“To Create Krieghoff”: The Cultural Politics of Canonization

Abstract

The increased importance of Cornelius Krieghoff’s art in interwar Canada illustrates the diverse processes and effects of canonization. This article demonstrates how the changing institutional dynamics of Canadian art served to rewrite Canadian art history in the interwar period and also describes the effects of this rewriting. The reconstruction of a Canadian art historical canon in the case of Krieghoff is important not simply because it changed the way Canadians thought about art but also for how it affected art markets, systems of cultural authority, and conceptions of Canada’s cultural past. This article uses the interwar Krieghoff revival to illustrate these processes.