MMFA 2023: Françoise Sullivan

Françoise SULLIVAN
I Let Rhythms Flow

The exhibition bringing together new and earlier works of the artist

November 1, 2023 – February 18, 2024

This year marks the 100th anniversary of the life of Françoise Sullivan, a figurehead of modern art and a pioneer of Quebec dance. For this occasion, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is celebrating the vibrant career of this multidisciplinary artist and her influence on the contemporary art landscape with an exhibition of her recent paintings along with her previous works from the Museum's collection.

Sullivan's style is characterized by a specific command of colour and its intensity, as well as expressive and rhythmic brushwork. The exhibition "I let rhythms flow" reveals a selection of paintings the artist has created over the past two years, which are a continuation of the abstract monochromatic works she began in the 1980s. It also includes large-scale pastels from the 1990s that were recently found in her archives. In addition, she is presenting an imposing painted aluminum sculpture that is a large-scale reproduction of a Plexiglas work she produced in 1968.

The exhibition also covers the defining periods in Sullivan's nearly eighty-year art career by presenting some of her works that are in the MMFA's collection that number in total close to fifty. At the artist's request, the exhibition's anchor point is the diptych Homage to Paterson (2003) from her series "Homage," shown for the first time at the Museum's retrospective of her work in 2003.

Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, states:

"Twenty years after her retrospective at the MMFA, this exhibition highlights Françoise Sullivan's current, very active, painting practice. It pays tribute to this great Quebec artist whose outstandingly prolific career has spanned multiple art forms without ever straying from her initial inspiration: the quest for a present without limits. We are thrilled to be presenting this recent work to the public, which speaks to an extraordinary energy and a sensitivity that is as keen as ever."

Florence-Agathe Dubé Moreau, guest curator:

"Fittingly for a career that's always been fueled by a desire to experiment, the quest for new, uncharted territory became the clear choice as the central theme of the exhibition. Indeed, Françoise Sullivan shows up at her studio every day, curious to see where the brushstrokes, colours and forms will lead her. To her, painting is like an improvisational dance or automatism that frees subconscious forces and transforms colour into feeling. Painting is movement – a movement that connects art and life."

About the artist

Born in Montreal in 1923, Françoise Sullivan has had a major influence on the history of art through her contribution to Canadian modern dance. She was also a pioneer for her exceptional ability to switch from one discipline to another, moving between dance, sculpture, performance, conceptual art, photography and painting.

As a member of the Automatistes collective, she signed the Refus global manifesto in 1948, alongside Paul-Émile Borduas. In it, she published one of the first philosophical essays on dance in Quebec, titled La danse et l'espoir [Dance and Hope], as well as the photographs Dance in the Snow, taken by Maurice Perron. Improvised in the Quebec countryside, this piece departed from precepts of classical ballet for the sake of radically liberated movement. Reflecting on this choreographic exploration, Sullivan later wrote, "I let rhythms flow," the line where this exhibition gets its title

Her work has been the subject of numerous solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the United States and Europe, including On Line at the Museum of Modern Art, in New York (2010-2011) and Surrealism Beyond Borders, presented at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, in New York (2021-2022) and at the Tate Modern, in London (2022). She has earned the highest distinctions, namely a Governor General's Award in Visual Arts and the title of Officer of the Order of Canada.

Credits and curatorial team
An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

It is curated by Stéphane Aquin, Director of the MMFA, and Florence-Agathe Dubé-Moreau, guest curator.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

Visit the the MontrealMuseum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your ticket online.

Also check out my previous article about Françoise Sullivan's exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC) in 2018.

McCord Stewart 2023: Beads of Diplomacy

Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy

A Canadian Exclusive

Bearing witness to more than two centuries of diplomatic exchange between the nations of North America

October 20, 2023 - March 10, 2024

The Montreal’s McCord Stewart Museum presents a new exhibition Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy. For the first time, this unique exhibition brings together over 40 wampum belts from public and private collections in Quebec, Canada and Europe.

Wampum are objects made from shell beads that were exchanged for over two centuries (from the early 17th to the early 19th century) during diplomatic meetings between nations in northeastern America, including European nations. Also, some 40 cultural objects from the same period also help to contextualize and explain their fundamental role. 

Cultural and political symbols

The exhibition invites visitors to explore the cultural and political symbolism of wampum. These objects were the physical representation of words, agreements or laws that had to accompany any accord or talk between nations. Spoken words were only considered sincere if accompanied by wampum. These “belts of truth” therefore served to materialize the word, to confirm it and to seal alliances. Visitors will be able to understand the fundamental role of wampum in relations between Indigenous and European nations, the relationship between these objects and geopolitical issues in Canadian history, and their significance and influence today.

Jonathan Lainey, Curator, Indigenous Cultures, and lead curator of the exhibition, stated:

“Since wampum are valuable and coveted objects that bear witness to international alliances at the very heart of Canada, it’s important that we better understand them. We believe that putting on display the majority of wampum preserved in Canadian institutions will spark discussion and provoke thought. We hope this exhibition will create opportunities for gathering and exchange, just as wampum did in the past.”

