As a Senior Curator at the Vancouver Art Gallery, Ian Thom has written numerous books and catalogues including The Cartoons of Arthur Lismer and Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting (D&M) with Andrew Hunter. Smith of West Vancouver was first recognized as an important modern painter in the 1940s and he won first prize in the first Biennial of Canadian Painting in 1955. In 1960, he was chosen to represent Canada at the Sao Paulo Bienal. Thom also selected and briefly described 100 'masterworks' of B.C. visual art for Art BC (D&M) starting with the likes of argillite carver Charles Edenshaw, totem pole carver Mungo Martin, watercolourist John Charles Collings, sculptor Charles Marega and Emily Carr. Familiar names are augmented by some less predictable choices, along with a brief overview of B.C. art. Thom has included 84 artists in chronological order. Thom has also edited books on David Milne and Robert Davidson. Thom received his Master of Fine Arts degree from UBC and has had senior curatorial positions at the Art Gallery in Victoria and the McMichael Canadian Art Collection.

Review of the author's work by BC Studies:
A Modern Life: Art and Design in British Columbia, 1945-1960
Challenging Traditions: Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast
Emily Carr: Collected
Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art From the Audain Collection
Masterworks from the Audain Art Museum

BOOKS:

Murals from a Great Canadian Train (Art Global/Libre Expression, 1986)

Andy Warhol Images

A New Angle on Canadian Art

Gordon Smith: The Act of Painting (D&M, 1997). With Andrew Hunter.

Art BC: Masterworks from British Columbia (D&M, 2000)

A Modern Life: Art and Design in British Columbia, 1945-1960 (Arsenal Pulp, 2004). Co-edited with Alan Elder.

Takao Tanaba (D&M, 2005)

Thom, Ian M. & Charles C. Hill & Johanne Lamoureux. Emily Carr (Douglas & McIntyre, 2006).

Challenging Traditions-Contemporary First Nations Art of the Northwest Coast by Ian M. Thom (Douglas & McIntyre 2009) $60

Shore, Forest and Beyond: Art from the Audain Collection; with Grant Arnold (Douglas & McIntyre 2011) 978-1-55365-929-7 $55.00

Emily Carr Collected (Introduction by Ian M. Thom) (Douglas & McIntyre 2013) $19.95 978-1-77100-080-2

Masterworks from the Audain Art Museum, Whistler (Figure 1 2015)

[BCBW 2015] "Art" "Carr"