Works by Group of Seven, Maud Lewis, Norval Morrisseau up for auction in Winnipeg

A long-running Exchange District art gallery is auctioning off pieces from notable artists as it prepares to move to a new spot. Daniel Halmarson has more.

Works by some of Canada’s most acclaimed artists including Norval Morrisseau, Maud Lewis, and the Group of Seven are on display at Winnipeg’s Mayberry Fine Art as the gallery prepares to say farewell to the Exchange District.

The 50-year-old art business is moving from McDermot Avenue to a new location on Wall Street this summer and is hosting a final exhibition to celebrate the end of an era.

Other artists featured include Leo Mol, David Blackwood, Wanda Koop, Walter Joseph Phillips, Daphne Odjig, and Edwin Holgate.

“Often you have to travel to see this sort of thing and we have it here available for Winnipeg art enthusiasts to see,” gallery director Shaun Mayberry told CTV News.

Each of the nine pieces displayed throughout the main floor of the gallery are up for auction this month and Mayberry said it’s one of the highest-value art sales in Winnipeg history.

“The combined pre-sale estimate for the auction is $1.1 to $1.5 million,” Mayberry said. “You can spend tens of thousands of dollars in some cases, and in others, you can spend hundreds of dollars.”

The piece likely to fetch the highest bid is an oil on board painting by Group of Seven member Lawren Harris called Untitled (Algoma Sketch). Mayberry said it came from a private collection in Calgary and could sell for up to $175,000.

“It’s a wonderful opportunity to have a painting that we can bring to market for the first time since the late 1960s.”

Mayberry said many other pieces are expected to sell in the hundreds including a watercolour by Manitoba artist Valentine Fanshaw of the Assiniboine River footbridge from 1925.

He compared Fanshaw’s work to a similar painting by Walter Joseph Phillips that will likely sell for over $10,000.

“Both paintings have beautiful merit and are, in some ways, equally as good. And I feel like having artists like Phillips brings attention to artists whose careers are not fully revealed yet,” Mayberry explained.

“There are a lot of other artists that make up the sort of dynamic art community whose work just haven’t been discovered the same way, and it provides a variety of very flexible access points into collecting.”

The online auction runs online until May 28 through Mayberry Fine Art’s website.

The exhibition at the art gallery on McDermot Avenue is open for viewing until the action closes.

“It’s a great opportunity for collectors and audiences and just people interested in the art to come down and see a great selection of historical Canadian art of all shapes and sizes.”

The grand opening at Mayberry Fine Art’s new location is scheduled for July 16.