Stephen Borys Travelblog
Back at my alma mater in Toronto
Stephen Borys, Director & CEO, exhibition curator
The University of Toronto Art Centre had not yet opened in University College when I was a graduate student at the university, and the art collections were spread out across the campus including in the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery at Hart...
Apr 29, 2013
The mighty ROM does not disappoint
Stephen Borys, Director & CEO, exhibition curator
The visits to the Toronto-area museums and galleries for the 100 Masters loan discussions took place over several separate trips. Months before my visit to the Royal Ontario Museum in June 2012, I had discussed the exhibition project with Janet...
Apr 25, 2013
Finding the Dutch Masters in Kingston
Stephen Borys, Director & CEO, exhibition curator
The 100 Masters research trip to the Agnes Etherington Art Centre at Queen’s University in Kingston in June 2012 was focused on the renowned Bader Collection, a corpus of over one hundred primarily Dutch and Flemish paintings, assembled by...
Apr 22, 2013
Honouring the Canadian War Effort
Stephen Borys, Director & CEO, exhibition curator
The task of selecting a few key works for 100 Masters from the Canadian War Museum and the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the two institutions managed by one executive body, was more complicated given their vast holdings across many cultures,...
Apr 18, 2013
Bringing the very best from Canada’s National Gallery
Stephen Borys, Director and CEO, exhibition curator
After attending the Canadian Arts Summit in Banff, Alberta, in March of 2012, I shared a ride back to Calgary with Marc Mayer, Director of the National Gallery of Canada. In our discussion about the WAG’s 100 Masters exhibition, he asked what...
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Apr 16, 2013
National treasures from Quebec City
Stephen Borys, Director and CEO, exhibition curator
Travelling by train from Montreal to Quebec City in April of 2012 for my 100 Masters research, I arrived as a freezing rain and windstorm was descending on the city, leaving most of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec without power....
Apr 11, 2013
Finding Richard Long and Carl Andre in Montreal
Stephen Borys, Executive Director & CEO, exhibition curator
At the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, director Paulette Gagnon offered to show me her favourite paintings from the collection including works by Alfred Pellan, Paul-Émile Borduas, and Charles Gagnon. I immediately sensed the 100...
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Apr 8, 2013
My Favourite Landscape from Montreal
Stephen Borys, Director and CEO, exhibition curator
The quest to borrow a group of important Old Master paintings from the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the 100 Masters exhibition was challenged by competing loan requests and exhibition conflicts, not to mention the museum’s impressive...
