Historical Hill Photo

From The Hill Times’ Photo Archives: Hill Life & People, 30th Year in Print

Felix Holtmann, pictured in his Hill office in April 1990, became a household name when he added fuel to the national firestorm after the National Gallery of Canada announced it had bought a $1.8-million abstract painting, Voice of Fire, by American painter Barnett Newman, as the country was slipping into a recession. Mr. Holtmann, a Progressive Conservative MP at the time, told one interviewer that the painting ‘looks like two cans of paint and two rollers and about 10 minutes would do the trick.’

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