October 22, 2016 – March 26, 2017
John and Norma Oyler Gallery
In the lead-up to the sesquicentennial of Confederation, the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia will present a survey of prime-ministerial portraits. Artists have depicted the Fathers of Confederation, two of whom would themselves serve as prime minister, and the twenty-three who have held that post from Sir John A Macdonald to Justin Trudeau, in engravings, lithographs, drawings, paintings, and sculpture. Some have simply recorded a particular event; some have produced official portraits gauged to elicit approval from both sitter and viewer; but others, particularly editorial cartoonists, have scratched beneath the surface to comment on the position of each prime minster at a moment in history.
