Robert McMichael, co-founder of McMichael Gallery of Canadian art, dies at

[Socialist Christian]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1845&ncid=721&e=11&u=/cpress/20031119/ca_pr_on_na/obit_mcmichael
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KLEINBURG, Ont. (CP) - Robert McMichael, the co-founder of the McMichael Gallery of Canadian art, has died at 82, the gallery announced Wednesday.



McMichael died Tuesday of pneumonia resulting from complications from a broken hip. The gallery in this community 30 kilometres north of Toronto was founded by McMichael and his wife Signe, who began to collect paintings of the Group of Seven and their contemporaries in 1955.


In the early '60s, the couple opened their home and gallery to the public. In 1965, they donated their home, 40-hectare property and collection of 194 works of art to the province of Ontario.


Six of the famous artists are buried in a small cemetery on the McMichael grounds - Arthur Lismer, Frederick Varley, Lawren Harris, Frank Johnston, A.J. Casson and A.Y. Jackson.


The gallery now has one of the largest collections of art by Tom Thomson, the Group and their contemporaries anywhere. The McMichael collection has also acquired contemporary First Nations art as well as prints, drawings, sculpture by Inuit artists.