The Natalie Brettschneider Archive is an ongoing series of photographs, texts, music recitals, and two films, that together reconstruct the life and work of a genre-blurring historical performance artist. Brettschneider is fictional, but her story is laced with references to real people and places. The archive starts with her childhood in British Columbia, continues through her participation in the Parisian avant-garde between the wars, and includes evidence of her eccentric music and art making practice in large and small communities across Canada after she returns from Europe in the late 1930’s.
This project is a feminist critique of art historical narrative conventions: it aims to illuminate what gets left out of these stories, and the ways in which photographs are used to support cultural assumptions about gender, age, authorship, and art-making. Brettschneider is a stand-in for all of the female artists who have slipped through the gaps of history only to languish in obscurity, gain notoriety as models or muses of more famous male artists, or perhaps, like Claude Cahun, be “rediscovered.” The archive disrupts photographic hierarchies by mixing snapshots and studio portraits, tiny fragments and advertising paste-ups, fine art and fashion. It is stylistically eclectic, provocative and funny.
Over the span of 25+ years that this project has been in progress, it has responded to each of the local contexts in which it is shown, incorporating documents and artworks by real local women. It has also responded to evolving conversations within feminism. In 2020, The Natalie Brettschneider Archive was exhibited at the Koffler Art Gallery in Toronto, as part of the Contact Festival of Photography. Reexamining the archive through an intersectional framework, this iteration of the exhibition included photographs of and by a number of real historical women artists whose lives were impacted by both sexism and racism, including Japanese Canadian opera singers Lily Washimoto and Aiko Saita, and singer of Chinese opera Tuey Ping Lee-Hum, amongst others. The exhibition was further refined and adapted for a 2023 exhibition at Contemporary Calgary, to include a selection of works by female painters active in Alberta in the mid 20th century, and historical photographs from the Banff Centre Archives and the Alberta provincial archives. You can watch a video tour of this exhibition on the gallery website here.
Carol was in the studio in early February 2020 to record with the Natalie Brett Quartet, (Lisa Miller, piano; Clyde Reed, bass; and Kenton Loewen, drums) a group inspired by Natalie Brettschneider’s brief flirtation with mainstream jazz in the 1940’s and 1950’s. The record was launched in late 2022 and early 2023, with performances at 8EAST and the Vancouver Art Gallery, and is available on vinyl or as a digital download, on bandcamp here (also see the Natalie Brett Quartet page of this website for more information, and to watch the music videos).
Titled Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive, this book was published in 2020 as a collaborative project by the Carleton University Art Gallery in collaboration with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, the Vancouver Art Gallery, and the Koffler Gallery. Featuring articles by Erin Silver, Assistant Professor at UBC’s Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, as well as writings by Heather Anderson, Curator at CUAG and lead organizer of the book’s production; Michelle Jacques, Chief Curator at the AGGV; Bruce Grenville, Senior Curator at the VAG; and Mona Filip, Director/Curator at the Koffler Gallery. The book is designed by Judith Steedman, Creative Director of Steedman Design.
The book can be purchased online through the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Carleton University Art Gallery
Associated Videos and Media
Carol Sawyer, pianist Lisa Cay Miller, harpist Elisa Thorn, and percussionist Katie Rife presented music informed by the repertoire of Natalie Brettschneider at the Vancouver Art Gallery on January 23, 2018. Video of the Recital here
Carol Sawyer and Evann Siebens collaborated to create the 16mm film The Rehearsal, starring Natalie Brettschneider. This work premiered in 2016 at the Carleton University Art Gallery and has been included in subsequent exhibitions.
Carol Sawyer and Victoria artist Harold Hejazi created the super 8 mm film fr@Zu8Kuj, c. 1981. This work premiered in 2017 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
Watch Ben Dextraze’s film about the Natalie Brettschneider Archive.
Associated Press and Interviews
Herstory restored: Photographer Carol Sawyer presents the imagined life of Natalie Brettschneider, review by Eric Volmers in the Calgary Herald, June 30, 2023.
Video tour of Contemporary Calgary exhibition with Carol Sawyer.
