Trove

Making a giant ketchup bottle and parading it along Dundas Street, students from Central Technical School’s art department protested the AGO’s purchase and display of American artist Claes Oldenburg’s Floor Burger (1962). Oldenburg’s sculpture of an enlarged hamburger is a “soft” monument to American consumerism and daily life. But instead of creating an austere likeness in bronze or marble, he experimented with the tactile possibilities of sculpture, making what appears to be a soft object out of stuffed canvases. Oldenburg had begun making painted “soft” sculptures in 1957. First exhibited in New York in 1962, Floor Burger was considered to be ground breaking in its time. Originally entitled Hamburger, Floor Burger caused controversy in 1967 when it was purchased by the Art Gallery of Ontario for $2,000. Oldenburg responded to the high school students’ protest to the purchase with characteristic humour: he said the ketchup bottle should have been constructed out of something soft, not cardboard.

Andy Warhol Artwork © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

This very rare handwoven woolen tapestry was designed by celebrated American pop artist Andy Warhol (1928-1987) and created in 1968. The tapestry was part of the Equimark Bank corporate art collection, and was acquired by PNC Bank of Pittsburgh as part of their purchase of the bank and was subsequently bought by a private collector in Toronto in 1996. It was displayed for the first time in Europe as part of Turner Prize-artist Jeremy Deller’s "Love is Enough" exhibition, which he curated at Modern Art Oxford and the Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery in 2014 and 2015, a show that brought the histories of William Morris and Warhol together. The piece was originally made for the exhibition “American Tapestries” by Charles Slatkin Galleries in New York, for which many artists including Warhol, Alexander Calder, Roy Lichtenstein and Ellsworth Kelly provided tapestry designs. Warhol originally agreed to the creation of up to 20 editions of the Marilyn tapestry but ultimately very few were made. Almost 50 years later, this is, according to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, the only known example in existence.

Philip Guston (1913-1980) worked with figuration after 1968, but did not immediately exhibit these works. Prior to this, he had been a painter and printmaker who briefly studied at the Otis Art Institute where he met and befriended Jackson Pollock. Guston, primarily self-taught, was essentially an abstract expressionist, and gained notoriety along with fellow artists Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman. From 1959, he started to bring the gestural and the figurative together in order to pursue a radical style of stylized cartoon-like figures which was, at first, rejected. Born as Philip Goldstein in Montreal, Guston lived in America for most of his life with parents who had escaped persecution in Ukraine. Although Guston’s paintings from this era – incorporating a lexicon of Klansmen, light bulbs, cigarettes, heads and eyes – were not initially well received, they led to his being regarded as one of the most influential artists of his time. This painting was done a year prior to his death, and is therefore, one of the last “heads”, a motif begun as early as 1964.

The National Ballet of Canada premiered The Sleeping Beauty in 1972. This version of the treasured classic, restaged by Rudolf Nureyev and featuring designs by Nicholas Georgiadis, toured across North America. The company’s subsequent debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City placed the National Ballet on the international stage. Karen Kain, who performed the role of Princess Florine to great acclaim, won the Silver Medal at the Moscow International Ballet Competition in 1973 and went on to dance the lead role of Princess Aurora opposite Rudolf Nureyev's Prince Florimund. Together their costumes are an iconic part of the company’s archives and history. Ms. Kain, now the National Ballet of Canada's Artistic Director, also restaged The Sleeping Beauty in 2004, and in 2006 the stunning sets and costumes were rebuilt for the company’s inaugural performance at the Four Seasons Centre for the Performing Arts.

Wurlitzer organs were made primarily for theatres, particularly during the silent movie era. At the New York factory, Wurlitzer produced nickolodeons, band organs, fair organs, and pipe theatre organs until 1942 when they started making bomb proximity fuses for wartime use. Following the end of World War II, Wurlitzer became more focussed on the production of jukeboxes and smaller items like radios and personal organs. The Wurlitzer theatre organ, known as "The Mighty Wurlitzer," was invented by Robert Hope-Jones to sound like a full orchestra. These were only made from 1914 until 1942, and were perhaps the most famous of all of Wurlitzer products. The organ at Casa Loma is a rare specimen and is Canada’s largest. It cost $50,000 and was initially installed at Shea's Hippodrome Theatre, then located at 440 Bay Street, which was built for vaudeville acts and demolished in 1957, after which the organ was moved to the Maple Leaf Gardens until 1964. The Toronto Theatre Organ Society (created to rescue the organ), purchased the Wurlitzer for $3,850, because the Gardens were expanding. The Mighty Wurlitzer is now housed in Casa Loma. This type of theatre pipe organ still exists in its original state at the Fox Theatre, Detroit, Radio City Music Hall, New York, amongst many more in the UK and across America.

Andy Warhol Artwork © 2016 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.

This white grid by Sol LeWitt (1928-2007) dangles from the ceiling, a sculpture in suspense, levitated off the floor. There is no pedestal, just the hovering form. Built lattice by lattice and cube by cube, constructed from wood by hand and meticulously painted white, LeWitt’s irregular composition offers the possibility of eccentricity within a system of sameness. The gracefully descending grid invites exploration as the eye travels through the cubes, vectoring diagonally, up and down throughout the soaring structure. LeWitt, an artist who defined minimalism and conceptualism in the 1960s, created his work according to rational systems, yet within these he discovered infinite variation and dazzling beauty.

