The Bequest: Ernest E. Poole and the AGA Collection

In 1975, the Ernest E. Poole Foundation donated 90 works of art to The Edmonton Art Gallery, now known as the Art Gallery of Alberta. The gift remains the most significant contribution ever made to the AGA’s collection of historical Canadian art. It includes major works from the late 19th century, by Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, mid-century modernists and westerners such as James Henderson. These paintings had been originally collected by Ernest E. Poole, a renowned collector who passed away some ten years before the donation was given to the Gallery under the direction of his son John. In celebration of the Poole legacy to the visual arts in Canada, this exhibition features key works from the 1975 gift. It will consider how this Bequest has shaped exhibiting practices at the Gallery, and the discourse about the history of Canadian art to which it has contributed.