Greg Hill, Gerald McMaster, Virginia Eichhorn, Alan Corbiere, Crystal Migwans and Ann Beam

Carl Beam was a powerful voice in contemporary art in Canada. A key Anishnaabe artist, he drew upon all the cultural resources at the disposal of a contemporary artist. This catalogue, exhibition and tour of fifty magnificent and challenging works by Beam, is the first such opportunity to view a selection of his paintings, constructions, ceramics and video that cover his entire artistic career.

Softcover | 140 pages 
20.5 x 28 cm (8 x 11 in.) 
Publication Date: 2011

Josée Drouin-Brisebois 

Caught in the Act: The Viewer as Performer is an ambitious exhibition which attests to the National Gallery of Canada's ongoing commitment to contemporary Canadian art. Eleven artists and collectives present an occasion for us to explore our roles as active participants in the artistic process; the active exchange between viewer and object becomes as significant as the artwork itself. The exhibition catalogue documents sixteen large-scale sculptural installations, while the essays provide illuminating perspectives on the artists' works in Caught in the Act. 

Hardcover | 256 pages
17 x 21.5 cm (6.7 x 8.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2008

Mitchell B. Frank

Some seventy beautiful and gripping drawings from the German-speaking countries of Europe, thirty of them recently acquired, include graceful figure studies by Dürer and Klimt, engaging romantic landscapes by Koch and Hackert, graphic Expressionist sketches by Kirchner and Nolde, and disturbing modern caricatures by Dix and Grosz.

Paperback | 198 pages
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2010

Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Bruce McCulloch, Ryan Doherty, Nancy Tousley, William Wood 

Over the last four decades Chris Cran has earned a reputation as one of the most important painters in Canada. He has challenged our experience of traditional genres of painting by creating tensions between the discordant styles and movements from which he samples, including Pop Art, Photorealism, Modernist Abstraction and Op art. To complicate this mix, he has introduced popular imagery from advertising and graphic art from magazines from the 1950s and 1960s, producing works that exude a rare and unapologetic boldness and confidence. 

Slipcase | 204 pages 
23.5 x 30 cm (9.2 x 11.8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2016 

Only available in French

Josée Drouin-Brisebois

Christopher Pratt is one of Canada's most celebrated painters; this catalogue accompanies a major exhibition representing his achievements over the last four decades. Some sixty canvases are featured, along with several study drawings. Pratt's work reveals his lifelong search for order and simplicity, using art to distil the essence of his environment through his personal response to his surroundings.

Hardcover | 132 pages
31 x 29 cm (12.2 x 11.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2003

Ian M. Thom

Remarkable paintings grace the pages of Maria Chapdelaine, a novel written by a Frenchman yet embraced by generations of Canadian readers. Renowned Canadian artist Clarence Gagnon used a meticulous process to create 54 small paintings for Louis Hémon’s early 20th-century story set in the Quebec countryside. Gagnon’s vivid illustrations depict the strength of body and soul necessary to survive such a harsh environment. All of the Gagnon Maria Chapdelaine illustrations are reproduced in this book, with excerpts from the novel. The complete set of paintings resides in the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, where it is considered a rare treasure. Art historian and curator Ian M. Thom in his essay provides insight into Gagnon’s life and an appreciation of his art.

Hardcover | 120 pages
22.5 x 20.3 cm (9 x 8 in.) 
Publication Date: 2020

Amy Novesky 

A beautifully nuanced and poetic story, Cloth Lullaby captures the life of Louise Bourgeois, a world-renowned artist, and tells the story of a relationship between a mother and daughter, the birth of an artist, and how memory is stitched into us all. 

Hardcover | 40 pages
28.5 x 23.5 cm (11 x 9 in.) 
Publication date: 2016

Julie Collins

This portable, pocket-sized companion is a clear, comprehensive guide to colour mixing in the 3 most popular mediums: watercolor, acrylics, and oils. Introducing simple colour theory and the colour wheel at beginner’s level, paint your own with the template provided. With over 1,800 swatches, you'll never be at a loss for the perfect colour blend again.

Hardcover | 160 pages
13.5 x 19 cm (5.3 x 7.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2023

Rick Rubin

Many famed music producers are known for a particular sound that has its day. Rick Rubin is known for something else: creating a space where artists of all different genres and traditions can home in on who they really are and what they really offer. He has made a practice of helping people transcend their self-imposed expectations in order to reconnect with a state of innocence from which the surprising becomes inevitable. Over the years, as he has thought deeply about where creativity comes from and where it doesn’t, he has learned that being an artist isn’t about your specific output, it’s about your relationship to the world. Creativity has a place in everyone’s life, and everyone can make that place larger. In fact, there are few more important responsibilities.

Créativité is a beautiful and generous course of study that illuminates the path of the artist as a road we all can follow. It distills the wisdom gleaned from a lifetime’s work into a luminous reading experience that puts the power to create moments—and lifetimes—of exhilaration and transcendence within closer reach for all of us.

