Curator: David Woods

This is the first exhibition of Edward Mitchell Bannister’s work presented in Canada—124 years after the artist’s death. Born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick, Bannister was an accomplished, nineteenth-century African American painter known for pastoral landscapes. In addition to being a respected painter and abolitionist (with his wife Christiana Carteaux Bannister), he won first prize at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia for his painting Under the Oaks (now lost), making him the first African American/Canadian to win a major American art prize. While Bannister is increasingly revered in the United States, he remains largely unknown in Canada.

Organized and circulated by the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, and the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS). Funded by the Government of Canada and Mount Allison University. PACART is the exclusive transportation provider of the exhibition.

Edward Mitchell Bannister (1828-1901) was born in Saint Andrews, New Brunswick. His family lived in a segregated Black village at the eastern end of Saint Andrews colloquially referred to as Slabtown. Bannister was orphaned at age sixteen and left in the care of Harris Hatch, a wealthy lawyer, merchant, and Registrar of Charlotte County, for whom the artist’s mother had worked as a maid. Bannister’s interest in art emerged early and, by his teens, there are accounts of his drawings appearing on the barn doors and fences of Hatch’s farm. Much of his early life was overshadowed by the limited job opportunities and racism Black New Brunswickers faced. In 1850, Bannister and his brother, William, moved to Boston, where Edward worked as a barber and eventually met Christiana Carteaux, a hairdresser, wigmaker, and entrepreneur of mixed African American and Narragansett heritage. Bannister married Carteaux in 1857, and she helped him become a successful professional artist in Boston and later Providence, Rhode Island.

This exhibition is curated by David Woods. It is organized and circulated by the Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, in partnership with the Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS). If was made possible thanks to generous funding from the Government of Canada and Mount Allison University. It features loans from the permanent collections of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the New Brunswick Museum, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, and the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, as well as the private collection of Marilyn Sandford. PACART is the exclusive transportation provider of the exhibition.

Cette exposition est placée sous le commissariat de David Woods. Elle est organisée et mise en circulation par la Galerie d’art Owens, Université Mount Allison, et le Black Artists Network of Nova Scotia (BANNS). Elle a été rendue possible grâce à l’appui généreux du gouvernement du Canada et l’Université Mount Allison. Elle comprend des prêts faisant partie des collections permanentes du Smithsonian American Art Museum, du Musée du Nouveau-Brunswick, du Musée des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Écosse, du Musée des beaux-arts Beaverbrook et de la collection particulière de Marilyn Sandford. PACART est le transporteur exclusif de l’exposition.

Edward Mitchell Bannister, People Near Boat, 1893, oil on canvas, 35.6 x 50.4 cm, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Harvey Golden (1983.95.121)