PhotoED did a feature on Carol Sawyer and Natalie Brettschneider in their Spring/Summer 2021 edition, written by Walter Markson or Mark Walton.
In Conversation: Carol Sawyer and Michelle Jacques an artist talk which took place November 2, 2020, in conjunction with the Koffler Gallery exhibition.
Read Alexandra Wieland’s review of the Vancouver Art Gallery show in Archivaria.
A portfolio of images from the Natalie Brettschneider Archive is featured in the summer 2018 issue of Ciel Variable, with an essay by Ariane Noel de Tilly.
Canadian Art Feature Revising Dada by Godfre Leung. March 28 2018.
Watch the Vancouver Art Gallery’s interview with Carol Sawyer.
Read Robin Laurence’s review of the Vancouver Art Gallery show in the Georgia Straight.
Read Jaclyn Meloche’s review of the Carleton University Art Gallery show in C Magazine.
Read Carol Sawyer’s article about the project in Canadian Art.
Exhibition History
Solo Exhibitions:
2023 Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive. Contemporary Calgary, Calgary AB. Curated by Ryan Doherty.
2020 Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive. Koffler Art Gallery, Toronto, ON. Curated by Mona Filip.
2017/2018. Carol Sawyer: The Natalie Brettschneider Archive. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC. Curated by Bruce Grenville.
2016. The Natalie Brettschneider Archive. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria BC. Curated by Michelle Jacques.
The Natalie Brettschneider Archive. Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa ON. Curated by Heather Anderson.
2011. Some Documents from the Life of Natalie Brettschneider. Republic Gallery, Vancouver.
2009. Natalie Brettschneider in BC. Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC. Curated by Liz Wylie. (Brochure)
Group Exhibitions:
2015. Views from the Southbank I: Histories, Memories, Myths. Surrey Art Gallery. Surrey BC. Curated by Jordan Strom.
2012. Scenes of Selves, Occasions for Ruses. Surrey Art Gallery. Surrey BC. Curated by Jordan Strom.
2010. Truth or Fiction? Kamloops Art Gallery. Kamloops BC. Curated by Annette Hurtig.
2001-5 Facing History. Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver BC, toured to Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris, and Centre d’Art Contemporain d’Herouville St. Clair, Basse Normandie, France. Curated by Karen Love. (Two separate catalogues for North Vancouver and Paris shows.)
Performances:
2023 Natalie Brett and Friends – concert with Chris Dadge, Mark Limacher, and Nate Waters, Contemporary Calgary.
2021 Natalie Brett Quartet Record Launch party #2: With Lisa Cay MIller, Clyde Reed, and Kenton Loewen. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC.
2020 Natalie Brett Quartet Record Launch party #1: With Lisa Cay MIller, Clyde Reed, and Kenton Loewen. 8East, Vancouver
2018 Musical Repertoire from the Natalie Brettschneider Archive Collaboration with pianist Lisa Cay Miller, harpist Elisa Thorn, and percussionist Katie Rife. Co-presented with Now Orchestra Workshop Society. Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC
2016 Natalie Brettschneider: Repertoire Collaboration with pianist Lisa Cay Miller. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria BC
Music inspired by Natalie Brettschneider and her contemporaries Collaboration with Jordan Zalis (voice), Tariq Amery (bass flute), Nicolas Fobes (harpsichord), Agnes Malkinson (cello), Reiko Lokker (violin). Carleton University Art Gallery, Ottawa ON
2010 Selected Works of Natalie Brettschneider. with pianist Dale Rasmussen, Evening Soiree, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops BC
2009 The repertoire of Natalie Brettschneider. Performance with pianist Neville Bowman, GO Party, Kelowna Art Gallery, Kelowna BC
2004 Newly rediscovered repertoire of Natalie Brettschneider. Performance with violinist Régis Huby. Canadian Cultural Centre, Paris
2002 Natalie Brettschneider: a Portrait. With pianist Patrick Dubois. Presentation House Gallery, North Vancouver, BC
1998 Newly Discovered Works by Brettschneider and Piscator. Collaboration with Andreas Kahre, “Re-inventing the Diva Festival”, Western Front, Vancouver BC. Curated by Lori Weidenhammer (Catalogue)