Hardcover | 448 pages
16 x 22.4 cm (6.3 x 8.8 in) 
Publication Date: 2024

Dana Claxton (born 1959) is a critically acclaimed, award-winning artist and filmmaker working across film, video, photography, single and multichannel video installation and performance art. Her practice investigates the body, the socio-political and the spiritual within realms of indigenous beauty.

This book consolidates our understanding of Dana Claxton’s dominant and recurring themes―indigenous history, culture, beauty and spirituality. While Claxton’s art often alludes to the destructive legacy of colonialism, it also celebrates the resurgence of First Nations’ presence and contemporary identity. What emerges is an artist delivering works of ever greater power and conviction. With her expansive and genre-defying practice―photography, videos, mixed-media installations, text works, performances and curatorial work―she continues to critically reimagine the space of the gallery to be accessible for wider Indigenous audiences and to uphold new understandings of beauty.

Hardcover | 214 pages
24.6 x 30.5 cm (9.7 x 12 in.) 
Publication Date: 2021

David P. Silcox 

David Milne (1882–1953) experienced life as an artist in turn-of-the-century New York, as a soldier in World War I, and as a contemporary of the Group of Seven in Canada. This book traces the gifted painter's development over the course of tumultuous personal and historical events.  

Paperback | 64 pages 
22.8 x 22.8 cm (9 x 9 in.) 
Publication Date: 2005

David Franklin 

The sixteenth century in Rome was a rich period in art history. Such celebrated masters as Raphael, Michelangelo, Salviati and Vasari practiced in the city during this time. De Raphaël à Carracci. L'art de la Rome pontificale is unprecedented in its comprehensive examination of Renaissance Rome. The catalogue contains contributions from more than forty scholars from Canada and abroad, and highlights considerable new research and a number of discoveries published here for the first time. 

Hardcover | 482 pages 
32 x 26 cm (12.6 x 10.25 in.)
Publication Date: 2009 
Available in French only

Josée Drouin-Brisebois

De-con-structions focuses on works by Michel de Broin, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Karilee Fuglem, Tricia Middleton and Annie Thibault, five Quebec artists whose interventions question the museum as idea and context. The installations created by these artists prompt the museum to confront and question its role of collecting, preserving, and displaying art; in their hands, the gallery space itself is transformed from a repository for art into an artist's studio and laboratory. 

Paperback | 32 pages
23 x 20 cm (9 x 7.8 in.)
Publication Date: 2007

Josée Drouin-Brisebois

Dé-con-structions focuses on works by Michel de Broin, Jean-Pierre Gauthier, Karilee Fuglem, Tricia Middleton and Annie Thibault, five Quebec artists whose interventions question the museum as idea and context. The installations created by these artists prompt the museum to confront and question its role of collecting, preserving, and displaying art; in their hands, the gallery space itself is transformed from a repository for art into an artist's studio and laboratory. 

Paperback | 32 pages
23 x 20 cm (9 x 7.8 in.)
Publication Date: 2007

Douglas E. Schoenherr

Great drawings and superb watercolours by seventy major artists from the 18th to the 20th centuries are presented here and demonstrate the strength of the British drawings collection of the National Gallery of Canada. The catalogue, which includes works by such artists as J.W.M.Turner, Samuel Palmer, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Holman Hunt, is the fourth in a series presenting important drawings from the Gallery's permanent collection.

Paper | 196 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2005

Mitchell B. Frank

Some seventy beautiful and gripping drawings from the German-speaking countries of Europe, thirty of them recently acquired, include graceful figure studies by Dürer and Klimt, engaging romantic landscapes by Koch and Hackert, graphic Expressionist sketches by Kirchner and Nolde, and disturbing modern caricatures by Dix and Grosz.

Paperback | 198 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2010

Joaneath Spicer

Second in an ongoing series focussing on selected masterpieces from the permanent collection of prints and drawings from the National Gallery of Canada, this catalogue features nearly fifty of the oldest and most emotionally evocative sheets by Dutch and Flemish masters, from Gerard David to Rembrandt and Rubens.

Paper | 188 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2003
Only available in French 

Sonia Couturier

Executed between the 17th and 19th centuries by artists such as Jacques Bellange, Charles de La Fosse, François Boucher, Jacques Louis David and Edgar Degas, the seventy works featured in this volume highlight the richness of the French drawings in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada.

Paper | 188 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2004
Available in French only

David Franklin

Seventy of the finest Italian drawings from the 16th to the 18th centuries in the permanent collection of the National Gallery of Canada are featured in this volume. Brilliant examples by such artists as Giulio Romano, Parmigianino, Annibale Carracci and Piranesi were selected and described. This is the first in a series of catalogues presenting selected treasures from the Gallery's permanent collection.

Paper | 176 pages 
20.35 x 26.68 cm (8 x 10.5 in.) 
Publication Date: 2003

Arthur Tiar and Maxime Penaud

Artistic technique is not about talent, it's about approach! To improve, you must practice. To practice, you must enjoy yourself. This innovative method will help you do just that! Discover the key concepts of drawing through easy and fun exercises. You'll be able to practice right away and get rewarding results while you learn. So, grab your pencils and have fun! 

Paperback | 32 pages
21 x 29.6 cm (8.2 x 11.6 in.) 
Publication Date: 2024 

Only available in French.