Hello again! It has been another busy week of cataloguing, giving tours, and completing preventative conservation measures on new artefacts.
One of these measures was to remove some artwork from their frames. This is an important task as the frames can take up a lot of space, meaning less room for other important artefacts. I would like to point out that this was not something done lightly. The historical value of the frame and the preservation of the artwork was taken into consideration before this task was done.
This task got me thinking about the other forms of art in and outside of the museum, so let me take you on a little tour.
The first piece of art starts outside. If you look at the side of the building as you come around from the parking lot, you will see “The Epiphany”, an art piece by Nohl Reiser that has Banting’s 25-word hypothesis in a graffiti style as well as Reiser’s interpretation of one of Banting’s landscape painting’s.
If you look to your left, you might also see someone painting in Sir Frederick G. Banting Square as Naomi Nadea did on June 10 for Only in OEV Fridays. Or a group of dancers beside her from La Compagnie de Danse.
If you keep walking, you will see the famous statue of Frederick Banting created by John Miecznikowski. that was revealed on July 7, 1989 by the Queen Mother. This statue depicts Banting writing down his hypothesis on October 31, 1920 that led to the discovery of insulin.
Once you enter the building, you can walk up the stairs and into the “From Test Tubes to Paint Tubes” exhibit. This exhibit shows various art pieces completed by Frederick Banting. The artwork in this gallery demonstrates the changes of his style before and after he met famous Group of Seven painter, A.Y. Jackson.
That’s all that’s available for the public to see, but hidden away in our collection storage are more pieces of artwork by Banting himself and those who want to honour his memory. One example is this sculpture completed by a student of Sir Frederick Banting Secondary School here in London. It is a front view of Banting House National Historic Site of Canada.
And that concludes the tour! It’s amazing to think of all the different forms of art around Banting House, and the possibility of more to come!
See you next week for more “Stories From Banting’s Basement”!
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