Winning Title (Pictorial), The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, 2025 

Sonia Del Re and Kirsten Appleyard

Delve into Canada’s premier collection of international drawings and discover never-before-seen artworks straight from the vault. Founded in 1921 and the first of its kind in the country, the National Gallery of Canada’s Department of Prints and Drawings boasts ever-evolving, world-class holdings of historical drawings dating from the 15th to the 20th century, in every medium – from graphite to ink, pastel to watercolour. Enjoy this rare opportunity to view works by Gustav Klimt, Théodore Géricault and Élisabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, among many others, including newly acquired sheets and little-known but historically significant drawings that for conservation reasons are usually kept in the dark. The selection is wide-ranging, featuring everything from preparatory works for paintings to subjects drawn from history and mythology, portraits, landscapes, forays into abstraction and poignant explorations of the human condition.

Celebrate the legacy of the Department of Prints and Drawings first-hand through this captivating exhibition and richly illustrated catalogue marking its recent 100-year anniversary.

Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault is organized by the National Gallery of Canada. The publication is made possible with support from the Getty Foundation through its “The Paper Project: Prints and Drawings Curatorship in the 21st Century” initiative.

Hardcover | 203 pages
Publication Date: 2024 

Also published in French under the title Feuille à feuille. La collection de dessins dévoilée

Edited by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle with contributions by Elizabeth C. Childs, Dario Gamboni, Linda Goddard, Claire Guitton, Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, and Alastair Wright

Accompanying the ground-breaking exhibition Gauguin: Portraits, this publication marks the first in-depth investigation of Gauguin’s portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways.

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career.

A welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century’s most innovative and controversial artists, this richly illustrated volume contains more than 160 illustrations, presenting fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin’s overall artistic practice.

Hardcover | 272 pages
24.5 x 31 cm (9.6 x 12.2 in.)
Publication Date: 2019

Edited by Cornelia Homburg and Christopher Riopelle with contributions by Elizabeth C. Childs, Dario Gamboni, Linda Goddard, Claire Guitton, Jean-David Jumeau-Lafond, and Alastair Wright

Accompanying the ground-breaking exhibition Gauguin: Portraits, this publication marks the first in-depth investigation of Gauguin’s portraits, revealing how the artist expanded the possibilities of the genre in new and exciting ways.

Paul Gauguin (1848–1903) broke with accepted conventions and challenged audiences to expand their understanding of visual expression. Nowhere is this phenomenon more evident than in his portraits, a genre he remained engaged with throughout all phases of his career.

A welcome addition to the scholarship on one of the 19th century’s most innovative and controversial artists, this richly illustrated volume contains more than 160 illustrations, presenting fascinating insights into the crucial role that portraiture played in Gauguin’s overall artistic practice.

Hardcover | 272 pages
24.5 x 31 cm (9.6 x 12.2 in.)
Publication Date: 2019

Edited by Adam Welch

Contributors: David Balzer, AA Bronson, Diedrich Diederichsen, Dominic Johnson, Theodore Kerr, Alex Kitnick, Sholem Krishtalka, Élisabeth Lebovici, Philip Monk, Diana Nemiroff, and Beatrix Ruf

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada.

This monumental publication presents a visual survey of General Idea’s artworks, from their earliest performances and actions to their use of consumer and advertising media in the public realm to their gallery and museum work. Including texts by a range of scholars and more than 500 illustrations, it is the definitive resource on General Idea. 

Softcover | 756 pages 
27 x 30 cm (10.6 x 11.8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2022

Edited by Adam Welch 

Contributors: David Balzer, AA Bronson, Diedrich Diederichsen, Dominic Johnson, Theodore Kerr, Alex Kitnick, Sholem Krishtalka, Élisabeth Lebovici, Philip Monk, Diana Nemiroff, and Beatrix Ruf

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada.  

This monumental publication presents a visual survey of General Idea’s artworks, from their earliest performances and actions to their use of consumer and advertising media in the public realm to their gallery and museum work. Including texts by a range of scholars and more than 500 illustrations, it is the definitive resource on General Idea.

Softcover | 756 pages 
27 x 30 cm (10.6 x 11.8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2022

This poster features a reproduction of the artwork AIDS, 1987 by General Idea. 

