PAC 2015: The Aztecs

People of the Sun
The Aztecs

May 30 - October 25, 2015

Pointe-à-Callière Museum (PAC) is presenting a major international exhibition, The Aztecs, People of the Sun. Visitors have a unique opportunity to learn about the people who founded the amazing city of Tenochtitlan, capital of the Aztec Empire and the site where Mexico City was built after the Spanish Conquest in 1521. The exhibition documents at length the founding of Tenochtitlan, people's daily lives, and their everyday and ritual objects.

The exhibition also focuses on two Aztec calendars, the Templo Mayor, and also on the religious human sacrifices. It looks at many themes in Aztec's rich history: the Aztecs’ migration, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli; the founding of Tenochtitlan; the remarkable urban planning and land use development in this “Venice of Mexico”; the Aztec art of war and the tribute paid to conquerors by the conquered peoples; and their agricultural techniques and chinampas, the ingenious floating gardens that made the city self-sufficient. 

The exhibition also looks at the organization of Aztec society and its different classes. It elaborates on the role of women, education and the administration of justice. Aztec writing, the famous codices - manuscripts made up of glyphs or pictograms illustrating the spoken language - are also examined. Religion, essential and omnipresent in Aztec society, is also brought into focus, along with various deities, rituals and believes.

The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts – National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH). It showcases some 265 items from 16 Mexican museums, including the Templo Mayor Museum, an archaeological site museum like Pointe-à-Callière itself, and the Mexican National Museum of Anthropology.

A great variety of objects is on display, both spectacular and moving. There are masks and statues, gold jewellery, figurines of women, children and animals, stamps for creating patterns on fabric and skin, chests, boxes for offerings, vases and ceramics, sculptures and objects relating to the sacrifices which it was believed were required to keep the Sun on its daily journey. They all reflect the mysteries surrounding the Aztec culture and people. 

The exhibition closes with a description of the Spanish conquest, the fall of the Aztec Empire, and the legacy of the Aztecs today. 

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For more information, visit the Pac Museum website

http://www.pacmusee.qc.ca/en

MMFA 2015: Rodin - Metamorphoses

RODIN - Metamorphoses
In Rodin's Studio

May 30 - October 18, 2015

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts presens a new exhibition Metamorphoses: In Rodin’s Studio. It was produced by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with the Musée Rodin in Paris and had already circulated in the United States. This exhibition features close to 300 works and is the largest Rodin exhibition ever presented in Canada. It includes masterpieces that are being shown for the first time in North America.

The Musée Rodin and its director Catherine Chevillot have generously loaned 171 sculptures. They include rarely lent 94 precious plasters (plaster casts) which are special and fragile witnesses of master’s work. Plaster is the material best suited to perceiving Rodin’s manner of working. As the original works in raw clay could not be preserved, the plasters remain the most faithful stamp of his art.

Among the other loans from generous Canadian and international collaborators is the marble The Hand of God from New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. Additional lenders include some fifteen institutions and private collectors in Canada, France and the United States, among them the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C., the Albright-Knox Art Gallery in Buffalo, The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco Legion of Honor and the Los Angeles County Museum. Finally, a few sculptures by contemporaries and students of Rodin, such as Bourdelle, Carriès, Claudel and Desbois, help to complete the vision of the artist impetus in the Rodin's studio.

The exhibition also includes three rare pieces in terracotta, a glass paste, a porcelain, four stoneware pieces, fourteen precious marbles and a major selection of bronze castings of both older and more recent vintage. Also, there are eighty six old photographs, and a number of drawings and watercolours which will be shown in rotation because of their fragility.

In addition, one will see the Museum’s recent acquisition - an important collection of 70 photographs taken by Eugène Duet, a close collaborator of Rodin. 

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For more information, visit the MMFA website.

MMFA 2015: From Gainsborough to Moore

From Gainsborough to Moore
200 YEARS OF BRITISH DRAWINGS

April 15 - August 16, 2015

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is exhibiting some forty British drawings from its permanent collection in its graphic arts centre. The works represent 200 years of British Drawings and range from Gainsborough  to Moore.

This exhibition includes works by Beerbohm, Burne-Jones, Chadwick, Cotman, Cox, Flaxman, Gainsborough, Gilpin, Moore, Mortimer, Nash, Nicholson, Richardson, Romney, Rowlandson, Ruskin, Sandby and Solomon, as well as a magnificent monumental watercolour by Turner.

Since works on paper are fragile and their exposure to light must be limited, this will be one of the few times visitors will be able to view this prestigious collection of works. 

The variety of styles and subjects reflect British art and culture from the mid-eighteenth to the late twentieth century. While landscapes understandably dominate the exhibition, portraits, figure studies, genre scenes, caricatures and religious subjects are also presented.

