'Deceptive Simplicity': Travelling Maud Lewis exhibition winding down in Halifax

More than three years after it launched, a celebrated travelling exhibition featuring more than 100 works by Maud Lewis is winding down at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, but “Maud Mania” shows no signs of waning.

Named after one of her favourite subjects, the Cat Came Back is a homecoming for the paintings, many of them owned by private collectors.

Launched in 2020, the exhibition crossed the country, hitting Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, Hamilton and Thunder Bay before arriving home in Halifax in November.

COVID-19-related delays and postponements resulted in a longer tour than expected.

Organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, the retrospective exhibit featured some of Lewis’ earliest works, including handmade greeting cards she sold door-to-door before turning to larger paintings.

“This would be what got her started. So she started with these great little Christmas cards of sleigh rides and people in carriages,” said Sarah Moore Fillmore, AGNS Interim Director & CEO.

“They have a very delicate hand.”

Lewis has enjoyed a posthumous resurgence in popularity in recent years, thanks in part to a 2017 biography.

In fact, the gallery has booked a screening of "Maudie" Saturday evening.

Experts say her physical challenges, coupled with genuine artistic talent, have lead to a new respect and love for Maud Lewis.

"It is that deceptive simplicity, “ says Moore Fillmore.”It looks really easy and it looks really charming, but there's something that's quite sophisticated about it, and people connect with it. They connect with the quirky character."

Tributes have shown up in some unusual places: nail technicians have re-created her work, and the resulting photos have been popular on social media.

A fairly accurate recreation of a Lewis painting featuring trio of black cats has been prominently on display on some rocks on Highway 103 near Timberlea for a number of years, but it’s unclear who painted it.

The final day The Cat Came Back at the AGNS is April 23, but the gallery’s permanent Maud display, including the shack where she lived with her husband Everett, will remain.

A farewell to a unique collection, home at last after a cross-Canada journey.