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Vancouver businessman donates $22.8 million worth of artwork to National Gallery of Canada

Vancouver businessman donates $22.8 million worth of artwork to National Gallery of Canada

CTV News16-06-2025
The National Gallery of Canada has received a gift of 61 iconic contemporary artworks from Vancouver businessman Bob Rennie and the Rennie Family, valued at $22.8 million.
The donation comprises of 40 works by Rodney Graham, 10 works by Mona Hatoum, pieces by Dan Graham, and three works by Ai Weiwei.
Rennie started collecting when he was 17, and the collection has been put together with Carey Fouks.
'We have always thought about custodianship, which is about making sure that artists are seen and their voices are heard beyond their life and beyond my life,' Rennie said in a statement.
'This is foundational to the collection. The National Gallery of Canada shares our values and our intentions. Values of preservation, conservation and allowing the works to travel to museums and venues, which are not only across Canada but within the broad reach of relationships the Gallery has cultivated across the world.'
Rodney Graham
Rodney Graham, A Partial Overview of My Brief Modernist Career (2006–2009), 2006–09. Installation view, Rodney Graham: Collected Works, Rennie Museum, Vancouver, 2014. Gift of the Rennie Foundation, Vancouver, 2024. © Estate of Rodney Graham, Photo: Blaine Campbell. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted)
Mona Hatoum
Mona Hatoum, Undercurrent (red) [detail], 2008, ed. 1/3. Installation view, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin. Gift of the Rennie Foundation, Vancouver, 2024. © Mona Hatoum, Photo: Jörg von Bruchhausen, Courtesy Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted)
Rennie and his family have now donated more than $35 million in gifts to the National Gallery of Canada, comprising over 260 artworks. In 2017, Rennie donated 197 paintings, sculptures and mixed-media pieces in celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.
'We are most grateful to Mr. Rennie for this major donation and for his trust in us to share stewardship of these works on behalf of Canadians,' said Paul Genest, chair of the board, and Jean-Francois Bélisle, Director and CEO, of the National Gallery of Canada.
'We also want to acknowledge the National Gallery of Canada Foundation, who works tirelessly to cultivate relationships with philanthropic partners who share our passion to bring people together, especially in these divisive times, through shared experiences through art.'
Yinka Shonibare
Yinka Shonibare, The American Library [La bibliothèque américaine], 2018.Vue d'installation, When Home Won't Let You Stay: Migration through Contemporary Art, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. 2019–2020. Don de la Fondation Rennie, Vancouver, en 2024. © Yinka Shonibare ; photo : ICA, Boston/Charles Mayer. (National Gallery of Canada/submitted)
The National Gallery of Canada says it will be able to make the collections available to Canadian and international museums in the future.
The Upper Contemporary exhibition gallery at the National Gallery of Canada has previously been renamed the Rennie Gallery.
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How Eadweard Muybridge revolutionized photography and got away with murder
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How Eadweard Muybridge revolutionized photography and got away with murder

Eadweard Muybridge is best known for his iconic series of photos of a horse in motion that proved it fully left the ground while running. But Muybridge also took impressive landscapes of Alaska and Yosemite National Park, invented cutting-edge photography techniques used in Hollywood blockbusters, and quite literally got away with murder after finding out his wife was having an affair — all of which caught the attention of Canadian animator and graphic novelist Guy Delisle. "I knew Muybridge, but I didn't know all of this life. And I thought, wow, that's crazy. He had gone through so many things that I thought this could be a good subject for a book," said Delisle. Delisle's latest graphic novel, Muybridge, tells the story behind the man whose books, Animals in Motion and The Human Figure in Motion, are still used by animators as reference books today. Here's part of his conversation with Day 6 host Brent Bambury. Let's talk about the images in Animals in Motion, especially the most famous ones of the horses running. When you look at those images, what do you see? There's kind of a strange mix because they look very modern, but you can tell that they are from a very old time and it's back in the days where … they had no instant photo. And he still managed to achieve that for the first time with the horse, so that's why this sequence is very symbolic because that's the achievement of his lifetime. I think he spent seven years just achieving that. And after that, he applied the technique that he developed for the horse at full speed on everything that's moving, basically, animals and humans. But back in the 1800s, there was this unresolved question about whether all four of the horses' hooves leave the ground at the same time, or is one of them always touching the ground to support the animal.... Why was it so important to Edward Muybridge to be able to answer that question? 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