Claude Cormier in the spotlight at the MMFA

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Sculpture Garden

MMFA: May-October 2013
Field of Poppies - TOM II

Claude Cormier is an internationally renowned Quebec landscape artist, an architect and urban designer. His work, entitled Field of Poppies - TOM II, is installed in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Sculpture Garden on Du Musée Avenue. Located at the heart of the Museum complex, the Sculpture Garden features twenty-three works by Quebec, Canadian and international artists. It is one of the largest collections of public art in the city. The section of Du Musée Avenue bordering the Sculpture Garden has been transformed into a pedestrian mall until October.

This year, to celebrate this public space created at the heart of the Quartier du Musée, the MMFA and the Ville de Montréal asked Claude Cormier to create another temporary work. Field of Poppies - TOM II is composed of 5,060 red, green and white TOMs. The surprising optical effect, inspired by Claude Monet’s Poppy Field, transforms the avenue into a “field of flowers” where pedestrians are free to roam.

MMFA: May - October 2012
Carpet of Daises - TOM I

Previous year, in 2012, for several months Claude Cormier transformed a section of the asphalt on Du Musée Avenue into a carpet of daisies, as seen in the picture below. The work was called Carpet of Daises - TOM I. It was made of 3,500 temporary overlay markers (TOMs), which are raised markers that delineate temporary lanes on highways.

The markers were laid out as a regular grid, forming pointillist shifts between the yellow and the white. This  work created a strong chromatic link between the Museum’s separate pavilions.

For the subsequent editions of Claude Cormier's TOM installations visit these articles:

• MMFA 2014: Mirage - TOM III  here.
• MMFA 2017: Flower Power - TOM IV  here.

Click on images to enlarge them.

SIDIM 2013: Montreal International Design Show

SIDIM: 25th Edition

May 24-28, 2013

In June 2006 Montreal was officially designated UNESCO City of Design. The city has a long tradition in design excellence, of which it is very proud. Each year, it holds a vast design show at the Place Bonaventure exhibition area which is extremely popular with the Montreal public.

This year, SIDIM, the Montreal International Design Show, celebrates its 25^th edition. Founded in 1989, the DESIGN SHOW is coordinated by PID Agency. In 25 years, it has become the major design event in Canada. Recognized as one of the most elegant and design performer-oriented shows in North America, The DESIGN SHOW is a major forum displaying the best achievements in industrial and interior design. It covers architecture and construction, graphic design and multimedia, as well as fashion design.

 During four days, under one single roof, the Show brings together interior designers, architects, distributors, business people, consumers, and a number of media professionals.

Whether people wish to undertake renovations or construction, to find design elements that will rejuvenate their home or simply add a touch of originality, colour or elegance to their favourite room, more than 20,000 visitors to the DESIGN SHOW will be able to meet industry leaders chosen for the quality of their products and excellence in their respective fields.

For more information about the show visit

http://www.sidim.com

Here are three more photos from the show:

CCA: Archaeology of the Digital

Archaeology of the Digital

7 May–13 October 2013

The Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) is hosting a new exhibition Archaeologyof the Digital which delves into the beginnings and the establishment of digital tools for design, mainly the  conceptualization, visualization and production at the end of the 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s. This is the first in a series of activities at the CCA that is concerned with the study, preservation, and presentation of the digital in architecture.

The exhibition is curated by an architect Greg Lynn. Both the exhibition and the related publication were chosen to be object-based investigations of four pivotal projects which established distinct directions in the architecture’s use of digital tools:

- Lewis Residence by Frank Gehry (1985–1995)

- Peter Eisenman‘s Frankfurt Biozentrum (1987)

- Chuck Hoberman‘s Expanding Sphere (1992)

- Shoei Yoh‘s roof structures for Odawara Gymnasium (1991) and Galaxy Toyama Gymnasium (1992)

The CCA Director and Chief Cutrator Mirko Zardini stated:

"Archaeology of the Digital also suggests a great sense of loss marked by the fact that most of the digital material produced for these projects is gone. The imminent danger of losing even more records compelled us to take a first step towards collecting, documenting, and making them accessible."

