Category Archives: Québec

Art, Circus, History, Montréal, Public Art, Québec, Ramble, Rant, Visual Art

Publicité Sauvage 25½ 6/15, 7/15, and 8/15

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Initially back at the beginning of the year when Publicité Sauvage started celebrating their silver anniversary I was quite excited. I figured that a year long celebration involving 15 different exhibits at a variety of different venues could be an amazing thing. Unfortunately my idea and those of Publicité Sauvage haven’t quite jibed. Where I was thinking some far reaching history of events in Montreal, rigorously documented and thematically linked, offering accessible but relevant exhibits than were engaging and entertaining. They were thinking something more along the lines of let’s try to hang as many old posters as we have in as many different places around the city as possible, and while we’re at it, documentation, visibility and coherence be damned.

What has been offered has been a hastily and shoddily thrown together series of exhibits that seem more like an afterthought to the book/catalogue (which itself is more like a hagiography than a critical analysis). None the less, any celebration of a past which is just far enough away that I can only view it through a serious haze is always welcome. Back at the start, I was all full of ideas about how I was going to write a gazillion and a half words on each and every show. I was going to do deep research to not only find out who designed each poster, but where it was printed, what kind of paper and then find reviews and articles on line that discussed the events on the poster. Yeah, right. That and $2 will get me a cup of coffee. As it turned out, I got to see four of the first five exhibits. (If you’re interested, you can read what I wrote about 1/15, 2/15 and 3/15 here and what I wrote about 5/15 here.)

So, since my sights have been lowered, I’m combining exhibits 6/15, 7/15, and 8/15 into one review here and now, and I reserve the right to change my mind again and again and again for any and all of the exhibits yet to come. Exhibit 6/15 was at city hall and involved a bunch of posters loosely grouped together as large events that happened in Montreal.

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall.

Exhibit 7/15 was at the Monument National and involved (for the most part) things that had happened in theatres.

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National

Exhibit 8/15 was way the heck out in the middle of buttfuck nowhere (aka Tohu) and consisted of some circus posters, and in passing was when and where I realized what was being shown on the walls, what was being written up in the book/catalogue, what was going to written up in the grant report and what was going to be remembered by people who saw any of the exhibits were four completely, utterly and entirely different things unrelated to each other like me, Buddha, Mama Cass Elliot and Fireball Roberts (go look them up on Wikipedia, I’ll wait)

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

I don’t know who is responsible, but I can only guess that it is Marc H. Choko who is listed as curator all over the place. But he shows a remarkable lack of vision and creativity given the milieu he has chosen to immerse himself in. Pinning up old posters to office cubicle dividers, no matter how good or great awesome the posters are is just doing them a disservice. No they do not need to be framed, but the posters need to be treated with some respect. I would venture a guess that the book/catalogue will/has sold in the low four figures ($40 isn’t cheap, I need to thank Emmanuel Galland, yes that Emmanuel Galland for my copy, he was/is the publicist for the Publicité Sauvage 25½). However I would venture another guess that upwards 1 million people will see the individual exhibits, counting geeks like me seven different times for the seven different exhibits I’ve seen one time each. How many people walk through City Hall every day? 2,000? The exhibit was up there for two weeks. If my guess is right that means 30,000 people saw it. There are 14 other exhibits in certain cases, places that have even higher traffic for a longer period of time (number 9/15 is going to be at Place des Arts for a full month).

As I have seen them so far, the exhibits have served as a kind of variation on the game Concentration, or if you prefer, how many of the events shown can you remember? But then the minute I turned away from the exhibit, I forgot what posters were there. Instead of just presenting nine Cirque du Soleil posters with a minimum of information

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

how difficult would it have been to spend a couple of bucks at a printshop on some plastic lettering that was then stuck on the wall explaining which poster was the very first Cirque du Soleil poster that Publicité Sauvage handled. Or some bafflegab and goobledygook as to why they don’t have a complete collection of posters from the 30 productions the Cirque du Soleil has done to date. Or heck a headshot of the person who drew the first poster along with their name in something just a little bit larger than 10 point type.

It’s almost as if M. Choko insisted that he follow the guidelines for the actual poster hangers that Publicité Sauvage hires. But without the added benefit of having multiple copies to hang.