Michael Snow (b. 1928) lives in Toronto and works in various media including film, photography, sculpture and music. Between 1958 and 1960, before heading to New York with his then-wife Joyce Wieland, Snow worked on a series of works related to Goodbye that examine the notion of a “sculpture” or a “painting.” These works were all studies of the “object-ness” of the pictorial. Goodbye incorporates a wood panel, part of a piece of furniture that he reclaimed because he noticed that its forms were rectangles in a grid that echoed Detroit Blues (1958), a piece that he had recently done. He collaged elements onto the panel – placing other objects onto this found surface. Snow regards this early work as a sculpture, a painting, a collage and – ultimately – an object. The “goodbye” of the title refers to something that was once there and is now gone, and also to an object declaring its own farewell. This early work, resembling filmstrips in a way, is perhaps a prelude to the structural filmmaking of Snow’s seminal work Wavelength (1967), pinned as one of the most influential Canadian films and deemed by the Village Voice to be one of the hundred best films of the 20th century. Snow has been honoured with the Chevalier de l’Ordre des arts et des lettres, France (1995), the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2000) and the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (2011).

Lester William Polfus (1915-2009), or Les Paul, was a jazz and blues guitarist. This guitar was his own personal model produced by Gibson between 1952 and 1957 with an electric solid body plus a trapeze bridge and tailpiece that were replaced the following year. This was one of the first mass-produced electric guitars (along with the Fender Stratocaster) that created that real "rock and roll" sound. Les Paul was invited by the Gibson Guitar Corporation to work with the company as a consultant, as he had been working on his own guitar designs to derive a sound that could not be produced on an acoustic-electric guitar. In 1941, Paul designed "The Log,” a solid-body guitar that the Gibson Les Paul is modelled after. During the design process with Gibson, it was decided that Les Paul’s name would be branded onto the peghead as a sales tool. He specified that the finish should be in gold – “gold, like rich” – and another colour choice, introduced in 1953, was black so that people could see the player’s hands move on stage. The Gibson Les Paul has a single cutaway mahogany body, an archtop, a 22-fret neck, and two single-coil pickups. This guitar, being the one that Les Paul played himself, is both an iconic and historic instrument.

Auburn Prison, a maximum U.S. state prison, is where the first execution by electric chair took place in 1890 with the death of William Kemmler. The prison practiced hard labour reform strategies to finance operations. One of the strategies included a wood shop to make furniture. Gustav Stickley worked as Director of Manufacturing at Auburn around the time first electric chair was made. Given the style and craftsmanship, Stickley is credited as the designer of the original electric chair. Upon close inspection, one can see specific grooves and joinery work, indicating that great care was taken in the concept and construction of this chair. Stickley was interested in the idea of handcraft as a tool for reform as well as changing the American aesthetic. His job at Auburn predates his fame as the pioneer of the Arts and Crafts movement. A strikingly similar chair is featured in Andy Warhol’s Electric Chair series (based on a press image from Sing-Sing Prison) as a critique of the death penalty. This chair was likely a back-up chair for Sing-Sing’s infamous “Old Sparky” responsible for 614 executions between 1914-1963.

John C. Boileau Grant (1889-1973), originally from Scotland, was a professor of anatomy at the University of Manitoba, then the Chair of Anatomy at the University of Toronto where he curated the museum of anatomical specimens. It was from these specimens that the drawings for the incredibly popular Grant’s Atlas of Anatomy (first published in 1943) were produced. The catalogue of original medical illustrations is with the University of Toronto. The drawings are anatomical studies recreating specific dissections that were devised by John C. Boileau Grant and the atlas still widely used by students today. The beautiful illustrations were by artists Eila Hopper Ross, Maria Wishart, Elizabeth Blackstock, Marguerite Drummond and, in particular, Nancy Joy and Dorothy Foster Chubb, who worked with Grant for over 30 years. Grant had developed new dissections and the drawings demonstrate these with great precision.

Troy Hurtubise (b. 1963) is an inventor in North Bay obsessed with the potential of encountering the Canadian grizzly bear since an earlier episode of surviving such an incident. He decided to make body armour in order to study the behaviours of bears. He took seven years to make the Ursus Mark VI suit. Created from titanium, duct tape and air cushioning, it is more than seven feet high, weighs 150 pounds and cost $150,000 to make. Hurtubise is the compelling, charismatic subject of the 1996 documentary by Peter Lynch entitled Project Grizzly. In it, we see Hurtubise has created this suit and goes through various feats to test its capabilities. Because of its weight, once he is inside of it, he cannot get up by himself he happens to fall over. Lynch’s film, heralded as a lens into the Canadian psyche, is incredibly special, balancing beautiful landscapes with this high-energy character whose authenticity is captivating. Now celebrating its 20th year, Project Grizzly has been influential for directors like Quentin Tarantino and artists such as Matthew Barney. Unfortunately, Hurtubise did not encounter any bears.

The genius cartographer Gerardus or Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) drew this map through calculations and factual descriptions without ever exploring the mysterious Arctic himself. Mercator studied geography, mathematics and astronomy, was a master engraver and calligrapher, and made scientific instruments. In 1569, Mercator established the Mercator projection, a technique that showed lines of constant compass headings as straight lines and was very useful for sea navigators. His maps were gathered in what he coined as an “atlas” for a collection of several maps, and the first time this word was used in this context. Shown in the three-part atlas Atlantis pars altera, published by Mercator’s son a year following his death, this is the very first complete mapping of the Arctic and it displays the discoveries of the Northwest and Northeast Passages made by Sir Hugh Willoughby in 1534, Willem Barentsz in 1596, and Martin Frobisher and John Davis between 1570 and 1580. The idea that all continents were surrounded by water was the root of the idea that four rivers divide the North Pole, which Mercator believed was an enormous magnetic rock that sucked all the water down like a whirlpool. The corners of the map show the Shetland Islands, the Faroe Islands and the fictitious Frisland. The map was gifted to the Toronto Public Library by George Weston, who in 1882 founded George Weston Limited, now the largest food and retail business in Canada.