In addition, the Museum is continuing its mission to amplify contemporary Indigenous voices by inviting the public to discover the work of contemporary artists Hannah Claus, Nadia Myre, Teharihulen Michel Savard and Skawennati, inspired by wampum, and to hear anecdotes from members of several nations through a series of videos.

International collaboration

Developed and co-produced with the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, the exhibition was first presented in Paris and then at the Seneca Art and Culture Center in Victor, New York. The only stop in Canada, the Montreal presentation brings together the largest selection of cultural belongings: it includes 13 wampum from the McCord Stewart Museum collection, as well as the wampum belt presented by the Kanesatake community to Pope Gregory XVI, which has not been repatriated since 1831. Visitors to the exhibition will also be able to view wampum and related objects – medals, weapons, ornaments, moccasins, maps, engravings, books, etc. – from the Museum’s own collection (66), as well as from the collections of the Canadian Museum of History (11), Parks Canada (3), the Bank of Canada Museum (5), the Musée de la civilisation (8), the Centre d’Archives Régionales du Séminaire de Nicolet (3), the Musée Huron-Wendat (1), the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris (18) and the Trésor de la Cathédrale de Chartres (2).*

*Important: The wampum coming from the Vatican will be on display in the exhibition until December 4, and those from the Trésor de la Cathédrale de Chartes until January 14.

Publications

To accompany the exhibition, the McCord Stewart Museum has published an 81-page illustrated booklet, both a souvenir of the exhibition and a reference on the history and significance of wampum. The booklet features photos of twelve wampum necklaces and other related objects held by the McCord Stewart Museum, as well as excerpts of texts taken from the exhibition. Available exclusively at the Museum Boutique for $19.

Issue 33 of Gradhiva magazine, produced in conjunction with the exhibition at the musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris, will also be available at the Museum Boutique. Titled Wampum : les perles de la diplomatie, it contains several essays on

This exhibition is made possible with the support of the Terra Foundation for American Art. This project is funded in part by the Government of Canada, with the support of the Consulate General of France in Quebec City.

Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy Symposium

Thursday, February 22, and Friday, February 23, 2024, all day – Free – At the Museum

Taking advantage of the unprecedented context created by the exhibition Wampum: Beads of Diplomacy, the Museum will be holding a symposium devoted to wampum, bringing together Quebec, Canadian and international specialists from a variety of disciplines who have studied these unique objects and the social, political and religious practices that surround them. This forum will promote the de-compartmentalization of research: between disciplines, between museums and universities, between community knowledge-bearers and Indigenous studies departments.

Registration for the symposium will open at a later date.

This first ever major exhibition devoted to wampum belts was possible thanks to the unprecedented collaboration between the Musée du quai Branly – Jacques Chirac in Paris and the McCord Stewart Museum in Montreal, in addition to generous support of public and private institutions in Quebec, Canada and abroad, as well as private individuals who agreed to provide key cultural assets from their personal collections.

Click on Images to enlarge them

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For more information about current exhibitions and special evens associated with this exhibition, visit the McCord Stewart Museum website.

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

1700 La Poste - Carol Wainio

CAROL WANIO

Réenchantement 

October 13, 2023 - January 21, 2024

As part of its 10th anniversary celebrations, the Montreal's gallery 1700 La Poste presents an exhibition dedicated to the Canadian artist Carol Wainio.

The exhibition Reenchantment highlights paintings and drawings primarily created in recent years. They explore the folktales and fables that populate our collective memory and testify to the persistence and resonance of stories through time. Linked to both grand and small narratives, they depict the threats facing future generations and evoke the hope for renewal.

For inspiration and for some of her works’ main themes, the artist used images from her own collection of old post cards many if which were based on fables. She reinterprets and reconstructs the images and the fables into her own artistic visual narrative. For instance, her painting The Fall (2015 / Acrylic on canvas) - see the photo just below this paragraph – is based on the fable from the oral French tradition Le Petit Poucet that was re-transcribed by Charles Perrault in 1697, see Wikipedia. Below the photo of her painting, there is the image of the postcard she used for that painting, at the bottom-middle of the photo.

The gallery's owner Ms. ISABELLE DE MEVIUS stated this in the catalogue that accompanies this exhibition:

 "The paintings of Carol Wainio, whose inspiration is nourished by the breath of centuries of art history, offers us a pictorial language of rare beauty and a style as original as it is inventive, which escapes the criteria of established recognitions. In the same painting, the artist introduces various elements in the form of collages of images of different styles. The effect of observing a painting within a painting then establishes a tension between the subjects. The motifs are treated like a puzzle of images which can be explained by a dialectic similar to that of a dream."