Then if I really let loose, I honestly don’t think that an exhibit at the Centre d’Histoire de Montreal in 1995 counts as a “événements marquants de Montréal” (and it probably wouldn’t hurt either if they figured out some way to stop the posters from gapping while being exhibited, but I might be nitpicking here…)

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 6/15 at City Hall

Nor do I think a poster for an album belongs in a collection of theatre posters

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 7/15 at the Monument National

And then for the biggest WTF, did Publicité Sauvage somehow build a Latvian division after they couldn’t even figure out Toronto to save their life

Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu
Installation view of the Publicité Sauvage 25½ exhibit 8/15 at Tohu

Or did they, after the fact discover that there was way more wall space at Tohu than posters that they had mounted? I dunno, but as you can tell by the awesome amount of publicity that M. Galland has been able to accrue since January the entire city has been held enthralled by multiple exhibits of self-serving publicity that Publicité Sauvage has been able to garner – end sarcasm now.

I’ll wait until later in the year to even bring up to various conflicts of interest. And my expectations for 9/15 through 15/15 have been knocked lower than any sub basement you’ve ever visited in your life. I’m going to do my best to see the remaining shows, but while I’m fairly convinced that I am the only person in the entire universe who isn’t paid by Publicité Sauvage who has seen 87.5% of the shows so far, it ain’t like I’ve seen them all, and as a consequence trying to keep up to some unattainable level and promising to see every last one, is just a little bit beyond me now. Hopefully M. Choko is capabloe of learning from past mistakes and the stuff that he shows in the fall/winter season lives up to my initial expectations.

But I’m not holding my breath… Nor would I suggest you do either.

Art, Québec, Visual Art

Update on the Stolen Molinari Paintings

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Howdy!

Pieces seem to be falling in place, I got some more information on the stolen Molinari paintings. Apparently they were never sold and come from the estate of Guido Molinari. Part of Guy Molinari‘s inheritance from his father, stolen from his house in Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, I still don’t know when they were stolen. If anyone reading this knows anything more, please don’t hesitate to share.

It will definitely be interesting to see if the thief (or thieves) try to sell them. Because I can’t see anyone touching them with a ten foot pole, unless they are unaware of the theft. Unfortunately given how the Sûreté du Québec isn’t the most forthcoming organization, this is a distinct possibility.

As per normal, if you have any information about their whereabouts, call 911. Or email art.alert@surete.qc.ca.

And if you need to jog your memory on what they look like, here they are again:

Yellow Red and Blue Continuum 5, Acrylic on Canvas, 9' x 9', 1998
Yellow Red and Blue Continuum 5, Acrylic on Canvas, 9′ x 9′, 1998
Triangulaire Orange, Acrylic on Canvas, 98" x 86", 1974
Triangulaire Orange, Acrylic on Canvas, 98″ x 86″, 1974
Structure Triangulaire Vert-brun, Acrylic on Canvas, 78" x 78", 1971
Structure Triangulaire Vert-brun, Acrylic on Canvas, 78″ x 78″, 1971
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 200 cm, 1998/2002
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 200 x 200 cm, 1998/2002
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 55" x 66", 1961/63
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 55″ x 66″, 1961/63
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 68" x 68", 1970/74
Sans titre, Acrylic on Canvas, 68″ x 68″, 1970/74
Quantificateur bleu 12, Acrylic on Canvas, 8' x 7', 1994
Quantificateur bleu 12, Acrylic on Canvas, 8′ x 7′, 1994
Equilibre, Acrylic on Canvas, 39" x 44", 1960
Equilibre, Acrylic on Canvas, 39″ x 44″, 1960
Art, History, Montréal, Photo Essay, Public Art, Québec, Visual Art

Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine

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I’ve never been a big fan of the theatre. I’m not quite sure why, but when asked I can come up with about half-a-dozen competing theories, none of which really hold any water. As a consequence I’ve never seen a performance of Broue (which I really really would like to see) nor have I seen Les Belles-Soeurs (which I have no real strong desire to see). But that didn’t stop me from going to Espace La Fontaine to go see an exhibit of posters for Les Belles-Soeurs.

Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine

It came as advertised, a bunch of posters from a variety of performances all over the world. The unfortunate thing was that it didn’t seem that there were all that many people who paid it any attention whatsoever. Which, seeing as how they needed to pass by the majority of them on their way to the only bathrooms in Parc Lafontaine meant that there was a steady stream, wasn’t a good thing. I would lay the blame squarely at the feet of whomever designed the display. It was done on the cheap, and as a consequence was accorded an equivalent amount of attention.

Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine

While I didn’t expect a comprehensive show, I was modestly surprised that there was no poster for the musical version of the play that has been garnering headlines recently. Beyond that, if you go, make sure to poke your nose into sections of the restaurant that seem closed. As during the summer they do 95% of their business outside, there are some posters in places which on first glance appear to be places you’re not supposed to be in.

Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine

It’s nice having low expectations for a show. It means that it is real easy for them to be exceeded which always means that I leave thinking positive thoughts. So it’s not like I was really expecting to be told who the artist was, or the dates it was performed in Augsburg or Almonte.

Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s'affichent at the Espace La Fontaine
Les Belles-Soeurs s’affichent at the Espace La Fontaine

From what I can find, the posters are up for about another week, until July 29.

Art, Conversation, EZ Montreal Art Podcast, Montréal, Podcast, Québec, Ramble, Visual Art

The EZ Montreal Art Podcast episode 2

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Last week Eloi Desjardins from Un show de mot’arts and I got together again to talk about the summertime art in Montreal. We’re calling it episode 2 of the EZ Montreal Art Podcast – get it?

The EZ Montreal Art Podcast episode 2

Listen (47:55):

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Download: Flac 171MB, MP3 40MB, Ogg Vorbis 26MB, WAV 484MB

The topics we covered were:

And then we finish up with some shows that we think might be worthwhile seeing

(And if you missed episode 1, it’s here.)

Art, History, Montréal, Photo Essay, Public Art, Québec, Rave, Sculpture, Visual Art

The best Maurice “Rocket” Richard statue in the world!

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I’ve written about the Maurice “Rocket” Richard statue by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, before. At some point I’m going to have to write some more about it again. But for the meantime, you’re going to have to content yourself with pictures.

Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice "Rocket" Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
Maurice “Rocket” Richard by Jules Lasalle and Annick Bourgeau, 1997
History, Québec, Ramble, Review

Aimé Despatis – De l’encre dans les veines at Maison Bélisle in Terrebonne

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Recently I went out to Terrebonne, ostensibly to see the exhibit on Aimé Despatis at the Maison Bélisle. It’s a good thing that it was a nice day and that the whole Île-des-Moulins area there is very nice, because the exhibit itself was anything but.

Half of the Aimé Despatis, de l'encre dans les veines exhibit
Half of the Aimé Despatis, de l’encre dans les veines exhibit

I confused Aimé Despatis with William-Edmond Blumhart and didn’t realize my mistake until I walked up to the second floor of the Maison Bélisle, which must be all of 500 square feet, saw the eight panels, and asked myself “we drove an hour to see this?”

While M. Despatis might have been a significant person in Terrebonne’s history, the exhibit kind of left me with the idea that Terrebonne’s history wasn’t anything to write home about. Besides the brightly colored panels there was a video screen that had some interview on a continuous loop, which is never a good idea, and even less so in an exhibit without many visitors.

They did have a copy of the first edition of L’Écho de Terrebonne

L'Écho de Terrebonne Vol 1 No. 1
L’Écho de Terrebonne Vol 1 No. 1

Which was a precursor to La Revue de Terrebonne and an old typewriter that I presume was used by M. Despatis. But I can see old typewriters in coffee shops wanting to impart an atmosphere and junk shops that haven’t quite realized we’re in the 21st century yet. And while the first edition of L’Écho might be significant, it really is yesterday’s news and isn’t particularly relevant now.

This all might have been appeased if there had been some particularly compelling content, but reading about some local dude, who wasn’t from my locality, that had started a weekly newspaper wasn’t compelling to me. The local newspapers can for the most part be browsed on-line (L’Echo de Terrebonne, Le Courrier de Terrebonne) so there has got to be something more to make an exhibit worthwhile – and I’m not even going to get into the fact that they charge $6 to get in.

Two display cases containing medals, an army bag, some pictures and a beret doesn’t cut it. If M. Despatis was so significant to Terrebonne’s history, why didn’t they show this more concretely? Instead of digital reproductions of newspapers printed on panels, kind of like what I would expect from some eighth grade history presentation, why didn’t they get out more old newspapers?

Instead of bundling up some copies of La Revue for me to sit on and leaving copies of books on the history of Terrebone to read, why didn’t they blow-up and reprint some pictures from those old issues of La Revue and then take pictures from the same spot today so as to illustrate the advance of time on Terrebonne? Why couldn’t they have recreated M. Despatis’ desk? Or compile a list of everyone who had written for La Revue? I’m certain that they could have found some famous people who got there start there. Or as I presume that M. Despatis wrote a lot of the content in La Revue, how about coming up with some concrete method to display approximately the number of words he wrote in his lifetime.