A long black coat drapes a figure that would have been foreign to the Haida, an indigenous people of the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. The traditional territory of the Haida is the archipelago of Haida Gwaii north of Vancouver Island. In 1787, the territory was named the Queen Charlotte Islands by a British Navy officer, Captain George Dixon. When the title to the land was acknowledged through the work of the Council of the Haida Nation, Haida Gwaii was re-established as the territory's name. The strong continuing presence of Haida traditional culture in contemporary life reflects a highly resilient people who survived colonization, the introduction of smallpox in the 1860s, the banning of the potlatch and the residential school system that was designed to erase their culture and history. The Haidas’ skills as carvers extends from massive totem poles and canoes to delicate jewellery and smaller carvings like this example. Sea Captain is a looming figure, beautifully made in argillite – a sedimentary rock found in Haida Gwaii that is similar to black slate. The Haida started using this material for artworks and began trading their carvings with sailors and traders in the mid-1800s. The Northwest coast was heavily visited by Russian, American and British whalers, traders, tourists and the military throughout the 19th century and the Haida began to trade their carvings with these foreigners. The sculpture, 18.4 inches high, with a face made from walrus tusk ivory, is a portrait of an American sea captain, probably from New England, the type of individual often referred to as a “Boston Man” by Indigenous peoples along the coast.

This blue-and-white porcelain flask decorated with Buddhist emblems is one of the Gardiner Museum’s most treasured objects. Its shape was inspired by the Iranian metal and glasswork water canteens used by travellers and other nomadic peoples moving along the trade routes of the Silk Road. These were later replicated by Chinese potters in Jingdezhen using porcelain as their primary medium. The Bianhu's impressive size is rare, as large pieces tended to collapse during firing. This is a stunning reflection of global contact and exchange and the cosmopolitan aesthetic of 18th-century Qing China. The Gardiner Museum was founded in 1984 by George and Helen Gardiner as a way to share their exceptional collection of ceramics with the public. Today it is among the few museums in the world focused on ceramic art. The collection is comprised of around 4,000 objects, including the most important collection of European porcelain in Canada, the country’s best collection of Italian Renaissance Maiolica, and highly significant collections of ceramics from the ancient Americas, Chinese blue and white porcelain, Japanese porcelain, and contemporary Canadian ceramics.

"Bull", a southern white rhinoceros is the first animal in the gallery section of the Royal Ontario Museum that addresses biodiversity and conservation. Rhinos have long been hunted for their horns – containing keratin and amino acids, amongst other complex substances – which are used for medicinal purposes, and mistakenly thought to be aphrodisiac. Rhinos are hunted and killed, their huge bodies left behind, as poachers are paid great sums of money for the horns. The second largest land mammal, with a male weighing as much as 2,000 kilograms, the white rhino represents a successful conservation story, as they were thought to be nearly extinct until a small group was found and subsequently protected. The white rhino at the Royal Ontario Museum was donated by the Toronto Zoo, where he fathered three rhino cubs, as part of a conservation programme. The preservation of this specimen took a year to prepare with the help of scientists, veterinarians and taxidermists.

This intricately detailed umbrella by Seiji Onizuka was made from cigarette papers and a broken chopstick in an internment camp where Japanese-Canadians were moved to from 1942 to 1946, under the orders of Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King. All property and belongings were placed under the protection of a Custodian and eventually sold while Japanese Canadian men, women and children were placed into thin, wooden shacks without heating or electricity. Unlike prisoners-of-war, they had to pay for their internment through the forced sale of property and belongings. It was very difficult to find coloured paper; certain cigarette papers were more valued for their colour than others and volunteers (many who were children when living in camps) at the Japanese Canadian Cultural Centre remember that many objects were constructed to create Kabuki scenes. In all 22,000 Japanese Canadians (14,000 of whom were born in Canada) were expelled from the 100-mile “protected area”, making it the largest exodus of people in Canada. Shikata-ga-nai, meaning “it can't be helped”, is a phrase sometimes used by Japanese Canadians to describe the events surrounding WWII. Although protests about the separation of families and forced sale of property did exist, for many, the cultural values of duty and obligation ensured that they quietly persevered their harsh treatment.

This rare ivory tusk, a hunting horn, is an outstanding expression of the visual and cultural exchange that occurred across the Eastern Mediterranean throughout the Fatimid dynasty (909-1171), which had its centre in Egypt and spanned the Byzantine Empire and the Italian city-states. It is one of the few surviving known examples carved in or near Sicily, with images derived from the Fatimid court style. Made into an Oliphant or hunting horn, the tusk is decorated with a hunting scene of real and mythical animals running in file along its length. (This is the predominant decorative theme on surviving Oliphants.) The exquisite detail and the silver mounts added in the 17th century in this splendid example suggest the horn may have served a ceremonial role.

Saint John the Baptist is unique in being revered in many religions, including Christianity, Islam and Judaism. An iconic depiction of his execution, on the orders of Herod at the request of Salome, is seen here in this 13th-century stained glass window. Rondels and draperies represented in classical folds (Muldenfaltenstil) epitomize a style that was primarily seen in the work of Nicholas of Verdun (1130-1205), famous for his goldsmithing and enameling in the Mosan branch of Romanesque art. The window is believed to be from the Cathedral of Saint-Etienne d'Auxerre in Burgundy. Renowned for its stained glass, the church was built between 1215 and 1233 over a crypt from the 11th century. The window is installed in the home of its collector, letting light bathe through it.