Here is one of the MMFA’s recent acquisitions: Oedipus and his Daughters by John Flaxman, one of the most influential artists of the neoclassical movement, and the most famous sculptor in England during his lifetime. The drawing illustrates Oedipus at Colonus, the second play in Sophocles’s Oedipal trilogy. Oedipus is seated at centre, rejected by the men of the village of Colonus over his tragic, unwitting marriage to his own mother, Jocasta, who hanged herself upon realizing the truth. Having blinded himself, Oedipus sits with his two devoted daughters, Ismene and Antigone.

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Visit the MMFA website.

MMFA 2015: Marion Wagschal

MARION WAGSCHAL
PORTRAITS, MEMORIES, FABLES 

April 8 - August 9, 2015

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in association with the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, is presenting the works of the Montreal artist Marion Wagschal. This is her first monograph exhibition at a Quebec museum. On display are close to thirty paintings produced between 1971 and 2014. They represent an overview of the painter's career. At the time when art largely favoured abstraction, Wagschal had chosen for her artistic expression figurative painting - portraiture and allegorical forms. 

Wagschal shows a preference for empathetic and even extravagant figuration. Her family members and their shared histories play an important part in stories and characters she portrays on canvasses. Her personal experiences shape the subject matter and the compositions, as she chooses to portray what she perceives as a reality in terms of an imaginary fiction.

For more information on this and other exhibitions at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, visit the museum's website.

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MMFA 2015: Benoit Aquin

Benoit Aquin
Mégantic in Pictures

February 18 - May 24, 2015

Benoit Aquin is one of the few photographers to have been allowed an access to Lac-Mégantic’s ground zero, the site of the derailment. He visited the site on multiple occasions, documenting the environmental impact from the oil spill on neighbouring land and waterways. He blurs the lines between journalistic and art photography.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' exhibition featured close to forty photographs, bearing witness to the aftermath of the derailment and how the everyday life has changed forever in Lac-Mégantic.

For twenty-five years, Benoit Aquin, the Montreal photographer, has travelled the world to document the environmental issues and the human stories linked to them. His approach is in tune with the various social and human issues of his time. 

His works on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake were exhibited at the McCord Museum and you can read about it in my post here.

http://artframe.blogspot.ca/2013/02/mccord-museum-2013-benoit-aquin.html

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SIDIM 2015 - Design

SIDIM 2015 - 27th Edition
Focus on Design

May 21-23, 2015

Once again, Place Bonaventure has welcomed Montreal's annual SIDIM Design Show. The largest emphases this year appears to be on furniture, both interior and exterior. Furniture takes quite a bit of space in our apartments and in our lives. It has to be comfortable and aesthetically pleasing.

In addition to its visual impression, one should always try the furniture pieces, and this is easy to do at the show. It is also possible to discuss about about various pieces with a representatives, and express personal impressions and needs.

Above are examples of chairs at the show, and below is a unique folding table adjustable with a single leaver to all heights and various sizes. It also folds down to a small coffee table. One can find more about the table here.

Below are two unusual sitting-launching designs. The one on the left is called Exocet and it adjusts to various positions as of a person's preference. It won a Gold Award 2015 in Design Competition. For more information click here.

To divide an interior space into sections, or to create an intimate corner in a garden, here is a beautiful folding screen by Helen Simard.

To further enhance the living spaces, further possibilities are offered at the show.

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For more information, visit SIDIM website

http://sidim.com/en

You can also read my previous post on SIDIM 2015 here

http://artframe.blogspot.ca/2015/05/sidim-2015-art.html

SIDIM 2015 - Art

SIDIM Design Show 2015 
Focus on Art

May 21-23, 2015

This year is the 27th edition of the very popular Montreal's annual Design Show. The space allocated to the Art Gallery in the corner of the exhibition hall appeared even larger this year. The paintings were plentiful and very colourful.

The gallery was well attended by the visitors, who talked to the artists, examined the paintigs and took photos of works they liked.

The exhibited works are made by Quebec and especially local Montreal artists. 

The show promotes the art since design is an artistic endeavour. Also, a large part of the exhibit is devoted to the innovative furniture design. Those who redecorate search not only for new furniture but also for the complementary paintings to enhance the interior atmosphere and comfort, and at times even to create some dramatic effects. So art goes hand in hand with many other exhibits at the show.

There are also some sculptural works on display. The ones in the photo below to the right are not in the space allocated to the art gallery, but are actually sculptures made by Eric Nadeau from old sewing machines.

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For more information, visit SIDIM website

http://sidim.com/en

More on SIDIM 2015 in my following article

http://artframe.blogspot.ca/2015/05/sidim-2015-design.html