While it would be extremely easy to dis La Bande a Paul for their exhibition design to my eye, it doesn’t look like they were given an awful lot of material to work with. Despite what people think about today’s technological advances, I can’t think of anytime in history when words on a wall made for a good exhibit.

Art, Audio, Conversation, EZ Montreal Art Podcast, Montréal, Podcast, Québec, Ramble, Visual Art

The EZ Montreal Art Podcast, episode 1. Eloi and Zeke have at it about Quebecois Art and the media.

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Howdy!

Last week Eloi Desjardins of Un show de mot’arts, stopped by La Cabane and we had a conversation about the Quebecois art media, or lack thereof. Eloi wanted to know where and how to find what little was written, and then the conversation veered towards non-traditional outlets, the theories behind what and how we write and if it is possible to make money writing about Quebecois art. It’s approximately the 672nd podcast I have done (533 Audio and 139 video). But is episode 1 of The EZ Montreal Art Podcast.

Since then, we have had a discussion, and it looks like this will be a regular feature on both of our websites, although not necessarily identical, as the idea is for each of us to take the raw audio file and edit it how we see fit. Next time, we’re going to do it in a much, much quieter place, and I think the discussion will be centered around the Wesselmann and Ikeda exhibits currently on view.

Listen (40:31):

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Download: Flac 140MB, MP3 34MB, Ogg Vorbis 21MB, WAV 409MB

Then if anyone is interested, these are some of the lesser known websites that write about art including Canadian and Quebecois art:

Art, Montréal, Painting, Québec, Ramble, Rant, Review, Visual Art

Canadian Art Auction at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans

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On Tuesday I went to the auction of (mostly) Canadian Art at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans. It was vaguely frustrating as less than 50% of the lots offered up for sale sold. I don’t know if that was due to reserves being placed to high, or lack of interest, or if it was more indicative of lower quality work, or something else entirely.

The scene before the auction at Iegor De Saint Hippolyte's place.
The scene before the auction at Iegor De Saint Hippolyte’s place.

I was interested in it because of a bunch of items, specifically two Marcel Barbeau paintings, prints by a Johanne Corno, Alfred Pellan and Jacques Hurtubise, a Zilon painting and a Robert Roussil sculpture. Along the way there was also Vladimir Lebedev print, some Frère Jérôme stuff and three Fernand Toupins that looked kind of funky. Overall Iegor – Hôtel des Encans grossed almost $250,000. (Please take care when quoting my figures, taking notes at an Iegor auction is not an easy thing, there are numerous question marks in my notes and while I would feel comfortable using them as a rough guide, I would not trust them to be the definitive word – there is a reason why M. De Saint Hippolyte is extremely secretive).

The blockbuster, if you can call it that, was a pair of Cloisonné Qilin (Cloisonnéd Qilins?) that went for $30,353.40 with the 20% buyer’s premium and taxes included (all prices quoted here have the 20% buyer’s premium and taxes included). It seems to me that while M. De Saint Hippolyte initially made his name selling Quebecois art, he is more and more moving into the more generalized practice that really doesn’t differentiate objects that cost a chunk of change and takes advantage of the fact that most potential buyers will be first time, only time buyers from him. Emphasizing that while they know the objects in question (such as the Cloisonné Qilin in question) and therefore unlikely to overpay, there are a bunch of practices that M. De Saint Hippolyte can employ to obtain fair market value.

Iegor - Hôtel des Encans, Lot #11, June 19, 2012 Pair of Qilin Cloisonné
Iegor – Hôtel des Encans, Lot #11, June 19, 2012 Pair of Qilin Cloisonné

I’m always a large believer in taking full advantage of arbitrage, buying winter coats and boots in the middle of the summer, buying baseball cards of Tampa Bay Rays’ players in Seattle, playing Beach Boys songs in December, etc. In short going against the grain. Shorter still: Contrarian.

So you’d figure that after this much time M. De Saint Hippolyte would have figured out how to maximize sales of and on Quebecois artists. That he would have fostered and promoted collectors of Quebecois art. But as far as I can tell paintings by Stanley Cosgrove, Goodrich Roberts and others of their ilk are still selling for about $5,000, like they were a decade and a half ago. a rising tide is supposed to lift all boats, but if the tide never comes then everything just remains beached. And from where I am sitting Quebecois art has been beached and left out to rot for the longest time. If a new painting by Zilon will cost something like five figure but you can pick up an older pre-loved one for $1,793.61 like someone did on Tuesday, why in anyone’s name would you buy new?

