Art Gallery of Ontario receives 37 works from late telecoms executive’s estate

The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) in Toronto announced on Tuesday (3 September) that it has received more than three dozen works from the estate of Philip B. Lind (1943-2023), a longtime director of Rogers Communications, one of Canada’s top telecoms companies. A lover of the arts with a special fondness for the province of British Columbia, Lind served on the boards of the Vancouver Art Gallery and, in Toronto, both the AGO and the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery.

A total of 37 works by 24 Canadian and international artists, all from Lind’s personal collection and spanning the years 2002-2023, were gifted to the AGO, including works by Stan Douglas, Rodney Graham, Ron Terada, Jeff Wall, Philip Guston, Laurie Simmons and more. Many will go on view beginning 1 November in the exhibition Light Years: The Phil Lind Gift.

“Phil Lind was a leader,” Stephan Jost, the AGO’s director and chief executive, said in a statement. “While well recognised for his work in the business world, he was positively progressive in his taste of contemporary Art. He acquired very selectively and of the highest quality.”

Jost noted that Lind was “most passionate” about Canadian artists, many of whom have achieved international prominence, including Wall, Graham and Douglas. “He also collected art by some of the most important contemporary artists,” Jost added, including William Kentridge, John McCracken and Ai Weiwei—the latter of whom was first featured at the AGO in 2013, a year after Lind met him in Beijing when he was under house arrest.

Among the largest gifts of contemporary art in the gallery’s history, it fittingly arrives as construction continues on the Dani Reiss Modern and Contemporary Gallery, a 40,000 sq. ft expansion designed to showcase the AGO’s growing collection. Other artists represented in the gift are Roy Arden, Chris Burden, Andrew Dadson, Thomas Demand, William Eggleston, Antony Gormley, Andrew Grassie, John Massey, Julian Opie, Bettina Pousttchi, Thomas Ruff, Allan Sekula, Wolfgang Tillmans, Christopher Williams and Erwin Wurm.

“These works of art were Lind’s companions but are by no means casual or easy ones,” Adam Welch, the gallery’s associate curator, said in a statement. “Many are provocations.” He added: “A catalytic gift for the AGO’s collection of modern and contemporary art, these artworks warrant the same attention and slow looking he paid them throughout his life.”

In tandem with the gift of works to the AGO, the Vancouver-based Polygon Gallery announced a new C$1m ($741,000) endowment from Lind’s estate that will increase the value of the Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize, supporting artists in photography, film and video, making it one of the country’s most significant. It will be awarded every two years.