The “Beatle” boot is a modified Chelsea boot that was commissioned by John Lennon and Paul McCartney upon their return to England from Hamburg. They came up with their ideal look and asked Anello & Davide, a footwear company in Covent Garden that had been making theatrical and bespoke dance footwear since 1922, to create this stylish boot with a slight Cuban heel, elastic sides and a tight ankle. The Bata Shoe Museum owns one half of a pair of John Lennon's boots, included in their current exhibition “Standing Tall: The Curious History of Men in Heels.” The museum opened in 1995, and features a collection, begun by Sonja Bata in the 1940s, of over 13,000 artifacts spanning 4,500 years of history. The mission of the Bata Shoe Museum is to contribute to the knowledge and understanding of the role of footwear in the social and cultural life of humanity.

Maple Leaf Gardens, a Toronto venue that was home to the Toronto Maple Leafs and the Toronto Huskies basketball team, hosted Elvis Presley twice, the Beatles (in 1964, 1965 and 1966), Jimi Hendrix (1969), Stevie Wonder (1972) and Rush (1978), amongst thousands of legends. The Gardens was the site of the first NBA game in 1946, and it was where Team Canada beat the Soviets in game two of the 1972 Summit Series. This is the door to the dressing room, a door every player, musician, director and even Winston Churchill would have gone through. It is now installed in the home of the Ultimate Maple Leafs Fan.

Photographed on the hand of Geddy Lee, legendary singer, songwriter and bassist of the band Rush, are the World Series championship rings won by the Toronto Blue Jays in 1992 and 1993. In 1992, the Jays won against the Atlanta Braves in the first World Series ever with games played outside the United States. In 1993, they won against Philadelphia Phillies. These were some of the most exciting times for the city – and the Blue Jays remain the only Canadian team to have appeared in and won a World Series, particularly two years in a row making them “back-to-back” champs! The rings are made by Tiffany & Co. in 14K gold, with a maple leaf (actually, two on the 1993 ring), the largest diamond as the eye of the blue jay, and a scattering of diamonds encircling the logo. Lee is a huge baseball fan and collector, and the rings are part of his personal collection.

Of all the world cultures in medieval times, perhaps none equals the Japanese for their artistry, ingenuity and skill in the development of accoutrements made for war. This samurai kabuto (helmet) and hanbo (face mask) date from the Muromachi period (1336-1573), in the midst of what is often called The Age of Battles – a time when the island nation was in a constant state of civil war. Crafted by Yoshimichi and Takayoshi (who, along with Nobuiye, comprised the so-called San-Saku – the Three Later Master Armourers of Japan), they feature myriad technical innovations unheard of at the time, such as the helmet being made of 72 plates, each S-shaped, to better absorb the concussive effects of a blow. The frontal crest, or maedate, represents a Shachihoko, a mythical beast with the head of a tiger and the body of a carp and is typical of the samurai penchant for symbolism and mysticism in their armour.

The 6.5-foot model of the Avro Arrow, owned by the Aerospace Heritage Foundation of Canada, actually contains a fragment of the famous twin-engined, supersonic interceptor jet. The CF-105 had near-Mach-2 speed, and was built to serve as the Royal Canadian Air Force’s key interceptor against Soviet bombers, the threat of which had been looming. The Arrow was an achievement in aerodynamic design and in 1955, 35 Arrow aircraft were ordered to be constructed. Given the intense timeline, prototypes were eliminated, and the company went straight to full production with a large-scale testing programme. In 1957, Diefenbaker signed the North American Air Defence agreement joining Canada and the US for mutual air defence. As well, his Conservative government sought to rein in what they claimed was “rampant Liberal spending.” The Avro’s development was abruptly stopped in 1959 and all parts of the factory – the tooling, engines, plans and assembly – were ordered to be destroyed two months later, and put 15,000 people out of work. The Arrow may have been quashed in favour of the American Bomarc, the nuclear-tipped anti-aircraft missile, which the US wanted to place in Canada, to create a shared monitored air space of North America. The Avro Arrow was set to break world speed and altitude records; it was the most advanced fighter jet. Its sudden cancellation was viewed by some as incredibly detrimental to Canada’s aviation potential. Canada could not afford both the Arrow and the Bomarc but the latter won. This is a digital copy of the original blueprint that was smuggled out to save all traces of the Arrow from being destroyed, its circumstances which are still extremely suspicious. Perhaps the US simply did not want Canada to have a superior weapon system.

The 1939 New York World’s Fair was dominated by an optimistic vision of a technological future. The crowning feature of the RCA Pavilion was a display of the TRK line of televisions. The presentation of these sets is often cited as the beginning of the North American television age. The 1939 display marked the commencement of regular television broadcasts in North America and was the first opportunity for a large public to see a television in operation. The Phantom Telereceiver, now the rarest set on the planet, was built with Lucite, one of the 1939 New York World Fair’s theme materials. The inner workings of the receiver were exposed to remove any doubts that magic or trickery were involved in television broadcasting. To demonstrate that the pictures on the screen were live images, volunteers were escorted outside the building to stand before television cameras and wave to the folks viewing them inside. Participants received a souvenir card with their name on it, stating, “This is to certify that you have been Televised at the RCA Exhibit Building at the 1939 New York World’s Fair.” The Lucite set can be viewed at the MZTV Museum of Television in Liberty Village. The museum was established by Moses Znaimer, creator of over 20 independent stations and channels including CityTV, Bravo, MuchMusic, and CablePulse24, and the founder of ZoomerMedia Limited.