That all being said, I will repeat myself again and say that there is sole pretty gosh darn phenomenal art being made here right now (and in the past as well) but the people whose job and responsibility it is (like M. De Saint Hippolyte, Nathalie Bondil, Simon Blais, and others) to make the rest of the world aware of how amazing, kick-ass and wonderful the art made here is are dropping the ball and screwing around big time.

The Marcel Barbeau paintings at Iegor - Hôtel des Encans June 19, 2012. Neither one sold.
The Marcel Barbeau paintings at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans June 19, 2012. Neither one sold.
Johanne Corno, Breast and Blue at Iegor - Hôtel des Encans, June 19, 2012. Did not sell
Johanne Corno, Breast and Blue at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans, June 19, 2012. Did not sell
Jacques Hurtubise, Citrique at Iegor - Hôtel des Encans June 19, 2012. Sold for $1,655.64
Jacques Hurtubise, Citrique at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans June 19, 2012. Sold for $1,655.64
Alfred Pellan prints at Iegor - Hôtel des Encans, June 19, 2012
Alfred Pellan prints at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans, June 19, 2012

Pop Shop, the one on top sold for $1,103.76.l Au bord de la mer (on the bottom) did not sell.

Robert Roussil sculpture The tree of life from the Iegor - Hôtel des Encans auction June 19, 2012. Sold for $12,417.30.
Robert Roussil sculpture The tree of life from the Iegor – Hôtel des Encans auction June 19, 2012. Sold for $12,417.30.
Zilon, Se dire adieu at the Iegor - Hôtel des Encans auction June 19, 2012. Sold for $1,793.61
Zilon, Se dire adieu at the Iegor – Hôtel des Encans auction June 19, 2012. Sold for $1,793.61
Zilon, Se dire adieu at Iegor - Hôtel des Encans (detail)
Zilon, Se dire adieu at Iegor – Hôtel des Encans (detail)

And then finally, if you’d like my spreadsheet of prices from the auction, download this.

Art, Montréal, Photography, Québec, Ramble, Rant, Review, Visual Art

Henri Venne : Somewhere in Between at Art Mûr

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Howdy!

Back in 2004 I saw a show by Henri Venne at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, I wasn’t impressed. I have a vague memory of large blue paintings of the sky, or something similar. Filed him away as a decent Quebecois artists whose work I wasn’t particularly fond of, kind of like Pierre Lalonde or Boom Desjardins. Someone kind of faceless in the crowd, who is required in order to have a crowd.

I don’t think I particularly noticed when he got a show at the Musee d’art de Joliette (and shouldn’t an artist with a career that’s going places first have a show in Joliette and then in Montreal? And not the other way around?) nor was I expecting to see his work when I went to Art Mûr – I had trucked up there ostensibly to see something else, more on that later. Anyhows, I was quite impressed.

One of the sensations I kind of remember from his show in 2004 was some kind of meditative spin on things, him trying to paint (I think they were paintings) the space in between dozing off and a full sleep. That kind of trance you can end up in if you repeat the same word, gesture or action over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over (ain’t copy/paste grand?!). As far as I can tell there are lots of people out there who believe that those trances are good. I’m not one of them, which is why I probably lumped him in the same space as Boom Desjardins.

This time however I was very impressed at the shininess of his current work. Where the work of his in my memory was kind of flat with a subtle texture (again, I think) from the brush. Which kind of aided to at least understand the Zen-like sensations I felt I was supposed to feel. These photographs are shiny to the point where if they were laid on the floor, you could almost dive right in. All of them are photographs roughly two feet by three feet that are mounted underneath a very thick piece of plexiglass.

