MMFA 2024: Andō Hiroshige

東海道 Tōkaidō

Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige

A captivating journey from Edo to Kyōto, illustrated by Japanese master printmaker Andō Hiroshige

April 27 – September 8, 2024

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is presenting an iconic series of prints by Andō Hiroshige (1797-1858) from its collection. For the first time in over two decades, it is pulling from storage these remarkable woodblock prints that illustrate scenes of everyday life unfolding at each relay station along the Tōkaidō, the famous Eastern Sea Road that connected Edo (now Tokyo), to the former imperial capital, Kyoto.

Dreamscapes by Andō Hiroshige  presents all 55 prints of the very first edition of "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō," a series that has been in the MMFA's collection since 1973 and that was published in 1833-1834 by Hoeidō and Senkakudō publishing houses. The exhibition looks at the talent of Hiroshige and his publishing team in creating an idyllic world everybody wanted to inhabit. It also examines the factors that led to the astronomical commercial success of these prints, which popularized the landscape print and fueled the emergence of Japonisme in Europe.

An Invitation to travel to 19th-century Japan

An unconventional artist from the samurai class, Hiroshige was not the first to be interested in the Tōkaidō. However, the success of his first series on the subject far eclipsed that of all those that came before it. In fact, some of his illustrations were reprinted more than 15,000 times. These beautifully depicted scenes fostered the perception that the Tōkaidō was more than a mere road along the country's eastern sea coast – it was a destination in and of itself.

At the time it was created, this series sparked a desire in the masses to take the nearly 500-kilometre journey on foot from the Nihonbashi Bridge in Edo to the Sanjōhashi Bridge, in Kyoto. The 53 relay stations depicted promised travellers everything from lodging to specialty foods, sexual services and products of all sorts, including straw sandals.

Being an imaginary work, the "Fifty-three Stations of the Tōkaidō" transcended the straightforward observational representation of places and offered instead a fantasy vision of Japan. Hiroshige's Tōkaidō treated the landscape and its atmospheric effects – wind, snow, rain – as subjects in their own right, an approach that was completely novel at the time.

The artist also cited highly popular travel books and incorporated elements that came from Europe (Western perspective, horizontal picture format, shading and synthetic blue pigment) to create exotic dreamscapes with wide appeal. Seeing a commercial opportunity in the fast-growing the consumer and travel culture, he worked closely with his publishing team to turn the print into a powerful publicity tool that would ensure widespread visibility for cosmetic products, eating establishments and teahouses, as well as promote regional culinary specialties.

Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art at the MMFA stated:

"The seductive charm with which Hiroshige imbued his compositions earned him the reputation as a master of Japanese landscape prints. In his captivating illustrations, he cleverly blended the real and the imaginary, to almost cinematic effect, becoming the maker of a world everybody yearned to inhabit and travel within – a world that still charms us to this day."

Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA added:

"Montreal is lucky to be home to one of the country's most important collections of graphic art, built through the generosity of its community. We are excited to be shedding new light on this celebrated series of prints by Hiroshige, which helped shape the collective imagination of Japan. It is a joy to share with Montreal audiences these remarkable prints gifted to us in 1973."

Credits and curatorial team

An exhibition organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
Curator: Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art, MMFA

This article's dedicated internet address, or also click on the title above the very first photo in this article.

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

McCord 2024: Norman Parkinson

Audrey Hepburn, Photo Norman Parkinson

NORMAN PARKINSON: ALWAYS IN STYLE

SIXTY YEARS OF FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY

NORTH AMERICAN PREMIERE

Presented by Holt Renfrew Ogilvy

April 19 - September 2, 2024

McCord Stewart Museum is presenting a new exhibition that brings into focus the works of the British photographer Norman Parkinson, especially those of his photos that relate to fashion, glamour and celebrities. Always in Style is the first of two exhibitions devoted to fashion and portrait photography that will be making their North American premieres this year.

With his flamboyant personality but also artistic sensibility, Norman Parkinson gave a new impetus to fashion photography and celebrity portraiture. Between the years 1930 - 1980 he photographed not only famous models but also some of the most influential actors and actresses of that generation, including royalty and the crowned heads of Europe. He immortalized many of the 20th century’s biggest celebrities including Audrey Hepburn, Jerry Hall, David Bowie, Beatles, Rolling Stones, Jane Birkin and many others. 