This project represents the first step in the CCA’s strategic objective of creating a collection of digital architecture.

Captions of the photo montage above

From left to right: 

Frank O. Gehry, Lewis Residence, Lyndhurst, Ohio: Study model of the entry hall (detail). 1989 –1995. Image provided by Gehry Partners, LLP 

Peter Eisenman, Eisenman/Robertson Architects, Biozentrum, Biology Center for the J.W. Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany: Schematic representation of a DNA sequence (detail), 1987. Peter Eisenman fonds, Canadian Centre for Architecture 

Chuck Hoberman Hoberman Associates, Expanding aluminum sphere, partially deployed (detail), 1991. © Walter Wick 

Shoei Yoh + Architects, Galaxy Toyama, Gymnasium, Imizu, Toyama, Japan: Experiment of photoelasticity for the roof (detail), 1990 –1992 © Shoei Yoh + Architects

McCord Museum: Wearing Our Identity

Wearing Our Identity
The First People Collection

Opens May 2, 2013 

The Montreal's McCord Museum is hosting a new exhibition - Wearing Our Identity. This show will unable the public to explore the complex heritage of the First Peoples of Canada and to understand how their dress helped to define their rich culture and identities.

The dress, beyond its main purpose of protection, tells others about the wearer's age and status, gives information about the nation the person belongs to and his achievements. It also highlights the relationship between people and nature as an inseparable whole.
  

This First People Collection consists of some 100 items dating from the end of the 19th century till today, including works by contemporary Aboriginal artists. Twice per year new works will be selected and added to the exhibition. In addition, about
85% of the exhibited items will be renewed each year. This will provide the public with an opportunity for additional visits to the museum.

Visit the McCord Museum's website for more information about the opening hours and other activities.

Pointe-à-Callière Museum: Tea Roads

The Tea Roads

April 30 - September 29, 2013


Montreal's Pointe-à-Callière Museum is presenting a new temporary exhibition entitled The Tea Roads. It was inspired by the fact that tea is the most popular beverage after water, with thousands of years of history. Apparently 15,000 cups of tea are consumed around the world in one second!

Here is a famous Chinese poem, an ode to drinking tea, by poet Lu Tong’s (China, 790-835 A.D.):

 Seven Bowls of Tea 

The first bowl moistens my lips and throat;

The second bowl breaks my loneliness;

The third bowl searches my barren entrails but to find 

Therein some five thousand scrolls;

The fourth bowl raises a slight perspiration 

And all life’s inequities pass out through my pores;

The fifth bowl purifies my flesh and bones;

The sixth bowl calls me to the immortals.

The seventh bowl ah, but I could drink no more!

……...............................................................

This exhibition is presented with the collaboration of the Musée Gaimet des arts asiatiques and 20 other lenders. The exhibition takes visitors on a journey along vertiginous roads of the ancient tea roads, a journey that spans centuries, culminating in our modern times. 

Over 200 objects are on display, some of them considered true works of art. They include a number of exceptional pieces, impressive for their beauty, age and rarity as well as for the stories they tell. There are magnificent celadon porcelain pieces, with their subtle jade colour, and the famous yixing teapots that “remember” previous infusions; their high iron content gives the clay a special colour, and the teapots are worth more than gold!

There are also on display terracotta horses, acknowledging the hard work endured by those sturdy animals on torturous, mostly mountainous roads. See photos above, and especially note a valuable Tang period (619-908 A.D.) green glazed terracotta horse at the top of the photo to the right. China required 2,500 new horses each year. Those were acquired through the tea trade, where a horse would be purchased in exchange for 60 kg of tea leaves.

You will also see exhibited tea bricks and cakes wrapped in bamboo leaves in the shape of logs or baskets for the journey on horseback. In the photo to the right, you can see an unwrapped round cake of pressed tea leaves. 

There is also a variety of pouring vessels and superb serving accessories made of fine porcelain. The photo to the left shows “Imperial” teapots and bowls crafted during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911). They were even produced in the Emperor’s workshops in the 20th century.

One can also smell a variety of different teas at the central display shown in the very first photo above.

