Interfaces of the Portrait: Liminality and Dialogism in Canadian Women's Portraiture between the Wars

The author examines the production of portraiture by four Canadian women artists during the interwar period. Through an interrogation of the aperture which opened up for portraiture at this time, the author argues for a transitional period in Canadian art in which a shift toward social consciousness renewed interest in the human figure. Portraits by Montreal artists Lilias Torrance Newton, Prudence Heward and Jori Smith, and Russian-born, Toronto-based Paraskeva Clark are considered in relation to the political, social, and aesthetic implications of the dialogical triad of artist, subject, and viewer. The author argues that during this era of sociopolitical turbulence, clearly delineated social roles became blurred, and thus offered new opportunities for self-expression and self-construction. The portraits and their makers are analyzed with a view to describing the liminal possibilities of both.

Master's Thesis

Carleton University

Ottawa, ON

1996

en