Untitled (Mountains near Jasper)

Lawren Stewart Harris

Oil on canvas, c.1934–40

 

 

A los toros II

Pablo Picasso

Lithograph on paper, 1961

 

 

Constant Landscape

Otto Donald Roger

Paper collage, acrylic
and charcoal on paper, 1979

The Mendel Art Gallery was built in 1964 with assistance from Gallery’s chief benefactor, Mr. Fred Mendel (1888–1976). The Gallery’s inaugural exhibition entitled The Mendel Family Collection, was comprised of the family’s collection of European and Canadian art.

The following year, in 1965, the Mendel family donated 13 paintings by Canadians dating primarily from the 1920s and the 1930s.

This generous donation, which included works by Group of Seven members Lawren S. Harris, A.Y. Jackson, Arthur Lismer, Franz Johnston, J.E.H. MacDonald, and Emily Carr, as well as Jean-Paul Lemieux, David Milne, C. Krieghoff, George Csato, E.J. Hughes, and Ignac Konrad, formed the nucleus from which the Gallery’s Permanent Collection grew.

Since that time, the Mendel Art Gallery has collected over 5,000 works of art in different media, including paintings, sculpture, prints, and drawings of national importance. Canadian artists are major focus of the collection, with Saskatchewan artists gaining in prominence.

In 1979, the Gallery began to aggressively purchase work by contemporary Saskatchewan artists, including Ernest Lindner, Dorothy Knowles, William Perehudoff, Otto Rogers, Douglas Bentham, Wynona Mulcaster, Don Foulds, Rick Gorenko, David Thauberger, Jerry Didur, Joe Fafard, Vic Cicansky, Ann Harbuz, Dmytro Stryjek, David Alexander, Greg Hardy, Mina Forsyth, Tom O’Flanagan, Wendy Coad, Eli Bornstein, Reta Cowley, Alicia Popoff, Ann Newdigate Mills, and Kaija Harris.

Donors continue to play a significant role in building this important collection. Dr. and Mrs. C.G. Morrison donated nearly 100 works by Stanley Brunst (1894–1962), and in 1981 more than 200 watercolours and photographs by Leslie G. Saunders were donated by his widow, Jessie Saunders.

These donations have been augmented by the acquisition—through purchases and donations—of work that highlights the early history of the Saskatoon art community, including works by Robert Hurley, Ernest Lindner, Bart Pragnell, Bodil Lindner, and Wynona Mulcaster.

↑ top