AGO was a popular place the day we visited. It's a modern 2-story structure located on the outskirts of Chinatown, easily accessible by subway or streetcar. A special exhibit was there with timed ticketed admission. Most of the gallery's permanent collection was in storage while the Turner Whistler Monet exhibit was on.

Organized by AGO, museums in London and Paris, this Impressionist collection displayed some of the greatest works of art from the 19th century. It showed the influence of the three artists on each other and the way they studied the effects of weather conditions on landscapes.

It is always a thrill to view pieces of art "live" that you have seen reproduced in books, posters and cards. Such was the case w/ Monet's "Sunset on the Seine."

Much to my surprise the museum had an extensive shop featuring a large collection of books, prints and posters, note cards, jewelry and other gift items. A special children's section and items relating to the current Impressionist exhibit rounded out the shop. A restaurant was adjacent to the store.

It was a great place to spend a very rainy afternoon while our husbands watched the Yankees lose to the Blue Jays.

I saw the Art Gallery of Ontario walking from the subway to Chinatown and decided to finish my exploration of Chinatown early so I could stop in and look around.

One of the special exhibits on my visit to AGO was "Fashion Photographs...and More: Works on Paper and Video, 1970-2001", by William Wegman. Although Wegman has worked in many mediums – sculpture, video, and photography – he may be best known for those works that feature his Weimaraners in costume. These dogs take on nearly human form in their high heels, fancy hats and "couture" dresses. The exhibit featured a nice selection of Wegman’s large-format Polaroids, plus some of his video works. Many of the video works used the dogs in starring roles. The museum has a space set aside within the Wegman exhibit area as a "theater". I looked in to see what was showing and caught the end of a great video with one of the dogs as a featured star. I got so engrossed in the videos that I ended up watching them for about two hours. I didn’t particularly care for some of Wegman’s earlier videos from the 70’s and 80’s: he was obviously trying to find his niche and some of the things shown seemed (to my taste) a waste of perfectly good video tape. Other later works, however, especially with the dogs, he had me laughing so hard I was practically falling off my seat. The Wegman exhibit will be at AGO through July 28: if you’re in Toronto, I’d highly recommend visiting AGO to see it.

Other special exhibits included "Humanity Refigured: Henry Moore and Post War British Sculpture", and "David Blackwood: Fire Down on the Labrador". Some permanent exhibits include European Decorative arts 1000-1800, 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Painting, and Canadian Arts and Artisans through the years. AGO also has a very nice gift shop. In addition to the usual art books, postcards and such, they offer decorative and unique household accessories.

Admission to AGO is $12 (Canadian) for adults, $9 for seniors and students, and $6 for children ages six to fifteen. Children five and under are free. AGO offers families with two adults and up to five children a special admission price of $25. Wednesday evenings from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM are free. Subway: St. Patrick, and walk west on Dundas about 3 blocks.

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