Description of the attraction
Among the many attractions in Vancouver, the Art Gallery located at 750 Hornby Street undoubtedly deserves the closest attention - one of the largest and most interesting art galleries in Canada.
The Vancouver Art Gallery was founded in 1931 and housed in a small building at 1145 West Georgia Street. Twenty years later, in an effort to expand the exhibition space, the original building underwent significant changes, but the gallery's collection grew rapidly, and the question of expansion again became relevant. In 1983, the new home of the Vancouver Art Gallery was the magnificent neoclassical former courthouse on Hornby Street, built back in 1906 to a design by Francis Rattenbury. The gallery has moved to Hornby Street following an extensive renovation of the courthouse by Arthur Erickson as part of the Robson Square renovation.
The collection of the gallery has more than 10,000 exhibits - these are paintings, sculptures, prints, photographs and other works of art. A significant part of the collection is the work of Canadian masters, including Emily Carr (Vancouver gallery owns the largest collection of her works), Jeff Wall, Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, John Vanderpant, David Milne, Harold Towne, Théophile Hamel, Anthony Plamondinari, as well as works of the so-called "Group of Seven" and many others. The galleries also include works by such prominent representatives of the Dutch "golden age" as Jan Ravestein, Jan Weinants, Isaac van Ostade, Peter Nifs, Abraham Stork, as well as works by the famous Japanese photographer Eiko Hosoe and the first edition of The Disaster of War by Francisco Goya.
The Art Gallery is famous for its excellent library - 45,000 volumes of specialized literature, an impressive selection of periodicals, exhibition and auction catalogs, slides, etc. The museum regularly hosts various temporary exhibitions, as well as educational programs and lectures.
Unfortunately, today only a small part of the gallery's treasures is on permanent display, and a new spacious building is planned for the foreseeable future.