Felix the Cat rose to TV stardom in the late 1920s, when the American communications giant RCA chose him as a test subject for its television research. The lighting required to reflect images into the primitive television camera of the day proved far too hot for humans to stand, so using an inanimate object was the only option. The engineers at RCA Research Labs purchased this papier maché figurine of Felix from the famed New York City toy store FAO Schwarz, just up 5th Avenue at 57th Street from their own offices at Rockefeller Centre. Felix fell off his turntable often: first his tail fell off, then his head, which was reattached using a drumstick. It was in 1928 that RCA first broadcast Felix from the Empire State Building. Later, Felix was honoured when RCA transmitted his image on the first commercial television broadcast in 1939, as a lead-up to the formal unveiling of television at the New York World’s Fair. Thus, Felix the Cat became television’s first star! Before his television debut, this cat enjoyed many lives in animated film. Created by Otto Messmer, the initial series played from 1920 to 1928. The fun-loving cat made a comeback in 1936, starring in three short films. Then, in 1960, a new series was produced for television that featured the debut of Felix’s magic bag of tricks. Felix’s most recent performance occurred in 1991 at the Ed Sullivan Theatre in New York City as part of the first demonstration of high-definition television in the USA. Felix can be viewed at the MZTV Museum of Television in Liberty Village. The museum was established by Moses Znaimer, creator of over 20 independent stations and channels including CityTV, Bravo, MuchMusic, and CablePulse24, and the founder of ZoomerMedia Limited.

As of 2014, there are only 1590 giant pandas left in the wild, endangered due to urban development which is restricting and degrading their habitat, hence there has been a conservation strategy to increase their population, as they have a naturally low birthrate. The panda cubs twins, Jia Panpan (“Canadian Hope”, male) and Jia Yueyue (“Canadian Joy”, female), were born on October 13, 2015 to mum Er Shun who has been loaned who was loaned (along with male Da Mao) by China to the Toronto Zoo in 2013. The fertile period for female giant pandas is 24 to 72 hours only, between March and May. Er Shun was artificially inseminated and the father of the cubs is still not known. The giant panda is an endangered species, and only breeds once in two years if not already raising a cub; breeding is a great challenge as they are generally solitary animals,  however there is a contradicting information about pandas being poor breeders. Male pandas have to be behaviourally competent, and have to be a good match for the female. A female will mate with several males, and they only have contact for a few days. Twins are born approximately 50% of the time but usually only one cub will survive in the wild because it takes so much energy to raise two cubs, whereas, in captivity, twin swapping takes place with the help of caregivers assisting.  After the mating season, there is little contact with other pandas. Giant pandas are crucial to the natural growth of bamboo forests as they spread seeds. In captivity, there are 49 outside of China, in 18 different zoos. Pandas have historically been at risk of poaching, and continue to be as there is great demand for panda skins in Hong Kong and Japan. The panda is a source of diplomacy between the People’s Republic of China and American or Japanese zoos, which at first were given as gifts, but are now loaned along with the focus on a breeding programme. 

Garrett Herman owns 2,500 volumes of Darwin's works as well as all issues of The Times of London that span the course of Darwin's life. He began collecting writings on evolution in the early 1990s, and became transfixed with Darwin, the writer of what continues to be the most controversial text in modern history: the study of natural selection. Darwin produced six editions of The Origin of Species between 1859 and 1872. This is the largest collection of first editions known worldwide. Editions in different languages fill Herman's bookshelves, alongside a scale replica of the HMS Beagle in which Darwin travelled to the Galapagos. Herman often receives researchers who traverse through pages of The Times of London, looking up exact dates that are related to events around Darwin’s daily circumstances and struggles.

In moments of crisis, a person may require the protection of a spirit. The Nkondi, from the Democratic Republic of Congo, is made by a nganga (a religious authority) who carves a human figure and then drives through it with nails and other items during a ritual to awaken the spirits and call them into their task of protection. Often a reflective material was used for the eyes and/or body of the figure, preventing any evil or misuse by projecting these back. Many contemporary artists have referenced the Nkondi, including American artist Kara Walker in her silhouette works and as a central motif in her solo exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, in 2006. The desire to collect these was in part due to Robert Visser, a German diplomat, who introduced many of these figures into museum collections (like the Detroit Institute of Arts) in the early 1900s – some of which were purchased, some simply taken.

The Mbulu Ngulu or Kota Reliquary Figure was made by the Kota tribe of Gabon to safeguard the bones of a respected ancestor. Ancestral worship was at the root of all rituals in this society as ancestors were highly revered as leaders of the community. The figure was comprised of a head sitting on stylized shoulders. A convex face would represent a male, while a concave one denoted a female. These figures are unique amongst African sculpture forms in that they are made of both wood and hammered copper, a material associated with longevity. The lozenge- or diamond-shaped base would be bound upright to a cylindrical bark box atop a basket or bundle – bwete – that held the bones of the ancestor. The figures and their burdens were placed outside of the home and on the edge of a village on sacred ground. The Kota were migratory people and they would take the bwete with them but often leave behind the Mbulu Ngulu. About 50 examples are known in American and European collections, which is a fraction in comparison to the quantity made by the Kota peoples. Many of the reliquary figures began to disappear between 1940 and 1960, due to orders from missionaries who either confiscated them, hid them in forests, or destroyed them.

African-American artist Kara Walker (b. 1969) is internationally renowned for her nearly life-sized narrative cut-paper silhouettes that retrace the violence and abuse of slavery experienced in the American South. Her traditional-seeming imagery initially appears pleasant and picturesque, referencing the way the lives of African-American slaves have often been depicted, but she subverts the medium to tell us another history altogether.  Walker's installations bring the viewer into a direct relationship with the realities of history, and include scenes of abuse and rape as experienced within slavery. Shown here are all three panels of her 2009 work, 10 Years Massacre (and its Retelling). This is one of the largest works by Walker to be found in a private collection in Canada. Walker has perhaps become best known for her enormous “A Subtlety or the Marvelous Sugar Baby”, a giant sugar sphinx presented by Creative Time in New York, 2014, in homage to the past unpaid workers on cane fields.

