Edmund Alleyn
In my studio, I am many
May 19 - September 25, 2016
The Montreal Museum of Modern Art - Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (MAC) - is presenting the work of Edmund Alleyn, a major Québec artist who influenced many artists of the next generation, and whose place in the history of Québec art deserves to be better understood and illuminated. This is the first retrospective devoted to the artist since his death in 2004. It is showcasing some sixty of his works. John Zeppetelli, Director and Chief Curator of the MAC, has stated about Alleyn’s work, “brilliant and thoughtful art that is now recognized as one of the most important passages in Québec’s aesthetic history.”
Independent and keenly interested in the events that were shaking up the world, he was as independent in his artistic practices. He refused to join any movement and never hesitated to change his style of artistic expression. “I’ve had many lives,” he would say.
This exhibition
is designed to reflect Alleyn’s many-facetted, versatile, protean career,
punctuated with shifts and experiments, as illustrated by the works on display: paintings, drawings, films and
technology-based pieces produced from the late 1950s to the early 2000s. He also stated about his art, “It’s not novelty that interests me, it’s intensity.”
Beyond his ability to capture the spirit of his time, Allyen in reality exemplified several different times. “I am Mr. Always,” he stated about himself. The curator of the exhibition Mark Lanctôt notes, “In addition to reconnecting with historically based, monographic exhibitions, In my studio, I am many reveals how the contemporary or current aspect of an artistic practice such as Alleyn’s is not confined to its being situated in the present moment.”
The exhibition was organized by Mark Lanctôt, curator at the MAC. Iy is also accompanied by an extensively illustrated, 216-page catalogue. It contains essays by the show’s curator Mark Lanctôt, and by Gilles Lapointe, Olivier Asselin and Aude Weber-Houde, and Vincent Bonin. It also includes a chronology and a bibliography drawn up by Gilles Lapointe. The book could be purchased at the Museum's Boutique.
MAC also focuses on the importance of Edmund Alleyn with a series of public conversations about the artist and his work. The discussions will cover various topics, including the impact Alleyn had on the people around him and his influence on contemporary Québec art. Among the participants will be a filmmaker, author, photographer and the artist’s daughter Jennifer Alleyn, artists Geneviève Cadieux, Pierre Dorion, Michel Goulet, Suzanne Pasquin, Leslie Reid and Denis Rousseau, independent curator Vincent Bonin and other guests to be confirmed.
Click on images to enlarge them.
Hover your mouse over images for description and credits.
Below is the list of five public discussions that will be held on Wednesday nights at 7 p.m., in the exhibition halls. Each public discussion will feature a duo of presenters. Access to these conversations is included in the price of the admission ticket to the
Conversation 1 - May 25
Jennifer Alleyn et Leslie Reid
In French and English
Conversation 2 - June 8
Geneviève Cadieux et Pierre
Dorion
In French
Conversation 3 - June 15
Suzanne Pasquin et Denis Rousseau
In French
Conversation 4 - August 25
Michel Goulet and an invited
guest to be confirmed
In French
Conversation 5 - September 7
or September 21
Vincent Bonin and an invited
guest to be confirmed
In French
For more information on this exhibition and the MAC museum, visit the museum's website.
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