Canadian artistic group formations : art as a form of cultural and national identity

The terms cultural and national identity are fluid terms that allow for a wide scale of interpretation. What do we define as being a cultural identity specific to a nation? Canada, like all other nations of the world, has its own unique set of distinct features, that is, its symbols. Making occasional references to Tom Thomson and Emily Carr, this paper focuses on the specific groups of Canadian painters who officially formed the Group of Seven in Toronto and the Beaver Hall Group in Montreal. What made them "better" than other Canadian painters before and after? They strove for national content, hence an identity, and this aim was evident from the very beginning. The paper proposes to illustrate how as a group they succeeded where individual artists failed, and simultaneously created a steadfast and durable identity for Canada, thereby capturing the essence of the Canadian being through their paintings.