Arthur Lismer and the 1917 Explosion:
When War Came to Halifax

The Dalhousie Art Gallery is pleased to present a talk by Alan Ruffman in conjunction with the exhibition Arthur Lismer and 'The Drama of a City'. In this talk, Ruffman will review Arthur Lismer's time in Halifax, and his generally unknown body of work on the 1917 Explosion.

More about the exhibition:

Arthur Lismer and 'The Drama of a City'
Selection of printed matter curated by Alan Ruffman
 
In addition to being an art educator and founding member of the Group of Seven, Arthur Lismer had also worked as a commercial illustrator and, while he lived in Halifax, produced illustrations for a number of publications, including The Drama of a City: The Story of Stricken Halifax by Stanley K. Smith. Published in early 1918, the book documents the aftermath of the Explosion and includes eleven original illustrations.
 
Courtesy of historian Alan Ruffman, one of the few extant copies of this book will be on display, together with copies of the magazine Canadian Courier which, in the first four months of 1918, printed Lismer's 'on-the-spot' drawings related to the Explosion as Halifax began to rebuild. Because the original drawings for the book are not known to exist, the exhibition will include photographic reproductions of the illustrations to provide a closer look at what are some of the only artistic interpretations of this historic disaster.