William Stidworthy: A Historical Downtown

William Stidworthy: A Historical Downtown offers insight into the life and career of the Canadian artist William Stidworthy, (1889-1977). Generously loaned to the Art Gallery of Windsor by local collector and enthusiast Stan Bergeron, the collection of paintings depicting landscapes in and around Windsor-Essex recalls our city’s past all the while commenting on the ways in which this region has grown, evolved and truly become urban.

In the context of Downtown/s – Urban Renewals Today for Tomorrow, The 2017 Windsor-Essex Triennial of Contemporary Art and Isabelle Hayeur: Corps étranger/Foreign Body, this exhibition of oil and watercolour paintings offers moments for agricultural and economic contemplation. On the heels of the industrial revolution in Europe and North America, urban life was experiencing a significant transition towards new kinds of manufacturing and new possibilities for growth through technology and improved infrastructure. Reflected in paintings of architecture, cabins and chariots, Stidworthy’s work offers insight into the changing lifestyles of the time and the new standards of living in the Windsor-Essex region. Moreover, through the artist’s historical vision of our community, viewers can experience how this city became urban, and subsequently contemporary. Thus, as a whole, this rarely seen body of work sheds light on the many ways in which Southwestern Ontario has changed as well as continues to grow.