Don't fool yourself into thinking Lawren Harris is good art

Lawren Harris is not good art. 

​Steve Martin would probably take issue with that,  and presumably so would the person who just paid $11.21 million for Mountain Forms.

But writer Russell Smith does, and he says the only reason most Canadians are excited about Harris and the Group of Seven is because other people are. 

"Canadians got extremely excited about this largely because, well, the Group of Seven are largely —  no, completely —  unknown and valueless outside of Canada and it makes us blush so hard whenever we are noticed by the busy people in the United States. It's like when the really cool grade 12 guy glances over at us grade 10s." 

It makes us blush so hard whenever we are noticed by the busy people in the United States. It's like when the really cool grade 12 guy glances over at us grade 10s.- Russell Smith, writer and columnist

Smith compares Harris to the singer Adele, in that we assign his art value because people spend money on it, not because it's quantifiably good. 

In fact, Smith argues that despite the notion that the Group of Seven were daring renegades, as a whole they made pretty establishment art.

Harris's paintings, Smith says, look like they belong in a children's book.

Or on a poster selling gum. 

[Harris's paintings] would look great on posters advertising breath-freshening gum.- Russell Smith

And just because Steve Martin and one buyer are excited about the work, it doesn't mean the rest of the world is suddenly aware of the Canadian ouevre.