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THE NEW YORK TIMES, SUNDAY, AUGUST 7, 1966.

A Woman Heads the National Gallery of Canada

Jean Sutherland Boggs Who Taught on Coast is Named

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John Evans
Jean Sutherland Boggs

'Best-Looking Director' Has Acquisition Problem to Face

By JAY WALZ
Special to The New York Times

OTTAWA, Aug. 6--The direction of the National Gallery of Canada has passed to a woman for the first time in the institution's history.

Miss Jean Sutherland Boggs, a Canadian who studied at Radcliffe and who taught art history at the University of California at Riverdale and at Washington University in St. Louis, has brought back to Canada an abundance of qualifications.

"She is the best-looking director the National Gallery ever had," reported the art critic of The Ottawa Citizen.

In her first weeks on the job, however, Miss Boggs has shown little inclination to depend on stylish good looks. She has expressed a determination to make "a living place" of an institution often termed by Ottawan as "that mausoleum on Elgin Street.

Won't Coddle Painters

She is for Canadian art and artists, but she will not coddle either.

"We can't do as much for him (the Canadian artist) as he can do for us," she said in an interview. She said that Canada can serve the artist best by buying only his finest work.

Miss Boggs, who is 43 years old, will manage an institution for which Parliament this year appropriated $1,857,200, with $500,000 earmarked for new acquisitions. Some of the money, appropriately, goes for Canadian paintings, but Miss Boggs said her most important task is to build in Canada's capital "an important Canadian National Gallery, one known for its fine collection and its lively, meaningful presentation.

Her "acquisition" problem is made difficult by the absence in Canada of any tradition of donating art works to public galleries. A few gifts have gone to galleries in Montreal and Toronto, but, basically, Miss Boggs said, Canada is a young country without big private collections from which to anticipate gifts.

A Soviet Encounter

When she once spoke about this to Dimitri Stepanovich Polyansky, a First Deputy Premier of the Soviet Union, during his recent visit here, he seemed surprised.

"These are all purchases -- no gifts?" Mr. Polyansky asked.

"No gifts. We are not so lucky as to have a Hermitage or a Catherine the Great collection," replied Miss Boggs, referring to the great art collections in Leningrad and Moscow.

Canada's gallery falls short in most comparisons with major collections, although it has representative canvases from most European schools and is strong on Canadiana. Despite its shortcomings, it is worth the time given it by more than 300,000 visitors this year.

Specialist in French Art

Miss Boggs is herself an example of the international cultural exchange she thinks should be encouraged and helped in Canada. Born in Peru of Canadian parents, she was graduated from the University of Toronto and earned a Ph.D. from Radcliffe.

She is a specialist in 19th-century French Art and has written a book on Degas. She prepared a radio lecture series for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation last year.

"The possibilities of radio and television, especially color television, need to be exploited," she said. "And the gallery should get more into architecture and the applied arts -- furniture and photography."

For the 1967 Canadian Centennial, Miss Boggs is planning major art shows in Ottawa and in Montreal. She is hopeful, too that Canada's contributions to art may also find their way to exhibitions in New York.

Miss Boggs was the choice of the gallery trustees and Miss Judy LaMarsh, Secretary of State, who is responsible for all federal cultural enterprises. She succeeds Dr. Charles Comfort who retired a year ago.

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