Beatles, Photo Norman Parkinson

The exhibition offers to the public 79 of Norman Parkinson’s best-known photographic images. In addition, it also includes the recent discoveries from his immense and remarkable photographic portfolio. Also on display is a selection of 56 covers of major magazines – Vogue (British and American), Harper’s Bazaar, Tatler, etc. that were shot by Parkinson between the 1950s and 1970s.

Visitors will also discover several magnificent pieces from the McCord Stewart Museum’s Dress, Fashion and Textiles collection: 10 high-end dresses and ensembles made between the 1930s and the 1970s by French designers Christian Dior, Jacques Griffe, Jean Patou, Louis Féraud and Guy Laroche, Italian André Laug, and British designers Digby Morton and Hardy Amies, plus four creations by Quebec milliners Fanny Graddon and Yvette Brillon.

STEPPING OUT OF PHOTOGRAPHY STUDIOS

Norman Parkinson made a name for himself early in his career with his unconventional style. Favouring the outdoors rather than the constrained, formal environment of a photo studio, he set his models in motion in sumptuous, often unusual, settings. The 1939 photograph of model Pamela Minchin, captured mid-air in a Fortnum & Mason swimsuit on the Isle of Wight (England) for Harper’s Bazaar, illustrates this interest in spontaneity. He said of this image:

“When I pulled that picture out of the soup it confirmed to me for the rest of my life that I had to be a photographer. I was absolutely amazed by the magic of it.” 

It was this dynamic style that attracted the attention of the most celebrated fashion magazines, including Harper’s Bazaar, Vogue (British and American) and Town & Country, and earned him international recognition. One of the first fashion photographers to incorporate colour into his practice, he said:

“I dream in colour... When you dream in colour... one must photograph in colour.”

DECADES OF CREATIVITY

Much of Parkinson’s enduring success is attributed to his ability to reinvent his style over trends and decades, and to maintain his reputation despite the emergence of new generations of young photographers and models. Between the 1940s and 1950s, Parkinson began a long collaboration with British Vogue, producing images with a narrative character, as seen in Young Velvets, Young Prices (New York, Vogue, 1949), which features four models wearing hats against a backdrop of New York skyscrapers. This period also saw the appearance of images of his muse and wife Wenda Parkinson, who became one of the period’s top models. The 1960s and 1970s were marked by major lifestyle changes, but Parkinson had no trouble keeping up. Throughout the 1960s, Parkinson continued to spot new faces and began working with Queen magazine. In the 1970s, his images helped elevate new models to stardom, including the likes of Jerry Hall and Iman. During this twenty-year period, Parkinson took iconic photographs of the Rolling Stones and the Beatles, as well as fashion designers like Yves Saint Laurent, Hubert deGivenchy, Jean Muir and Zandra Rhodes. In the 1980s, Parkinson was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire by Queen ElizabethII and created a series of portraits for a retrospective organized by London’s National Portrait Gallery.

The exhibition's curator Terence Pepper OBE stated:

 “I hope that the audience will appreciate the opportunity to witness the significant moments in the career of a photographer who not only played a crucial role in the development of fashion photography in the 20th century but also excelled as a portrait artist. Throughout his prolific 60-year career, spanning from 1931 until his passing in 1990, while still in action, he demonstrated a remarkable ability to capture and reflect the essence of the era in which he worked.”

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

The exhibition includes a self-guided tour for families.

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

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

Norman Parkinson with his Nikon, Photo Graham Lawrence

Conseil des arts de Montréal 2024

CONSEIL DES ARTS DE MONTRÉAL

The 38th Grand Prix

April 11, 2024

The Grand Prix du Conseil des arts de Montréal, held at the Montreal’s convention center Palais des congrès, celebrated the Quebec creative forces. It highlighted not only the winners but also the eight finalists whose creative initiatives blossomed in the Montreal metropolis in 2023.

Since 1985, the Conseil - that supports over 700 Montreal arts organizations annually - has awarded one Grand Prix each year to an artist, collective or organization, in recognition of their exceptional participation in Montreal’s artistic life.

