This course – an examination of the long path from realism to abstraction in Canadian art (and especially in Canadian painting) differs from ARTH 271 (“Introduction to Canadian Art”) by focusing more on questions of form and technical means of art-making rather than adopting a primarily theme-based approach to representational subjects such as landscape, portraiture, etc.  The course is divided into three sections, each consisting of related sub-concepts.  These sections and sub-concepts are: (1) realism (imitation; double images; mirror images); (2) symbolism (symbolism and representation; imitation versus representation; proportion; symbolic abstraction); and (3) abstraction (art criticism and abstraction; abstraction and the unconscious; abstraction and geometry; and abstraction and the idea of the concept).