ABSTRACT
Landon MacKenzie: The Animals in the Landscape
R. Bella Rabinovitch
1991
The present thesis examines the figurative work executed
between 1981 and 1985 by Canadian painter Landon MacKenzie (b.1954). During this period
MacKenzie produced five series of paintings employing landscape and animal imagery: Lost
River, Gestation, Cluny, Winter 1984 and Crossing. In
Chapter I, an account of MacKenzie's biography shows that these animal images function as
disguised symbols for her own identity and its relationship to both her human and natural
environment.
Critics have argued that the revival of figurative
painting in the 1980's is a further manifestation of the voyage of self-discovery embodied
by the 'Northern Romantic Tradition'. The validity of this claim is considered in Chapter
II, and the three subsequent chapters examine the significance of such a strategy for a
Canadian woman artist.
Consequently, it is argued that the paintings should be
viewed as encompassing a positive progression through three stages. In Lost River,
the subject is primarily MacKenzie's personal history, depicted through arcane animal
imagery that inhabit a northern environment. Gestation and Cluny represent
an intermediary stage where the emphasis shifts to the underlying bonds enjoining humans
and their animal counterparts. Finally, in Winter 1984 and Crossing the
journey is completed and the natural world itself, as mediated by MacKenzie's personal
history, becomes the primary subject of exploration and concern.
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