A devoted and powerful champion of Canadian arts and culture, David Silcox has a life story dazzles with tales beyond the easel and canvas.
Son of a Prairie Dust Bowl preacher, David Silcox rose through the ranks of the
Canadian cultural establishment to promote Canadian artists internationally.
From his early days as the first Arts Officer of the Canada Council in the mid1960s, to his position as Deputy Minister of Culture for the province of Ontario
in the late 1980s, to his command of Sotheby's Canada in the last decade of
the century, David Silcox supported the successes of visual artists such as Tom
Thomson, Christopher Pratt, Harold Town, and David Milne. With the eye of a
practised treasure seeker, he was responsible for the return of a number of
Canadian art gems by artists such as Paul Kane and Tom Thomson and the Group
of Seven back to native soil.
This first-ever biography of David Silcox showcases a champion of Canadian art
through his life and efforts to elevate artists from home around the world.