This British gorget was found in archaeological digs at Fort York National Historic Site from the layer of the Battle of York which was on April 27, 1813. Brass-gilt gorgets were worn by the British military and indicated "officer of the day", but were also presented to First Nations Chiefs as a symbol of mutual respect. Some gorgets were flattened and separated into pieces that were worn by chiefs on particular days of battle. This gorget was recovered in two pieces on opposite ends of the site, while the rest of the gorget has never found. What is so fascinating about the find at Fort York is the story of the city, and how this little gorget tells us about two cultures on one of the most traumatic days of this city.

Rubens painted The Massacre of the Innocents on returning home to Antwerp after eight years in Italy. The three-dimensional quality of the figures in the painting testifies to the influence on Rubens’ style of Roman sculpture, while the sumptuous palette and the high emotional tenor of the composition are nods to Italian contemporaries like Caravaggio. The painting was probably made as a chimney piece for the receiving room in an upper class Antwerp home, which makes the subject matter – the execution of all the boys in Bethlehem two years old or under – curious. The violent acts of the Roman soldiers and the palpable devastation of the painting's women would have, undoubtedly, inspired a variety of conversations, ranging from the comparable ravages of the Eighty Years’ War (1568-1648) to the virtuosity of Rubens’ painterly technique. Canadian businessman Ken Thomson acquired The Massacre in 2001 with the intention of donating it to the Art Gallery of Ontario and providing Canadians with this spectacular example of Old Master painting. The painting’s incredible craftsmanship and its evocation of the history of sculpture make it a fitting apotheosis to Thomson's Collection of European Art at the gallery.

Jean (Hans) Arp (1886-1966) was one of the founders of Dadaism in 1916, became a surrealist in the 1920s and later turned to constructivism, a movement that demanded more order and rationality than surrealism. In the early 1960s, Arp made a series of 10 Buste sylvestre sculptures, some in bronze and some in marble, that stemmed from a series of biomorphic pieces begun in the 1930s. In his later years, Arp enjoyed many successes, including the Grand Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1954, a retrospective of his work at New York’s Museum of Modern Art in 1958, and a retrospective at the Musée National d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1962. Arp made editions of the torso sculpture in polished bronze only, which from time to time, come up for auction.

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) is considered one of the most influential artists of the past century. He led the cubism movement with Georges Braque and Juan Gris. His later works explore the history of art, in particular the pictorial problems of past paintings by himself and other artists. In its colours and composition, 1960's Le Petit Dejeuner is reminiscent of 1957's Las Meninas, a series of 58 paintings in which Picasso performed comprehensive analyses, reinterpretations and recreations of the 1656 painting by Diego Velázquez.

The Mujahideen Arabic-language Oliver is one of many typewriters in Naked Lunch, David Cronenberg's sci-fi drama from 1991 inspired by the biographical novel by William S. Burroughs. The typewriters in the film mutate into insects and give orders to its protagonist, Tom Frost. Cronenberg (b. 1943) is a master of films that chronicle the transformation of the body into the horrific; he basically created the "body horror" genre. TIFF's first major touring exhibition, "David Cronenberg: Evolution," curated by TIFF CEO Piers Handling and former TIFF Artistic Director Noah Cowan, addresses the director's fascination with and study of evolution, and showcases such artifacts as this and other typewriters from Naked Lunch and the helmet from Videodrome. Cronenberg is Canada's most renowned filmmaker and, quite fittingly, he will play the role of God in an upcoming indie sci-fi.

The son of Charles Lewis Tiffany, founder of Tiffany and Company, Louis Comfort Tiffany started out as a painter but later became interested in stained glass. First made in 1895, his stained-glass leaded lamps were made by drawing out the pattern on cardboard, then deciding on glass colours (with each represented by a number). The glass was then laid over the pattern, traced and cut to its assigned shape, after which copper foil was pressed along each edge so that the pieces could be soldered to create the overall shape. The designs were by Clara Driscoll under Louis Tiffany, and there were three styles: Favrile, Geometric, and Transition to Flowers, the series to which this lamp belongs, with its beautiful dragonfly motif. Tiffany lamps coincide with the growing use of the electric lightbulb – by turning on the switch, the decorative glass would come alive. Being a naturally good salesman, Tiffany could sell these portable lamps that went hand-in-hand with new technology. While these lamps were always expensive, they went out of fashion in the mid-1920s, to be revived in 1960s. In 1997, Christie’s auction house sold a lamp for $2.8 million!

The elongated faces in Modigliani's paintings were extended to his sculptures, which he dedicated himself to between 1909 and 1914. Born in Italy, Modigliani (1884-1920) was from an intellectual family of Sephardic Jewish descent. He moved to Paris in 1906 and worked furiously. From 1909 to 1910, he was a disciple of Constantin Brâncuși. This two-foot-tall piece is of a woman wearing an African mask. He and many artists of his day were influenced by the geometry and simplicity of form of African art. There are only 27 known sculptures by Modigliani, who died at 35 from tuberculosis, an illness he had had since childhood. In 2010, one of his limestone sculptures, Tete, was purchased anonmyously for 43.2 million Euros, one of the highest prices paid for a sculpture ever.

