Doris McCarthy came to prominence once her career as a teacher ended in 1972. As the twentieth century came to a close, she exhibited frequently and attracted some critical attention. Unfortunately, as McCarthy herself noted, landscape painting as a genre waned in popularity by the 1950s. Art historians and major Canadian art institutions consequently gave her work little consideration. Her paintings have, however, remained hugely popular among collectors, and many regard her three-volume autobiography as one of the finest of its kind in Canada.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
1942
Mellors Gallery, Toronto
1947
Victoria College, University of Toronto, Toronto
1951
Port Colborne Art Gallery, Port Colborne
1959
Women’s Art Association of Canada, Toronto
1963
Alice Peck Gallery, Burlington
1970
Gallery 93, Ottawa
1972
Gutenberg Gallery, Toronto
1974
Kensington Fine Art Gallery, Calgary
1975
Robertson Galleries, Ottawa
1977
Merton Gallery, Toronto
Wells Gallery, Ottawa
1980
Aggregation Gallery, Toronto
1982
Agassiz Galleries, Winnipeg
1983
Americas Society, New York
Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
1984
Robert Vanderleelie Gallery, Edmonton
Impact Gallery, Jasper
1986
Early Work: Paintings, Drawings and Relief Prints from the 30s, 40s & 50s, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
1990
Canadian Art Galleries, Calgary
1991
Doris McCarthy, A Feast of Incarnation, Paintings 1929–1989, Gallery Stratford, Stratford; MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie; Chatham Cultural Centre, Chatham-Kent; Pointe-Claire Cultural Centre, Pointe-Claire; McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg; Art Gallery of Algoma, Sault Sainte Marie; Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Thunder Bay; The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa; Justina M. Barnicke Gallery (Hart House) and the University of Toronto Art Centre, Toronto; Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa; Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough
1992
Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies, Banff
Doris McCarthy: Travels, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
1996
Past and Present, W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery, North Bay
1999
New Watercolours & Sketches from Ireland, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
The View From Here, Art Gallery of Mississauga, Mississauga
Tom Thompson Memorial Art Gallery, Owen Sound
1999–
2000
Celebrating Life: The Art of Doris McCarthy, McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Kleinburg
2000
Doris McCarthy, Canada and Beyond, Scott Gallery, Edmonton
2002
Recent Paintings in Oil and Watercolours, The Upstairs Gallery, Winnipeg
2004
Everything Which Is Yes: Paintings 1946–2003, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto
2010
Roughing It in the Bush, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto
Key Group Exhibitions
1947–50
Canadian Women Artists, Riverside Museum, New York
1950
Two-Woman Show with Virginia Luz, London Art Gallery, London
1951
Picture Loan Gallery, Toronto
1958
Minneapolis Bicentennial, Minneapolis
1959
Four-Person Show, Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener
1961
London Art Gallery, London
1969
Group Show, Calgary Art Gallery
1976
Watercolours: Japan–Canada, international exchange sponsored by the Japanese Water Colour Society and the Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour
1983–84
The Woman’s Show, Ontario Society of Artists, Canadian National Exhibition (CNE), Toronto, and travelling to other destinations in Ontario
1988–89
Home Sweet Home Toronto, The Market Gallery, Toronto
1996
Group Show, Davidson Galleries, Seattle
1997
Informal Ideas, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
Rediscovering the Landscape of the Americas, Art Museum of South Texas, Corpus Christi
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe
Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson
2003
The Boat Show, Wynick/Tuck Gallery, Toronto
2014
Glam North: Doris McCarthy and Her New Contemporaries, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto
2018
Intervention: 31 Women Painters / 31 Femmes Peintres, McClure Gallery, Montreal
2018–19
the body may be said to think, Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, Toronto
2019
Clean Shape, MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie
Society Exhibitions
Canadian Group of Painters: 1954–56, 1960
Canadian Society of Painters in Water Colour: 1938–39, 1944, 1953–56, 1958, 1964–65, 1967, 1970
Ontario Society of Artists: 1931–36, 1939, 1941–42, 1944–45, 1949, 1958, 1964–65, 1967, 1970, 1973, 1975
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts: 1934–37, 1944, 1946–49, 1951–55, 1958–60, 1987
Selected Writings by Doris McCarthy
McCarthy, Doris. A Fool in Paradise: An Artist’s Early Life. Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1990.
McCarthy, Doris. The Good Wine: An Artist Comes of Age. Toronto: Macfarlane Walter & Ross, 1991.
McCarthy, Doris. “Have paintbrush, camera, will travel.” Toronto Star, March 13, 1999, J11.
McCarthy, Doris. “County Mayo: A Canadian painter in Ireland.” Canadian Art 16, no. 3 (Fall 1999): 52–55.
McCarthy, Doris. “The Artist’s Life.” Globe and Mail, February 23, 2002, R2.
McCarthy, Doris. Doris McCarthy: Ninety Years Wise. Toronto: Second Story Press, 2004.
McCarthy, Doris. Doris McCarthy: My Life. Toronto: Second Story Press, 2006.
Key Interviews
Kelly, Michael Paul. “Interview with Doris McCarthy,” in Doris McCarthy: Past and Present. North Bay: W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery, North Bay Arts Centre & Beatty Printing, 1996, 13–19.
Murray, Joan. “Interview with Doris McCarthy, December 10, 1982.” Unpublished manuscript, archives of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, 1982.
Murray, Joan. “Interview with Doris McCarthy, January 21, 1983.” Unpublished manuscript, archives of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, 1983.
