by Nancy Townshend

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Donald Buchanan became the Exhibition's First Director. He negotiated loans for works of art for the show. Artworks from Europe, China, Peru, India, Mexico, Japan, Congo, the Middle East, Siberia, Greece, Siberia over a 5000-year period were sought and displayed. Hired initially as "Project Officer, Head, Man the Creator Section"¹ for Expo '67, Buchanan started on December 2, 1963, and worked until his unfortunate death on February 26, 1966.

What to include in Man and His World? A 1965 Expo document gave an outline:

"The Art Gallery will present an unusual international collection of over one hundred and fifty masterpieces, representative of Man's concepts of his world from primitive cultures, ancient civilizations, the Early Christian era, Romanesque and Gothic periods, the Renaissance and the beginning of the 20th Century chosen as a presentation of:

Man in his Own Image
Man Alone
Man at Work and Play
Man in Love

Man and the Universe
Urban Man
Man and His Conflicts
Man and Nature

Man the Creator
Man and His Achievements
Man and His Ideals

Man and the Infinite
Man the Visionary
Man in Search of God"²

These categories were later refined in the Exhibition Catalogue to be:
Man
Man and Work
Man and Play
Man and Love
Man and Nature
Urban Man
Man and His Conflicts
Man and His Ideals
Man the Visionary
Man and the Infinite

Altogether 188 works of art (insured at $35 million) from 20 countries were exhibited in the new permanent 20,000 sq. ft. gallery.

The Exhibition becomes the culmination of Donald Buchanan's life, his interests and the profound role that art can play. Here is an excerpt from a letter that Buchanan wrote in 1965 requesting works of art for his show,"Man and His World", to directors/curators of public and private museums:

"A comprehensive Fine Arts exhibition, embracing all ages and many cultures, entitled "Man and His World," is now being organized for presentation in a permanent gallery of modern design being erected on the site of the 1967 Universal Exhibition in Montreal. The list of names of the eminent members of the International Committee which has drawn up the recommended list of works is enclosed. The National Gallery of Canada has agreed to provide the essential technical and conservation services.

To those who study the visual arts, there will be general agreement that the subjects dealt with in the arts of all times and every place have in common certain basic human themes, such as man's faith and ideals, his experience of his environment and his relation to himself and other men. The organizers of this exhibition have felt that a new perspective could be given to the arts of today by stressing the belief that 'man is fundamentally the same throughout the world and through centuries of time,' and, in the context of this belief, to place modern works in appropriate juxtaposition with the arts of both the distant past and of more primitive civilizations. This then is an exhibit that will cut across limitations of time and space to explore the fundamental themes. It should bring alive to the perceptive visitor those unexpected, provocative and often significant relationships that frequently exist between creative works of the most diverse origins. At the same time the general public…may come better to understand the human universality which governs man's expression in art in all its manifestations, archaic, primitive, classical and contemporary.

…one can be assured that each work now being requested from a museum or private owner is specifically needed for a particular aesthetic purpose related directly to the theme of the exhibition."³

By May 14, 1965, Buchanan had negotiated the successful loan of Velasquez's The Water Carrier of Seville c. 1620 from Wellington House in London and Titian's Il Bravo c. 1515-20 from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna. By July 1965, the Louvre promised him twelve artworks.⁴

Moreover, in reply to Madame Jacqueline Marette of ICOM (International Council of Museums) on September 7, 1965, Buchanan enclosed a document⁵ listing the "over one hundred…works…[he has negotiated and] already been promised…Museums which have already agreed to co-operate are:

Austria: Kunsthistorisches Musuem, Vienna
Osterreichische Galerie, Vienna

Belgium: [listed four museums]

Canada: [listed five museums]

Czechoslavakia: National Gallery, Praque

Federated Republic of Germany: [listed six museums]

France: The Louvre, Paris
Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Musee National d'Art Moderne, Paris
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux
Museee de l'Annonciade, St. Tropez
Musee Fernand Leger, Biot
Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris
Musee Guimet, Paris

Italy: Brera, Milan
Accademia, Venice
Musee Castello Sforzesco, Milan
Bargello, Florence
Musee Etrusco, Volterra

Japan: [listed two museums]

Norway: National Gallery, Oslo

The Netherlands: [listed five museums]

Switzerland: [listed two museums]

Tunisia: Bardo Museum, Tunis

United Kingdom: [listed six museums including The Tate Gallery and The National Gallery, London]

United States: [listed fourteen museums including Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Fogg Museum of Art, Cambridge, Art Institute of Chicago, Seattle Art Museum]."

This is most impressive. Buchanan then stated that requests for an additional fifty works from some fifteen other museums were being made. Tragically, Buchanan never saw his show. He died on February 26, 1966, helping someone change their tire.

* * * * *

By October 29, 1967, closing day of the exhibition, the total attendance for The International Fine Arts Exhibition was 1,529,392. The average daily attendance since April 28 had been approximately 8500.⁶ Visitors included heads of state and church, museums directors, scholars, professors, writers, artists, art history students, architects and the general public. Jean Boggs, the New Director of the NGC, and Kathleen Fenwick, curator of Prints and Drawings at NGC, oversaw the Catalogue's production.

Underlying the success of Man and His World at Expo '67 was Donald W. Buchanan (1908 – 1966), its First Director. "The exhibition, as it exists, may be considered a memorial to Donald Buchanan for it was his remarkable combination of vision, conviction and tenacity that did so much to bring it into being."⁷ Donald Buchanan embraced Saint-Exupéry's theme: he helped build a better world.

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¹ NGC Acting Director William Dale secured Buchanan from Europe for the position (see Ord, 221) in the Installations Department. His later contract reads: "Consultant agrees to act as the Canadian Corporation for the 1967 World Exhibition agent…."

² "The Theme Man and his World," April 30, 1965, Q2-44526, RG 71, vol. 13, Library and Archives Canada.

³ Donald W. Buchanan, Exhibition Co-ordinator, "Man and His World," International Fine Arts Exhibition, in a letter dated July 7, 1965 to Mr. Roberto Matta of Paris, Refusal of loan of works of art 1965 – 1967, Exhibition files – box 1, Man and His World, National Gallery of Canada fonds, National Gallery of Canada Archives.

⁴ Donald W. Buchanan as Exhibition Co-ordinator, "Man and His World," International Fine Arts Exhibition, in a letter dated July 7, 1965 to Mr. Roberto Matta of Paris, Refusal of loan of works of art 1965 – 1967, Exhibition files – box 1, Man and His World, National Gallery of Canada fonds, National Gallery of Canada Archives.

⁵ D. W. Buchanan in a letter dated September 7, 1965 to Mme. Jacqueline Marette, ICOM, Musee du Louvre, Paris, Exhibition files, France, General, box 2, Man and His World, National Gallery of Canada fonds, National Gallery of Canada Archives.

⁶ Kathleen Fenwick, Concluding Report, Expo - General, Man and His World: International Fine Arts Exhibitions, Exhibition files, box 1, NGC fonds, NGC Archives.

⁷ -, "The International Fine Arts Exhibition at Expo '67, Montreal," Expo - General,
Catalogue, Introductory Texts, Man and His World: International Fine Arts Exhibitions,
Exhibition files, box 1, NGC fonds, NGC Archives.