MMFA – New Bourgie Pavilion

Today, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) inaugurated the new Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion, which will become the home for the museum’s permanent collection of Quebec and Canadian Art. The pavilion also features a new 444-seat concert hall - Bourgie hall - build into the nave of the former 1894 heritage Erskine church, recognized for its excellent acoustics.

The new Bourgie pavilion is architecturally quite amazing. The old church masonry is combined with modern structures of large white marble sheets, glass and steel.

The Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art

It is spread over 6 levels with 600 works. There are 4 stories above the ground level and one below. Starting from the top, this is how the collection is subdivided:

Level 4 – Inuit Art, featuring 100 works from rich collection of sculpture and prints.

Indian Art and colonial period portraits in the background to the left, Bourgie Pavilion, Level 3.

Level 3 – Founding Identities theme – will feature contemporary and historical Ameridian Art as well as  works of colonial period (1700 to 1870s), dominated by portraiture and religious art.

Alfried Laliberté, Lost in Though, 1924.

Bourgie Pavilion, Level 2.

Level 2 -  Features the Annuals Exhibition Era (1980s – 1920s), and such artists as for instance Maurice Cullen, Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Maurice and Alfred Laliberté.

Lawren S. Harris, Log Cabin, 1923.

Bourgie Pavilion, Level 1.












Level 1 – Towards Modernism (1920s - 1930s) - present the Montreal’s Beaver Hall Group and its Quebec cityscapes and landscapes. This level also highlights the paintings from the Toronto based Group of Seven, and painters like Emily Carr and Marc-Aurèle Fortin.

Paul-Emil Bourdua, Composition 44, 1944. Bourgie Pavilion, Street Level.

Sherbrooke Stree Level -  The Age of the Manifesto (1040s - 1960s), with artists Paul-Emile Bordua and Alfred Pellan. A special place is also devoted for the works of Jean-Paul Riopelle (from 1947 to 1977).

Bourgie Pavilion, The Undeground Level. 

The underground Level – “The Mountain Gallery” – a thick layer of the mountain rock had to be removed to open this space to house the art from 1960s to 1970s with such artists as Louis Archambault, Greg Curnoe, Jean McEwen, Guido Millinari, Michael Snow and Calude Tousignant among others. This level leads directly into the underground passage that links all three MMFA pavilions.

The Bourgie Concert Hall

The artistic highlight of this hall ate magnificent Tiffany stained glass windows, along with the stained glass windows by Haworth and Charles William Kelsey.

Tiffany Stained Glass Windows, Bourgie Concert Hall.

The Hall has two Steinway & Sons’ Grand Pianos. One is on the stage of the concert hall, and the other one is in the practice room below the concert hall. This ensures that if a piece written for two pianos were to be performed, this Bourgie Hall would easily accommodate it.

Bourgie Concert Hall - the back of the Hall, Parterre and Balcony.

125 concerts have been scheduled for this Inaugural Season, spotlighting local musicians. The performances will include classical music as well as jazz, world and new music. Bourgie Hall will also hold a number of concert series with renowned musical ensembles.

For more information visit the Bourgie Hall website

http://www.sallebourgie.ca/

Also visit the website of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

http://www.mbam.qc.ca/en/index.html