General Idea (1969–1994) were pioneers of conceptual and media art whose work attained international prominence through the art world and the streets in equal measure. The ground-breaking collective practice of AA Bronson, Felix Partz and Jorge Zontal spanned twenty-five years, addressing aspects of mass media, consumer culture, queer identity, the art economy and the AIDS crisis. They remain some of the most influential artists to have emerged from Canada. 

Made in Canada 
61 x 61 cm (24 x 24 in.) 

Produced in conjunction with the exhibition General Idea organized by the National Gallery of Canada and presented in Ottawa from June 3 to November 20, 2022. 

Winning Title (Pictorial), The Alcuin Society Awards for Excellence in Book Design in Canada, 2017 

Kitty Scott

The National Gallery of Canada presents Geoffrey Farmer's installation A Way Out of the Mirror, at the 2017 Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition. Farmer combines theatrical techniques such as staging and improvisation to create rich and layered works that are open to interpretation and propose multiple alternative narratives.

Hardcover | 270 pages
30 x 19.5 cm (11.75 x 7.5 in.)
Bilingual
Publication Date: 2017

Prudence Heward (1896–1947)
Girl on a Hill, 1928

Heward was one of a group of women artists who were active in Montreal between the First and Second World Wars. She was primarily known for her figure painting and was associated with the artists who formed the Beaver Hall Group.

6.5 x 9 cm (2.5 x 3.5 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Prudence Heward (1896–1947)
Girl on a Hill, 1928

Heward was one of a group of women artists who were active in Montreal between the First and Second World Wars. She was primarily known for her figure painting and was associated with the artists who formed the Beaver Hall Group.

Card dimensions: 13.5 x 17.5 cm (5.3 x 6.8 in.)
Blank inside. Envelope included.

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

This magnet features the artwork Group of Trees along the Royal Road near Gentofte, Denmark (1892) by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916).

9 x 6.5 cm (3.5 x 2.5 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Related Exhibition: Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault.

This notecard features the artwork Group of Trees along the Royal Road near Gentofte, Denmark (1892) by Vilhelm Hammershøi (1864–1916). 

Card dimensions: 17.5 x 13.5 cm (6.8 x 5.3 in.)
Blank inside. Envelope included.

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Related Exhibition: Gathered Leaves: Discoveries from the Drawings Vault.

Anabelle Kienle Poňka, Lily Foster and Sarah Fillmore

A year after the city was devastated by the Halifax Explosion, Harold Gilman (British, 1876–1919) and Arthur Lismer (Canadian, 1885–1969) were working in Halifax as war artists. Both commissioned by the Canadian War Memorials Fund to record the war activity on the home front, the two men struck up a friendship and worked side-by-side on occasion.

With the effects of the explosion still clearly visible, Gilman and Lismer turned their attention to the bustling harbour. Produced in conjunction with the Halifax Harbour 1918 exhibition, this compelling book traces the artists' meticulous approach to their mission, the challenges of working during the aftermath of the tragedy and their role during a critical moment in the history of Canadian landscape painting.

Paperback | 124 Pages
25.5 x 23 x 1 cm (10 x 9 x 0.4 in.) 
Publication Date: 2018
Bilingual

This magnet features the artwork Healing Dance 2 (2013) by Anishinaabe (Odawa) artist Barry Ace.

9 x 6.5 cm (3.5 x 2.5 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada. 

Exclusive to the National Gallery of Canada Boutique 

This poster features a detail of the artwork Heroine from the Old Testament, 1632/33 by Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–69). 

Made in Canada 
Poster size: 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in.) 

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada 

Lynne Cooke

This transformative exhibition explores how abstract art and woven textiles have intertwined over the past hundred years.

In the 20th century, textiles were often considered lesser – as applied art, women’s work, or domestic craft. Woven Histories challenges the hierarchies that have separated textiles from fine arts. Putting into dialogue some 130 works by more than 45 creators from across generations and continents, the exhibition explores the contributions; weaving and related techniques have made to abstraction, modernism’s pre-eminent art form.