Sir Antony Gormley (b. 1950) is a British sculptor who works through the form of his body, as a material experience that he lives within and outside of. His ROOM series – 1980 to 1990 – is the first exploration of the figure within space. Where ROOM, 1980 took the layers of the material world that come in close contact with the body and expanded them into the enclosed spaces of the built world, ROOM II condenses the enclosing aspect of architecture and places it right next to the skin. ROOM II chronicles a translation of the dimensions of the artist’s body into a modernist, concrete structure. As the series continues, the body is taken out to the desert, then squeezed into a tiny space, describing a human place in space at large.

This is a two-sided sculpture made from ossified whalebone – which takes between 50 to 100 years to become dry enough to serve as a carving medium. Karoo Ashevak (1940-1974) was one of the most renowned artists from the Talurjuaq (Spence Bay), Nunavut community. He was the first to deviate from a traditional style, developing this "expressionist" style and influencing generations with over 250 sculptures that channelled the local Netsilingmiut spirituality. Ashevak’s works were created during a time of change in which he, along with many Inuit, was transitioning from a traditional life on the land to a life in settled communities.

This ancient Cypriot terracotta figurine of a mother holding her child should not be interpreted as “primitive.” The artisan who made it was perfectly capable of producing a more naturalistic form but purposely created this abstract shape with a flat body, neck and head. The mother's garment is richly decorated; she wears jewellery, has long hair falling on her back and displays tattooing on her cheeks. Most of the plank-shaped red polished ware idols discovered have been found in tombs and all appear to be women and mothers. Perhaps they were symbols of fertility kept by women to increase the chance of conception. Their exact function in the afterlife remains a mystery.

This painting by Lawren Harris (1885-1970) in a private collection has never been publicly shown. It is displayed here with the work of Bess Housser (1890-1969) to illustrate a great love story. When Harris and Bess, who was married to Harris’s childhood friend, fell in love, they saw no way forward. When Housser was left for another woman and the two wanted to be together, Harris was married with three children. He ultimately left his wife of 24 years in 1934. Harris and Housser moved to the US and then, in 1940, to Vancouver. One of the founders of the Group of Seven, Harris had a distinctive style, capturing the scenery with a certain quality of abstraction, a thick application of paint and an exploration of the spiritual (theosophical in his case) in the landscape. This early painting, forsees the future style that would become more pared down, more minimal, but still connected to the landscape. Housser, who was included in Group of Seven exhibitions, was mostly self-taught. The Group of Seven were a group of Canadian landscape painters, working together from 1920 to 1933, communing with nature, they worked to define an identity for Canadian art. 

Cabinet, 1902, white painted oak (restored finish), silver leaf, inlay of coloured glass; 984.85.1; Bed, 1904, white painted wood (restored finish), 984.85.2.1.1-2.1.5; Chair, c. 1898-1900, oak, stained dark, horsehair fabric cover, 994.172.1, A Generous Gift from the Howarth Collection; Wash stand, 1904, white painted wood (restored finish), ebony handles, glass, silvered metal mounts, 984.85.2.2.1-2.2.

It is largely due to the work of architectural historian Thomas Howarth (1914-2000), that the legacy of Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh (1868-1928) was re-established. Howarth, originally from Manchester, immigrated to Canada and became dean of the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Toronto. He wrote articles, monographs and amassed a private collection of Mackintosh material and made generous donations to ROM, Glasgow University, and the Mackintosh Society. The ROM has one of the largest collections of Mackintosh’s work outside of Scotland. The rest of Howarth’s collection was sold at Christie’s in 1994 for 2.27 million pounds. When Mackintosh died in 1928, his home and contents were valued at 88 pounds. The furniture at the ROM includes a washstand, a bed, the “Charles cabinet”, and the now-iconic high-back chair which was originally designed for Miss Cranston’s tearooms on Argyle Street, Glasgow, and were also used by Mackintosh in his own dining room. Mackintosh manifested several influences in the design of his architecture and furnishings, including those emanating from Japan, which he synthesized with some Arts and Crafts, Art Nouveau, Wiener Werkstatte and Baroque design elements. Mackintosh’s “conception of the room as a work of art in which every detail must form an integral part of, and be subordinate to the whole” was to have a profound influence on his contemporaries. His place as an architect who exercised a profound role in the evolution of 20th century architecture and design, is no longer disputed.

This crinoid, Seirocrinus subangularis, was quarried from the 180-million-year-old Jurassic Posidonia Shale of Holzmaden in southern Germany. The fossil measures a staggering 7'11'' high by 4' wide. The Holzmaden site is well known for its exceptional fossil preservation, the result of very low oxygen levels on the sea floor, which inhibited destruction by scavengers and bacteria. Crinoids with long stems are typically anchored to the sea floor. The ancient Holzmaden sea floor, however, was apparently unsuitable, and Seirocrinus here is found attached to logs. As the wood drifted with currents at the surface, the crinoid spread its arms like a tow net to capture food particles suspended in the water. In this example, a colony of three large specimens of Seirocrinus, each reaching several feet, lived together attached to the same log. The log also provided an attachment site for the clam Pseudomytiloides dubius.

Constantin Brâncuși (1876-1957) directly carved his sculptures instead of making clay models. Originally from Romania, he moved to Paris and briefly worked in the studio of Rodin, which shaped his thoughts on the treatment of form. Brâncuși, often said to have redefined sculpture in the modern age (and once a mentor to Modigliani), focused on finding the true nature and form of the materials he worked in. From 1907, Brancusi broke away from the established method of modeling, and revived the technique of direct carving as evidenced in The Kiss. The integrity of the material is maintained, and the single block of stone from which the original was carved remains visible as the figures emerge. He developed a distillation process, simplifying and purifying his forms. All ornamentation and embellishments have been eliminated, and the figures have been reduced to their essentials, allowing the pure essence of the subject to communicate to the viewer. Here, the bodies of the two lovers are fused together in a loving embrace. Six plaster casts (like this one) exist, and he exhibited one of these at the Armory Show in 1913. This form was pursued in several versions, slowly becoming more and more abstract and geometric. The Kiss is part of his proto-cubist style, and led to the abstract sculpture he began developing in the early 1920s.

