Edna Tacon

Edna Taçon became a prominent figure in Toronto during the 1940s, where she had a crucial impact on the development of abstract painting. Described as “Canada’s leading proponent of non-objective art,” she split her time between Toronto and New York, maintaining a practice that was in step with leading avant-garde artists.

While she was formally trained as a professional violinist, Taçon was also heavily influenced by the teachings of Wassily Kandinsky, and her understanding of music intertwined with her study of abstraction. She described her painting as an arena in which “verve and decorum collide” and where “unexpected devices of design dash into a bright rhythm.” While pursuing her radical art, she navigated societal barriers and a profound entanglement of her identity as a musician, artist, and woman in a maledominated field.

Accompanying an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Edna Taçon features twenty-four of Taçon’s rarely seen oil paintings, watercolours, and paper collages, along with archival sketches, correspondence, and photographs of the artist. The publication also includes an essay by curator Renée van der Avoird and an interview with the artist’s grandson, contemporary sculptor Carl Taçon.

Author Biography

Renée van der Avoird is the Associate Curator of Canadian Art at the Art Gallery of Ontario. Prior to joining the AGO in 2018, van der Avoird held positions as Associate Curator/Registrar at the MacLaren Art Centre, Barrie; Assistant Director of Susan Hobbs Gallery, Toronto; and Curatorial Mentor at the Art Museum at the University of Toronto. She holds a Master’s degree in Museum Studies from the University of Toronto and an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Fine Arts and French Language & Literature from Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo. Van der Avoird’s areas of specialty are modern and contemporary Canadian women artists and postwar Canadian art.