VICTORIA, BC.-The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria presents The Discerning Eye: The George & Lola Kidd Collection, Part 2, on view through September 25, 2005. Following the death of our good friend George P. Kidd last summer, we were informed that the Gallery would be a major beneficiary of his estate. In effect, George has left us the single most important bequest – in number and quality of works of art – in the history of our institution. Further, he has left an important cash gift to be managed in two memorial funds for the purchase of Canadian art and decorative arts.

This exhibition, which follows Part 1 presented earlier this year, features works selected from the intended gift of George's estate. Included are a number of landscape paintings by important Canadian artists such as Alan Edson, A.J. Casson, W.J. Phillips, Carl Schaefer and Horatio Walker. The collection also includes landscapes painted in and around Victoria and the West Coast. George had a predilection for prints and to that end we are presenting some key pieces from his collection, including two very fine etchings by James McNeil Whistler. A small selection of sculpture rounds out the exhibition and demonstrates the range of George and Lola Kidd's taste with works by such varied artists as Joe Fafard, Elsa Mayhew and Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Côté.