The first full production of Apocalypsis by R. Murray Schafer (b. 1933) took place in London, Ontario, in 1980, and it was not performed again until the 2013 Luminato Festival. (The 2013 version was “a bold music-drama-ritual-theatre extravaganza,” according to the Globe and Mail.) With a cast of a thousand, the epic oratorium is in two parts. The first, John’s Vision, about the end times, is based on the Book of Revelation. The second part, Credo, reflects on rebirth, reconstruction and an improved new world. This handwritten score is remarkable for the graphic style of its notations.

Invited to the city following the Montreal Expo of 1968, Buckminster Fuller – the visionary inventor, architect, writer and designer – was asked to propose a plan for the harbour area of Toronto. During a press conference held by The Toronto Telegram, Fuller announced a plan that included a 3,000-foot-long galleria, linking the city to the lake, in which there would be cafés, boutiques, film houses, art galleries and a connection to Union Station. A pedestrian bridge from the galleria would connect to a high-density waterfront apartment complex built on a series of islands. He also proposed a 400-foot high, 20-storey crystal pyramid, accessible from Front Street, University Avenue and Lake Shore Boulevard, that would serve as a trade centre. Lastly, he wanted to build a high-rise office tower, the Gateway Tower, to create a visual demarcation between the city and the lake. Another part of the proposal was to extend Toronto into the lake and build islands that serve as swimming suburbs in Lake Ontario. In a way the Portlands and the Hearn Generating Station as the largest community and cultural center in the world are an inspiration from Buckminster Fuller’s vision and could be a brainchild of this 20th century genius.

The ROM’s collection of Martian meteorites – actual pieces of the planet Mars – are a truly exceptional treasure. With 23 pieces from different individuals (there are only 100 Martians known to exist on Earth) it is one of the largest collections in any public institution. But it is more than their scarcity that makes them so important. If a planet is hit – as they periodically are – by an asteroid, the force unleashed by the impact can blow material off the surface and launch it into space. If the material finds its way to Earth and is recognized for what it is, it can then unleash its secrets. Meteorites are our only source of material from other planets, and they have told us much about Mars. ROM samples have helped to show that the Martian crust was geologically active up until relatively recently (200 million years is recent, geologically speaking) unlike the other rocky planets in our solar system. Continued study of the collection will paint a more complete picture of this other world, and show us just how different we are, or indeed, how similar.

Archaeological textiles such as this Coptic fragment are among the rarest and richest sources of historical knowledge, recovered from arid desert landscapes of Egypt. Evidence of evolving belief systems, the floral motif and technique of this tapestry-woven medallion from Egypt’s Christian era reflects the mixing of classical Hellenic and ancient Egyptian worlds. Adorning tunics – the quintessential garments of men and women – such roundels were believed to offer the wearer protection. Their creation was laborious and time consuming, from the preparation of the wool and the process of dying the yarns to the visual design and intricate weaving required in construction. Through the resourceful and practical reuse of such elaborate ornaments, each could adorn multiple garments over lifetimes. The Copts have occupied the Nile Valley from the 3rd century to the present, a continuity that has allowed for the unique currency of such symbolic traditions today. This roundel is from the collection of the Textile Museum of Canada, which has over 13,000 textiles. In 2013, the Museum undertook upgrades to the storage of its archaeological textiles in order to ensure the longevity of these vulnerable cultural materials.

Jack Bush (1909-1977) was part of the Painters Eleven (1953-1960) group in Toronto, created to promote abstract art in Canada. It was the famous art critic Clement Greenberg who mentored Bush and connected him to the Color Field movement. Bush painted Mainly Tan, an excellent example of the Color Field style, in the same year that he represented Canada at the Sao Paulo Art Biennial, leading him to great success in New York and elsewhere. National Gallery of Canada recently had a solo exhibition in which 130 of Bush’s paintings, drawings and commercial illustrations were shown.

Joyce Wieland (1931-1988) was one of Canada’s leading contemporary women artists. She brought a craft sensibility to her work in film, painting and animation, and used fabric to create quilted pieces and sewn collages. Key themes in her work were gender, ecology and Canadian identity. Barren Ground Caribou (1978), her large-scale quilted collage, depicts a group of the eponymous migratory animals that often walk for thousands of miles from tundra to forest in search of food. This piece was commissioned by the Ontario Heritage Fund in 1976, during a time when Wieland was contracted to create several large works including Defend the Earth/Défendez la terre, a quilted wall mural for the National Science Library, Ottawa (1973). Barren Ground Caribou, now owned by the Toronto Transit Commission, is permanently installed at the Kendal Avenue exit of Spadina Station.

The tree that inspired the song “The Maple Leaf Forever” was felled in a windstorm in July 2013. It was outside of Alexander Muir’s cottage on Laing Street, Leslieville, and the song he wrote in 1867 would possibly have become the national anthem if it hadn't received backlash for British patriotism. The main section of the silver maple now resides at the Ontario Science Centre, and other parts have been salvaged: saplings have been planted in Ottawa and Toronto, a flagpole made from its wood now stands at the House of Commons in Ottawa, the Canadian Museum of History has pieces and various woodworkers have made of it bowls, stands and lecterns. The Ontario Wood Carvers Association is onsite at the Science Centre, carving into a section of the tree’s main branch to commemorate important people, places and events in Toronto’s history.