See a variety of textile techniques including weaving, knitting, netting, knotting and felting. Learn about the wide-ranging reasons artists from Anni Albers to Rosemarie Trockel and Jeffrey Gibson (Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians/Cherokee Nation) have engaged with this art form. Some seek to effect social change; others address political issues. Engaging with textiles as subject, material and technique, still others revitalize abstraction’s formal conventions or critique its patriarchal history and gendered identity.

Follow this hidden thread of art history to discover the work of creators who were once marginalized for their gender, race or class.

Hardcover
24 x 28 cm (9.5 x 11 in.)
Publication date: 2024

The exhibition is organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington, in collaboration with the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, and The Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Under the direction of John R. Porter & Pierre Théberge, in collaboration with Anne Sophie Lemieux & Madeleine Lacerte 

Beyond the immediate charm of some of his subjects lies Lemieux's eloquent vision of our vast space, our northern sensibility and our collective soul — a soul torn between the nostalgia for the past and an unknowable future. He was able to vividly capture in his work the solitude of individual human existence, thus giving it a universal dimension. To mark the hundredth anniversary of his birth, this catalogue has been designed to give as much space as possible to a visual panorama of the artist's work. We hope that all those who peruse this catalogue will be touched by the universality of the work of Jean Paul Lemieux. 

Homage to Jean Paul Lemieux is published by the National Gallery of Canada in association with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and Galerie Lacerte. 

Hardcover | 119 pages 
21 x 27 cm (8.27 x 10.63 in.) 
Publication date: 2004

Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002)
Hommage aux Nymphéas - Pavane [Tribute to the Water Lilies - Pavane], 1954

This monumental triptych was first exhibited in Canada in 1963 as part of the artist's retrospective at the National Gallery of Canada, and its title refers to a Spanish dance that originated in the 16th century. The dance incorporates a stately and processional rhythm, which is captured in the energy and movement of this painting.

Made in Canada
Image Size: 81.3 x 43.8 cm (32 x 17.2 in.)
Poster Size: 94.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in.)

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada

Gustav Klimt (1862–1918) 
Hope I, 1903 

POSTER: 
Image size: 71.1 x 25.4 cm (28 x 10 in.) 
Poster size: 91.4 x 61 cm (36 x 24 in.) 

In the collection of the National Gallery of Canada

Moyra Davey, Dalie Giroux and Andrea Kunard

Over the past 40 years, artist Moyra Davey has perfected a unique synthesis of photography, film and text to critically engage with the past, present and future of the world around her. Based on Davey’s eponymous 2019 film, this publication unites three main sources in a chronicle of late 20th-century Quebec, shaped by themes of race, poverty, language and nationalism. Using American writer James Baldwin’s 1962 novel Another Country as its point of departure, it focuses on the life and work of Québécois revolutionary Pierre Vallières and Ottawa-based political philosopher Dalie Giroux.

Published to accompany the exhibition Moyra Davey: The Faithful at the National Gallery of Canada, this deeply personal and highly political book seeks to examine an unresolved chapter of Québécois history from a uniquely interdisciplinary perspective that draws attention to contemporary issues of separatism, while reflecting the artist’s understanding of photography and text as unique corollaries.

This publication features writings by the artist, Dalie Giroux and National Gallery of Canada’s Associate Curator Andrea Kunard, and a poster insert.

Softcover | 168 pages (90 illustrations)
17.3 x 24.1 cm (6.7 x 9.5 in.)
Publication Date: 2020

Pratapaditya Pal 

Images divines, perceptions humaines : la collection Max Tanenbaum d'art d'Asie du Sud et de l'Himalaya au Musée des beaux-arts du Canada 

While the Gallery acquired representative examples of historic Asian art beginning in the early 20th century, its holdings were transformed thanks to the generous gift of Max Tanenbaum (1909–1983), who donated part of the collection of the late Nasli Heeramaneck (1902–1971) in 1980. 

This book commemorates one of the most sumptuous gifts in the history of the National Gallery of Canada. Dr. Hsio-Yen Shih (1933–2001), the sixth director of the National Gallery of Canada from 1977–1981, attracted this remarkable donation in an attempt to expand the collection beyond the confines of the arts of Canada, Europe and North America. 

Softcover | 166 pages 
20.32 x 25.4 cm (8 x 11 in.) 
Publication Date: 1997 
Printed in Canada
Available in French only