Art Gallery of Ontario

Founded in 1900 by a group of private citizens as the Art Museum of Toronto, the Art Gallery of Ontario is one of the largest art museums in North America, with a physical facility of 486,000 square feet. Currently under construction, the AGO’s new facility will boast 583,000 square feet, and will re-open in 2008 with an innovative architectural design by world-renowned architect Frank Gehry.

Collection

The AGO currently has more than 68,000 works in its collection, spanning from 100 AD to the present. Highlights include:

• More than 40% of the collection vividly documents the development of Canada’s art heritage since pre-Confederation, including one of the largest and finest Inuit art collections in the world. The collection includes pivotal works by Cornelius Krieghoff, Lucius O’Brien, James Wilson Morrice, Tom Thomson, the Group of Seven, David Milne, Emily Carr and Paul-Emile Borduas.
• Major holdings of the work of pre-eminent Canadian artists Paterson Ewen, Betty Goodwin, Greg Curnoe, David Blackwood, Kazuo Nakamura and American artist Robert Motherwell.
• The world’s largest public collection of works by internationally renowned British sculptor Henry Moore.
• Masterpieces of European art, including works by renowned artists such as Anthony van Dyck, Thomas Gainsborough, Auguste Rodin, Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso and René Magritte.
• A collection of photographs representing the emergence of the medium in its artistic, cultural and social diversity. Works by 19th-century British, French, American and Canadian photographers, and 20th-century modernists, including one of the foremost collections of works by Josef Sudek.
• A contemporary collection illustrating the evolution of artistic movements in Canada, the U.S. and Europe, including major works by Claes Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Mary Kelly, Jannis Kounellis, Jenny Holzer, General Idea, Joanne Tod, Jeff Wall, Rebecca Belmore and Luciano Fabro.