Master of ceremonies Édith Cochrane was joined by the Conseil’s Executive Director Nathalie Maillé and Interim President Mathieu Bouchard, as well as 750 distinguished guests from the cultural, business and political communities, including the Honourable Pascale St-Onge, Minister of Canadian Heritage, and Valérie Plante, Mayor of Montréal.

All works were judged and selected in these three categories: Grand Prix ($30,000), Jury Prize ($10,000), Télé-Québec Audience Award ($10,000)

AWARDS WINNERS:

38th Grand Prix ($30,000):  Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel

Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel is highlighting 45 years of activism and artistic work, echoing the overlooked and sometimes ostracized voices of Mohawk women during the 1990 Resistance. Her short documentary film Kanatenhs – When The Pine Needles Fall also won Best Canadian Short Film during Montréal First Peoples Festival (2023). It was also nominated or awarded prizes at some thirty festivals in a dozen countries, and is a legacy to new generations and all First Peoples, a commitment to memory driven by an unshakeable drive for truth.

Jury Prize ($10,000) and Télé-Québec Audience Award ($10,000): Marguerite à bicyclette

They travelled 1,500 km by bicycle to bring to stage over 50 circus performances. The trio behind Marguerite à bicyclette brings the circus of the absurd to new audiences, reusing recycled materials to create their costumes and sets, and put on their shows without producing any greenhouse gases. Driven by values of environmental responsibility, innovation and accessibility, Marguerite à bicyclette has a playful, unifying, bold style that would influence current and future artists and inspires the next generation of audiences. 

MMFA 2024: Wanda Koop

WANDA KOOP:

WHO OWNS THE MOON

April 11 – August 4, 2024

The Montreal Museum of Fine Art is launching a new exhibition that features a Canadian artist Wanda Koop with her first solo museum presentation in Quebec. Her exhibition presents the all-seeing moon as its central motif, as if it were the artist's eye that perceives the reality of existence. It also invites the reflection on universal questions of territory, the environment, the memory and loss, while additionally offering hope through the transcendent powers of art.

Wanda Koop was born in Vancouver to parents from the Zaporizhie region of present-day Ukraine. Through her paintings she  expresses her engagement with her family's country of origin and the trauma of the present war in Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, her personal experience is but the point of departure for broader painterly meditations on the human condition. 

At this exhibition, Koop presents two new quadriptychs. One of them Sleepwalking (photo just above) is a poem to loss. It consists of four elongated rectangular paintings woven with memories of Koop's grandmother and mother, and allusions to forebears long gone. Similar like the memories that are emerging in a dream, the meaning of these paintings is not fixed. The artist, through the act of painting, griefs the loss of innocence and optimism. Yet reflecting on the ultimate tragedy of our actions, she projects a place of hope and beauty.

The second quadriptych Objects of Interest (photo just above), addresses the ultimately humbling nature of humankind's pursuits. Flanked by two paintings of the moon are two paintings of the International Space Station and China's Tiangong Space Station. This juxtaposition prompts existential questions on the unknown.  

Also included in the exhibition are paintings modelled after trees and flowers seen in the forest around Koop's retreat in Riding Mountain National Park, Manitoba. This motive is reflected in the two vertical canvases at the very top pf this article.

An additional artist's quadriptych consists of four monumental paintings that depict the Crimean Coast as seen from a distant shore across the Black Sea at different times of day, capturing the silver light of early morning as well as the deep blue of midnight with phosphorescent hues glowing in the moonlit water. Vertical bands of colours ranging from neon yellow to electric red remind us of the paintings' materiality as solid objects in this world and simultaneously opening a doorway to the imagination. (See photo of two painting of the Crimean Coast quadriptych just above this paragraph and the images of the additional two quadriptych paintings captured n the three photos below this paragraph.)

Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Chief Curator of the MMFA and curator of the exhibition, stated:

"We are honoured to welcome this eminent figure of Canadian contemporary art for her first solo presentation in a Quebec museum. Over the course of her more than fifty-year career, Koop has developed a singular visual language distinguished by its sheer mastery of colour and profound engagement with the human condition. Both poignant and deeply pertinent, Koop's work invites reflection on shared concerns of our historical moment."

On photos below Koop is being presented at a press conference and is later interviewed by a journalist.

Click on images to enlarge them.

All photos @ Nadia Slejskova

This article's dedicated internet address, or also click on the title above the very first photo in this article.

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