The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has launched a dedicated exhibition to rediscover the work of Edna Taçon, a mid-century abstract artist who was once a prominent figure in the New York and Toronto art scenes. Curated by Renée van der Avoird, the show features collages, drawings, and paintings from the 1940s, a period when Taçon exhibited alongside Lawren Harris and was championed by Hilla Rebay at the Museum of Non-Objective Painting (now the Guggenheim). The exhibition was sparked by the discovery of a single work in the AGO’s holdings and a subsequent connection with the artist's grandson, sculptor Carl Taçon.
Taçon’s revival is significant as it restores a pioneering female voice to the history of Canadian abstraction. As the first Canadian artist to adopt the term "non-objective" for her work, she bridged the gap between European avant-garde movements—such as those led by Kandinsky and Malevich—and the North American art world. Her disappearance from the art historical canon is attributed to a combination of personal tragedy, including family estrangement and an abusive marriage, making this retrospective a crucial effort in correcting the gendered oversights of 20th-century art history.