Playing the art world: The rise and fall of Greg Curnoe (Jouer le jeu du monde artistique: montée et chute de Greg Curnoe)

From the 1960s until the early 1980s the London, Ontario artist Greg Curnoe was championed on the national and international stage by the National Gallery of Canada. A committed regionalist whose representational art reflected his daily experiences, Curnoe’s art was celebrated as evidence of the nation’s cultural maturation in the heady years surrounding Canada’s centennial. However, fame can be notoriously fickle: by the early 1980s, Curnoe’s career was in decline. This article examines Curnoe’s rise and fall at a culturally and politically charged point in Canada’s history.