Murray, Joan. “Interview with Doris McCarthy about Yvonne McKague Houser, March 1992.” Unpublished manuscript, archives of The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa, 1992.
Audio & Video
A Conversation with Doris McCarthy. Markham: Windborne Productions, 1997.
Brown, Ian. “Interviews with Doris McCarthy.” CBC Radio, March 9, 1990.
Doris McCarthy: Heart of a Painter. Directed by Wendy Wacko. Jasper: W. Wacko Productions Ltd., 1983.
Doris McCarthy on Take 30. CBC, February 1977.
Online Resources
Doris McCarthy Collection. UTSC Library Digital Collections. University of Toronto Scarborough. https://collections.digital.utsc.utoronto.ca/search?a%5B0%5D%5Bf%5D=all&a%5B0%5D%5Bi%5D=IS&a%5B0%5D%5Bv%5D=Doris%20McCarthy.
“Reframing Doris McCarthy: A Symposium on the Life and Work of Doris McCarthy.” Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, November 18, 2018. https://dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca/programming/projects/doris-mccarthy-symposium.
Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough. https://dorismccarthygallery.utoronto.ca/.
Critical Interpretations
Adams, James. “Doris McCarthy: chameleon of the canvas.” Globe and Mail, July 3, 2010. https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/doris-mccarthy-chameleon-of-the-canvas/article1386446/.
Bentley Mays, John. “A landscape and style frozen in time.” Globe and Mail, January 2, 1993, C8.
Cameron, Elspeth. “Lives of Women.” Saturday Night 105, no. 6 (July/August 1990): 62–63.
Crean, Susan. “The Female Gaze: A Voice of Her Own: Doris McCarthy writers as energetically as she paints.” Canadian Art (Fall 1990), 17–18.
Dault, Gary Michael. “Vivacious artist pins down the Arctic air.” Toronto Star, February 28, 1977, D5.
Gilmore, Jann Haynes. “Rediscovered Women Artists: Doris McCarthy – An Unrecognized Canadian Artist.” AWA News (blog), February 1, 2021. https://americanwomenartists.org/rediscovered-women-artists-doris-mccarthy/.
Kelly, Michael Paul. Doris McCarthy: Past and Present. North Bay: W.K.P. Kennedy Gallery, North Bay Arts Centre & Beatty Printing, 1996.
Kingston, Anne. “The cult of Doris.” Maclean’s 123, no. 28 (July 20, 2010): 54.
Kritzwiser, Kay. “A visit with Doris McCarthy.” City and Country Home 2, no. 3 (Fall 1983): 146–53.
McCarthy, Doris, Nicole Collins, Harold Klunder, Ann MacDonald, and David Urban. Doris McCarthy: Everything Which Is Yes. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004.
Milroy, Sarah. “Portrait of a happy artist.” Globe and Mail, April 15, 2004.
Moore, William. Doris McCarthy: Feast of Incarnation, Paintings 1929–1989. Stratford: Stratford Gallery, 1991.
Moore, William and Stuart Reid. Celebrating Life: The Art of Doris McCarthy. Kleinburg: McMichael Canadian Art Collection, 1999.
Reid, Stuart. Doris McCarthy: The View from Here. Mississauga: Art Gallery of Mississauga, 1999.
Reid, Stuart. the body may be said to think. Scarborough: Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, 2018.
Rudder, Jennifer and Alexander Irving (eds.). GLAM NORTH: Doris McCarthy and Her New Contemporaries. Scarborough: Doris McCarthy Gallery, University of Toronto Scarborough, 2014.
Scott, John. “Glam North: Doris McCarthy’s Northern Landscapes.” Border Crossings 23, no. 3, 91 (August 2004), 36–40.
Webb, Marshall. “Doris McCarthy: A Pioneering Spirit.” Art West 5, no. 7 (November/December 1980), 14.
Whyte, Murray. “Artist Part of the Canadian Landscape.” Toronto Star, June 26, 2010, E4.
Further Reading
Alexander, Bryan and Cherry Alexander. The Vanishing Arctic. New York: Checkmark Books, 1997.
Boutilier, Alicia, Linda Jansma, Heather Home, and Anna Hudson. A Vital Force: The Canadian Group of Painters. Kingston: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, 2013.
Conrick, Maeve, Caitríona Ní Chasaide, Munroe Eagles, and Jane Koustas, eds. Landscapes and Landmarks of Canada: Real, Imagined, (Re)Viewed. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2017.
Garnet, Dustin Ian. “A Storied History of Art Education: The Art Department at Central Technical School, 1892–2014.” PhD diss., Concordia University, Montreal, 2015, https://spectrum.library.concordia.ca/id/eprint/980110/.
Grace, Sherrill. Canada and the Idea of North. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2007.
Greenwood, Michael. “Myth and Landscape.” Arts Canada 35, no. 222/223 (October/November 1978): 1–8.
Hill, Charles C. The Group of Seven: Art for a Nation. Ottawa: National Gallery of Canada, 1995.
McKay, Marylin J. Picturing the Land: Narrating Territories in Canadian Landscape Art, 1500–1950. Montreal and Kingston: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2011.
Murray, Joan. Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century. Toronto and Oxford: Dundurn Press, 1999.
Reid, Dennis. A Concise History of Canadian Painting, 3rd ed. Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press, 2012.
Silcox, David P. The Group of Seven and Tom Thomson. Toronto: Firefly Books, 2006.
Woodcock, George. “There are no universal landscapes.” Arts Canada 35, no. 222/223 (October/November 1978): 37–42.
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Acknowledgements