Mira Godard in her Montreal gallery, c. 1960s
Established in 1962, Mira Godard Gallery is one of Canada's premier commercial art galleries featuring paintings, sculpture and works on paper including original prints and photographs. With three floors of exhibition space and viewing room, Mira Godard Gallery focuses on contemporary Canadian and International art. We are proud to represent major artists who have won distinction here and abroad. Many of the works which have been shown at the Mira Godard Gallery have become part of the permanent collections of public galleries, museums and corporations.
For over half a century the Mira Godard Gallery label on the back of a work of art represents the highest standard of quality and provenance - provenance which is cited by museums and Canadian auction houses. Collectors, museums and Canadian auction houses know that Mira Godard Gallery has, for almost sixty years, represented Canada's most important artists and has had direct and personal working relationships with those artists. The David Milne Estate, Alex Colville, Christopher Pratt, Jean McEwen and a number of other major artists have chosen their best works to be sent to Mira Godard Gallery.
For five decades, Mira Godard Gallery has worked directly and discreetly with corporate and private collectors in building collections, providing appraisals and buying and consigning works for re-sale.
Mira Godard arrived in Montreal in 1950 after having studied art, physics and math at the École du Louvre and the Sorbonne in Paris. She [applied her broad and vigorous intellect] to her first major career move, the purchase in 1962 of the innovative Agnes Lefort Gallery in Montreal. She then relocated to Toronto and opened her eponymous Yorkville Gallery. At the end of the 1970s she blazed a trail west to Calgary - a place few gallerists dared to venture at the time.
Godard was known for her passionate arts advocacy. Her association with the prestigious New York and London based Marlborough Galleries and her hosting of an important 1965 show of late- Picasso works testified to her desire to make ties outside the domestic scene. Meanwhile, her Toronto Gallery amassed some of the biggest names in Canadian art: Alex Colville, Christopher and Mary Pratt, Takao Tanabe and the estates of David Milne and Lawren Harris. She was a founding member and the first president of the Art Dealers Association of Canada.
Mira Godard: A Pioneer Passes, David Balzer, Canadian Art, 2010
Mira Godard Gallery is a member of the Art Dealers Association of Canada.
Mira Godard Gallery provides verbal and written appraisals. We also work with qualified experts for works outside the gallery's expertise.
We offer professional and experienced advice on:
- restoration and framing
- acquiring or selling works of art, collections and estate planning