection

• 
  Johann König, Apollo and Coronis, c. 1607
• 
  Jacob Adriaensz Backer, Granida and Daifilo, c. 1640
• 
  Ferdinand Bol, A Man in a Fancy Robe and a Tall Cap Strung with Pearls, c. 1643
• 
  Michiel Sweerts, Self portrait with a skull, c. 1660
• 
  Rembrandt, Head of a Man in a Turban, c. 1661
• 
  Jacob van Ruisdael, Winter Landscape with a Wooden House, c. 1667–1673

Selected publications

The Art Centre has issued many publications over the years. A selection follows:

Title	Author(s)
Brendan Fernandes: Lost Bodies	Jan Allen, Delinda Collier, Kevin D. Dumouchelle, Amanda Gilvin, Amanda Jane Graham, Erica P. Jones, & Nat Trotman	ISBN 978-1-55339-493-8
I'm Not Myself at All: Deirdre Logue & Allyson Mitchell	Sarah E. K. Smith & Heather Love	ISBN 978-1-55339-408-2
The Artist Herself: Self-Portraits by Canadian Historical Women Artists	Alicia Boutilier & Tobi Bruce	ISBN 978-1-55339-407-5
Bernard Clark: Tattoo Portraits	Jan Allen	ISBN 978-1-55339-261-3
Vera Frenkel's String Games	Jan Allen & Earl Miller	ISBN 978-1-55339-259-0
Annie Pootoogook: Kinngait Compositions	Jan Allen	ISBN 978-1-55339-260-6
Lost and Found: Wright of Derby's View of Gibraltar	John Bonehill, Janet M. Brooke, Barbara Klempan, David de Witt	ISBN 978-1-55339-258-3
Don Maynard: Franken Forest	Jan Allen & Linda Jansma	ISBN 978-1-55339-256-9
William Brymner: Artist, Teacher, Colleague	Alicia Boutilier & Paul Maréchal	ISBN 9781553392514
Sorting Daemons: Art, Surveillance Regimes and Social Control	Jan Allen, Kirsty Robertson & Sarah E.K. Smith	ISBN 978-1-55339-253-8
Karin Davie: Underworlds	Jan Allen	ISBN 978-1-55339-095-4
The Bader Collection: Dutch and Flemish Paintings	David de Witt	ISBN 978-1-55339-094-7
Beyond the Silhouette: Fashion and the Women of Historic Kingston	M. Elaine MacKay	ISBN 978-1-55339-093-0
Etherington House: Building a Legacy	Patricia Sullivan	ISBN 978-1-55339-091-6
Lyla Rye: Hopscotch	Kenneth Hayes	ISBN 978-1-55339-092-3
Telling Stories, Secret Lives	Jan Allen, Steven Matijcio et al.	ISBN 978-1-55339-088-6
Neutrinos They Are Very Small	Jan Allen, Corinna Ghaznavi & Allison Morehead	ISBN 978-1-55339-089-3
"An Artist After All": Daniel Fowler in Canada	Dorothy M. Farr	ISBN 1-55339-090-3
Sarindar Dhaliwal: Record Keeping	Sunil Gupta, Richard Fung, Janice Cheddie et al.	ISBN 1-899127-05-4
Erik Edson: Fable	Jan Allen & Catherine Osborne	ISBN 1-55339-086-5
Ah, Wilderness! Resort Architecture in the Thousand Islands	Pierre de la Ruffinière du Prey & Dorothy Farr	ISBN 0-88911-543-5
Machine Life	Jan Allen, Ihor Holubizky & Caroline Seck Langill	ISBN 0-88911-918-X
Gary Kibbins: Grammar Horses	Jan Allen & Gary Kibbins	ISBN 0-88911-916-3
Connected: Contemporary Art in Kingston	Jan Allen (ed)	ISBN 0-88911-912-0
Museopathy	Jan Allen, Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher	ISBN 0-88911-908-2
Better Worlds: Activist and Utopian Projects by Artists	Jan Allen & Laura Marks	ISBN 0-88911-912-0
Who Means What: Brent Roe, Paintings 1992-2001	John Armstrong	ISBN 0-88911-906-6
Laurel Woodcock: Take Me, I'm Yours	Jan Allen & Paul Kelley	ISBN 0-88911-827-2
Gretchen Sankey: Some of the Parts	Jan Allen	ISBN 0-88911-754-3
Jayce Salloum	Jim Drobnick & Jennifer Fisher	ISBN 0-88911-752-7
Crime and Punishment	Jennifer Rudder	ISBN 0-88911-750-0
Flaming Creatures: New Tendencies in Canadian Video.	Gary Kibbins	ISBN 0-88911-748-9
Tapes that Think: Video Works by Steve Reinke, Tran T. Kim-Trang, Rodney Werden	Gary Kibbins	ISBN 0-88911-702-0
Edifice	Jan Allen	ISBN 0-88911-748-9
Germaine Koh: Persona	Jan Allen	ISBN 0-88911-744-6
Of Mudlarkers and Measurers	S. Dhaliwal	ISBN 0-88911-742-X
Rise and Fall: John Dickson, Laurie Walker.	Jan Allen et al.	ISBN 0-88911-706-3
Sophie Bellissent: In the Flesh	Jan Allen	ISBN 0-88911-740-3
RX: Taking Our Medicine	Jan Allen & Kim Sawchuck	ISBN 0-88911-698-9
Pictorial Incidents The Photography of William Gordon Shields	Michael Bell	ISBN 0-88911-504-4
A. A. Chesterfield Ungava Portraits 1902-04	William C. James	ISBN 0-88911-373-4
Heritage Quilt Collection	Ruth McKendry & Dorothy Farr	ISBN 0-88911-539-7

External links

• Agnes Etherington Art Centre Archived 2014-09-13 at the Wayback Machine - official site