Henri Venne, You Should Have Seen What I’ve Seen (detail) 2012
Henri Venne, You Should Have Seen What I’ve Seen (detail) 2012

I accidentally forgot my measuring tape in my other pants when I visited Art Mûr so I can’t tell you if it’s ¼” or ½” or something even thicker. But great gosh-a’mighty that plexiglass made them shiny as all get go. Now I kind of have this hate/hate relationship with shiny contemporary art. I tend to look at it as a extremely facile and simplistic method to make otherwise unremarkable art extremely sellable. Normally it’s done with multiple layers of varnish which requires some (not much) skill – as an aside it’s because of the varnishing that here in Quebec we call an art opening a Vernissage. Back in the good old days, once a painter finished some paintings for a an exhibition, he’d invite his friends over to help him varnish them so that they would be suitable for display. Since varnishing a painting is a fairly tedious job, he’d (back in the good old days 99% of your professional artists were men) have to bribe them with bottles of wine to keep them happy. As a consequence, these varnishing parties could get quite boisterous, and it was only a matter of time before a vernissage became synonymous with the opening of an exhibit. But I digress…

Henri Venne, Somewhere in Between at Art Mur, installation view
Henri Venne, Somewhere in Between at Art Mur, installation view

M. Venne’s work in this show is eight nearly monochromatic, nearly featureless, photographs (there are only seven pieces of art, because one of the pieces, I’ll Keep You There… So Long is a diptych). As simple as rain on a window, the most prevalent feature of these photographs is the color. They are for the most part gradients of primary color (gradiented primary color? Primary color gradients?) – there is one that is orange – and look pretty much like what I would imagine the world looks like if you were severely myopic.

Henri Venne, I’ll Keep You There… So Long (diptych), digital print mounted under plexiglass, 67cm x 183cm, 2012
Henri Venne, I’ll Keep You There… So Long (diptych), digital print mounted under plexiglass, 67cm x 183cm, 2012

Extremely simple in concept and form, it’s the sort of thing which makes me gnash my teeth. Instead of using new and improved tools to make new and improved art. M. Venne uses new and improved tools (in this case a fancy-ass digital camera, and fancy-ass digital printer, and a fancy-ass laminator) to make the same old, same old. While I probably should applaud him for being consistent with his art, I can’t help but feel a little bit cheated, because the picture itself is meaningless. Without a title and the title of the show itself all they are are shiny contemporary versions of medium sized colorfields. They aren’t breaking any new ground nor they aren’t earth-shattering, and while all art doesn’t have to be ground-breaking or earth-shattering, when you are using current technologies it helps, a lot. Because if your art isn’t ground-breaking and earth-shattering then it runs the risk of being mundane. Being mundane isn’t a good thing.

Henri Venne, Tomorrow Started, 85cm x 102cm, digital print mounted under plexiglass
Henri Venne, Tomorrow Started, 85cm x 102cm, digital print mounted under plexiglass

It’s the kind of work that I am used to seeing from artists at Galerie de Bellefeuille or Simon Blais. While I am not against the commercialization of art, there are certain times when it hits me that something “art-like” is much closer to being a commodity, and this is one of those times, right down to the fact that he does not bother to mention to size of the print run for each of the pictures.

Despite the bafflegab and gobbledy-gook in Art Mûr’s magazine about pensiveness, and reflection, to me M. Venne’s work is all about sellability. There are some times when shopping can cause a sensation of bliss, or at least that’s what I’ve been told. So I really shouldn’t be raining on anyone’s parade. Especially, since I think that M. Venne’s work is incredibly sellable. They’re priced appropriately, in that region that will make the buyer instantaneously recognize that the work is serious, while at the same time not being outrageous. Or if you prefer, about 57¢/cm2 a pop or $3.59/in2. (66¢/cm2 with taxes. If you’re buying Quebecois art, you can save some serious change by having it shipped either out of province or out of the country).

Henri Venne, Somewhere in Between at Art Mur, installation view
Henri Venne, Somewhere in Between at Art Mur, installation view

At that price, don’t forget that it probably would help immensely to bring both a swatch from your couch and a paint chip from your wall color so as to make sure that they match the picture.

Henri Venne: Somewhere in Between was exhibited at Art Mûr from April 26 until June 16, 2012

Art, Québec

Diane Landry, Untitled – Stolen Art Alert

Howdy!

Diane Landry, untitled. 60" x 36"
Diane Landry, untitled. 60" x 36"

As per usual I have no details as to when it was stolen, where in Quebec it was stolen (if in fact it was stolen in Quebec), who it was stolen from or how it was stolen, or how much it is worth. Nor can I even tell you what it was made out of, because all they say is “mixed media.” So it could be anything. They say it was made in 1985 which not only means that she made it while she was a student at l’Université du Québec à Montréal, but also it’s too far back to even appear on her CV. More information on Ms. Landry can be found here, and as usual, if you happen to see the work, call 911.