This volume on the work of landscape painter Woldemar Neufeld is a welcome addition to the short list of books on Mennonite art. The monograph includes five illustrated biographical chapters ... followed by ninety-one pages of beautifully reproduced drawings, paintings, and prints that are interspersed with biographical notes.... Woldemar Neufeld's Canada provides compelling glimpses of the histories of Russian Mennonites and the early-Modern Canadian art world that will be new to many readers. Though a fully indexed and genuinely critical assessment of Neufeld's artistic contribution might have been more important, this is still a valuable introduction. Some Anabaptist communities have certainly suppressed artistic inclinations, but somehow Neufeld's art flourished. In fact, because the authors and editors paint a portrait of Neufeld's art as a nearly perfect biographical reflection, it almost seems as though he succeeded because of his religious heritage rather than in spite of it. Neufeld's historical scenes have obvious ‘humble’ appeal to a people more focused on community than on individuality, more enamored with tradition than with provocation. In that respect, the fact that Neufeld's history—and not his art—is the most compelling part of the story is one of the most revealingly ‘Mennonite’ aspects of the book. But it is more than the historical orientation of the monograph and the historical content of Neufeld's compositions that make his work arguably ‘Mennonite.’ To some extent it is also the techniques he used. Just as Mennonite churches often eliminate mystery and amplify architectural austerity in the name of economy and humility, Neufeld developed his brightly lit illustrations in the name of clear-eyed reportage. In the end, his paintings are washed in the same uniform florescence as the un-dimmable, but eminently cost-efficient, light fixtures that illuminate Mennonite churches throughout North America.

Laurence Neufeld and Monika McKillen, based in western Connecticut, are editors of a recent volume of selected American work by Woldemar Neufeld from 1946 to 1995, New Milford Portfolio: Woldemar Neufeld’s Paintings and Block-prints of New Milford, Connecticut. Laurence Neufeld is the son of Woldemar Neufeld.
|Laurence Neufeld and Monika McKillen, based in western Connecticut, are editors of a recent volume of selected American work by Woldemar Neufeld from 1946 to 1995, New Milford Portfolio: Woldemar Neufeld’s Paintings and Block-prints of New Milford, Connecticut.

Table of Contents for Woldemar Neufeld’s Canada: A Mennonite Artist in the Canadian Landscape 1925–1995, edited by Laurence Neufeld and Monika McKillen; text by Hildi Froese Tiessen and Paul Gerard Tiessen
Arrival in Canada 1924–25
Building Bridges
European Roots: Russia
Forgetting Russia
“Russian Mennonites” in Canada
“Ontario Mennonites” and “Waterloo County”
The Canadian Art Scene: Homer Watson and the Group of Seven
Early Years in Canada 1925–35
At Home and Away
Block Printing: Black and White
Art Society of Kitchener
Early Exhibitions
An Emerging Career
Crossing Borders 1935–44
From Canada to Cleveland
Printing and Painting in the Canadian West
Visiting Canada 1945–68
American Neighbourhoods
Excursions into Abstraction
Waterloo Revival 1968–95
Notes
References
Plates
Paintings and Drawings
Block Prints