Hidden Values presents--in mo fuU-colour plates--the first overview of contemporary Canadian art to appear in almost two decades.Over the past thirty years, Canadian corporations have made a serious commitment to supporting the visual arts by collecting con-temporary Canadian art. These unique collections of paintings, prints, drawings, photographs and sculpture form an important part of the nation's cultural heritage. Hidden Values presents many of these works for the first time across Canada,in this book and in an unprecedented series of major regional exhibitions on Western, Ontario and Atlantic collections, as well as a video doc-umentary on Quebec collections.Featured here are Ioo seldom-seen works by Ioo contemporary Canadian artists, including Jack Bush, Geneviève Cadieux, Jack Chambers,Alex Colville, Ulysse Comtois, Chris Cran, Ivan Eyre, Joe Fafard, Gathie Falk, Betty Goodwin,Geoffrey James, Sam Lam, Rita Letendre, Jean McEwen, Medrie MacPhee, Vicky Marshall, Jane Ash Poitras, Leslie Poole, Christopher Pratt, Mary Pratt, Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith,David Thauberger and Tim Zuck.Robert Fulford's introductory essay explores the little-known passion of many Canadian corporations for collecting Canadian art and the forces that have placed art at the centre of ournational consciousness.Robert Swain's ground-breaking essay provides a critical and historical overview of the evolution of private and corporate art collecting in Canada, from the Hudson's Bay Company's support of painter Paul Kane in the 1840s up to the present. There are also brief biographies of all the artists Whose works are represented in this book.ROBERT SWAIN has served as director of the Art Gallery of Hamilton, president of the CanadianMuseum Directors' Organization and president of the Ontario Association of Art Galleries. During histwelve years as director of the Agnes Etherington Ar Centre at Queen's University, he curated, amongother projects, "Lynn Donoghue: Dancemakers and Other Portraits" (I982), "Roland Poulin: Sculpturesand Drawings" (I984), and "Geoffrey James: The Garden As Theatre" (I984). He has been curatorialsupervisor for major projects on the work of Willian Brymner, Maurice Cullen, John Lyman, Robin Collye: John M. Lyle and Milton Avery. He has also been a contributor to artscanada and Queen's Quarterly. ROBER FULFORD writes a weekly column on cultural affairs for the Globe andMail, contributes regularly to Canadian Art and Toronto Life magazines and makes regular guest appearances on CBC Radio He has been the art critic for the Toronto Star and editor of Saturday Night magazine. His many books include Harold Town Drawings, An Introduction to the Arts in Canada and (as co-author) The Beginning of Vision: The Drawings of Lawren Harris.