About the Artist

Carol Wainio was born in Sarnia, Ontario in 1955 to Finnish immigrants and grew up in Waterloo, Ontario. Since 1980, she has lived and worked in Montréal, Ottawa, and other places. She developed an early interest in visual art through her father and pursued studies at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in Halifax (1976) and the University of Toronto (1978–1979) before earning an MFA from Concordia University, Montréal, in 1985. There, she worked with Guido Molinari and undertook additional studies in the history of ideas, developing a painting practice that draws on interests in history, narrative, and broader visual culture—brought together in a discursive, visceral approach, where figures from past and present, high art and vernacular forms of expression, engage in shifting, layered grounds. Her work has been described as visually dense, conceptually full, and marked by a desire to use painting as a means to consider representation itself as well as real world issues.

Wainio’s work has been exhibited at the National Gallery of Canada, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Art Gallery of Ontario, and many other museums and public galleries across Canada. Her paintings are part of major Canadian museum collections as well as corporate and private collections. Wainio is the recipient of numerous grants and awards, including the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2014). She is currently represented by Paul Petro Contemporary Art, Toronto, and Trépanier Baer Gallery, Calgary.

In the three photos below, Carol Wainio is presenting her paintings to journalists at a Press Conference on October 6, 2023, held at 1700 La Post gallery. 

1700 La Poste

1700 La Poste is an exhibition centre for contemporary art dedicated to supporting and disseminating the work of visual artists through the production of exhibitions, publications, documentary films and conferences.  It is located in a heritage building at 1700 Rue Notre-Dame West, Montreal. It was built in 1913 to house Postal Station F. A century later, it was entirely redesigned and restored to reflect the singular and audacious vision of its owner, Isabelle de Mévius, and Luc Laporte, one of Montreal’s most significant architects. For the past ten years, Isabelle de Mévius has contributed to the promotion of artists from here and elsewhere through her patronage and passion for the arts.

In a photo just below, Isabelle de Mévius is being interviewed by the journalist in front of Carol Wainio's painting.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

For more information, visit the 1700 La Poste website.

The admission to the exhibition if free of charge.

MMFA 2023: Marisol

MARISOL: A RETROSPECTIVE

The world premiere

October 7, 2023 - January 21, 2024

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) in collaboration with the Buffalo AKG Art Museum is presenting an exhibition  devoted to Marisol (Venezuelan and American, born in France, 1930–2016). This exhibition is drawn largely on the collection of artworks Marisol kept in her personal possession and left to the Buffalo AKG upon her death. This generous and transformative bequest offers a comprehensive survey of her vast artistic career that span over nearly sixty years.

Although her unique sculptures were associated with the Pop Art movement of the 1960s and she had been defined as the female artist of her generation, Marisol's work remains little known today. By examining and contextualizing her work over her long artistic career, this retrospective offers an opportunity to appreciate a full artistic significance and complexity of this iconic artist. It brings together more than 250 works and documents attesting to the richness of Marisol's unique artistic journey over the decades.

Organized chronologically and thematically, the exhibition begins with Marisol’s emergence as an artist in the 1950s and her early work in sculpture along with a number of previously unpublished drawings. The retrospective then sheds light on her work from the 1960s, when her totemic portraits associated with Pop Art established her as a major artistic figure of her generation.

She uses self-portraiture by incorporating casts of her face, mouth, hands and other body parts into her sculptures. The iconic works from this period include her masterpiece The Party (1965-1966), an assemblage of 15 life-size, free-standing figures, all bearing Marisol’s facial features. Also on display are Baby Girl (1963) and Baby Boy (1962-1963), two sculptures that addressed Cold War concerns as well as femininity and motherhood.

From the 1970s on, the artist’s work is marked by her commitment to issues such as environmental precocity, social justice, feminism and war. While Marisol’s work may not have found wide critical success at the time, it still speaks to several of the most pressing issues of today.

The artist’s figurative drawings from the 1970s point to the relationship to her sculptural self-portraits, suggesting new biographical as well as feminist approaches to Marisol’s self positioning and self presentation. Other sections of the exhibition present documentation of costumes and sets designed by Marisol for some of the leading dance companies of the late 20th century, including the Louis Falco Dance Company and the Martha Graham Dance Company.

In addition to drawing extensively on the Buffalo AKG’s collection of works by Marisol, personally bequeathed to the museum upon her death, the retrospective also features loans of major works such institutions like Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, and the Art Institute of Chicago.

After its presentation in Montreal, Marisol: A Retrospective will travel to the Toledo Museum of Art (March to June 2024), the Buffalo AKG Art Museum (July 2024 to January 2025), and the Dallas Museum of Art (February to July 2025).

Marisol: A Retrospective iexhibition s organized by the Buffalo AKG Art Museum and curated by Cathleen Chaffee, Charles Balbach Chief Curator. Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA, is the curator of the Montreal presentation, in collaboration with Alexandrine Théorêt, Assistant Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art of the MMFA.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

For this article's dedicated internet address, click on the title above the very first photo.

Visit the the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to check on the opening hours and to purchase your ticket online.