The following photo demonstrates how valuable was the tea during the pre-Victorian era. The box with tea leaves was kept locked with a key, not entrusting the contents to the servants (box to the left).

Vist the PAC Museum's website for more information and opening hours.

http://pacmusee.qc.ca/en

Two New Paintings at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Montreal Museum of Fine Art
Gift and Acquisition


Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is getting two new paintings.  One is a generous gift by Jorisch family. The painting was looted seventy years ago during the Anschluss and later restored to the descendants of its owners. This donation is Jorisch family's tribute to Montreal, the city that offered refuge to so many exiles. Stolen from Amalie Redlich in Nazi Austria, this work - Children on Their Way Home from School - is by the most famous Austrian painter of the Biedermeier period, Ferdinand Georg Waldmüller (see image above).

The painting on the left - Woman Tuning a Lute - is by a Dutch painter Gerrit van Honthorst. It represents the museum's most recent acquisition. It was purchased by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts at the recent art fair in Maastricht. The painting was unknown until it re-emerged on the art market earlier this year from a private collection in France. It is signed and dated (G. Honthorst fe. 1624).

These two painting will be displayed at the museum's permanent collection section that is always open to the public free of charge.

Consult the museum's website for more information and events

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

Click on any image to enlarge it.
Hover your mouse over images to see credits.

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: Old Master Drawings

From the Hands of the Masters: Old Master Drawings

April 11 to July 17, 2013 


The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA)  features the Springtime of Drawing. It represents an exclusive opportunity to view a large selection of works from a private collection belonging to a Montreal collector who wishes to remain anonymous. It includes works by Boucher, Bernini, Jordaens, Le Brun, Natoire, Tiepolo and other renown artists.

The drawings are located at the Museum’s Graphic Arts Centre. This exhibition, from Canada’s Foremost Private Collection, displays some seventy drawings selected in consultation with the collector for their beauty and variety. This is a unique opportunity to see this outstanding Canadian collection, as most of these works will be displayed together for the first time in Montreal.

This exhibit is offered free of charge.

Visit the museum's website for the opening hours.

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

April 11 to July 7, 2013

Graphic Arts Centre

Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion - Level S2

Free admission at all times

PAC Museum: Beatles in Montreal

Beatles in Montreal
POINTE-À-CALLIÈRE MUSEUM

March 29th, 2013 - March 30th, 2014

The Beatles in Montréal, an exhibition  of the legendary British group which revolutionized pop music around the world, is on a Montréal stopover. The group had a profound influence on musical trends that took root right in Montréal and throughout Québec. Designed as an exhibition-experience, The Beatles in Montréal uses this past musical event as a starting point for an examination of Montréal history and the emergence of “yéyé” music in 1960s Québec.

This exhibition displays a great amount of memorabilia items  from the Montreal's legendary show such as photographs and tickets to the show among others. It also features digitally cleaned Beatles' Montreal stage performance - their concert.



In one of the exhibition halls one can even become the fifth member of Beatles by singing karaoke style along with the legendary group. This participatory activity will no doubt prove to be very popular with the visitors to this exhibition, both the very young ones, as well as with those who actually took part at the Beatles' concert in September 1964.

One of the most memorable exhibits is John Lennon's Rolls-Royce that he owned between 1965-1977. On loan from the Royal British Columbia Museum in Victoria, Canada, this car was manufactured in 1965 by Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Limited, in Crewe, Cheshire, UK. The Phantom V was fitted with a limousine body, finished in matte black, measured 19 feet long, and weighed three tons. John Lennon purchased it when he was just 24 years old. Over the years, Lennon had several modifications made to the Rolls: the rear seat was converted into a double bed, and a television, refrigerator, telephone, and sound system were added.

Growing tired of the Rolls’ all-too-classic paint job, John Lennon sought to update its appearance, looking to more daring—and even psychedelic—stylistic influence Shortly after The Beatles had made the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album, Lennon and the J. P. Fallon design firm found their inspiration in a gypsy wagon, painted in a flowery style. Artist Steve Weaver was commissioned to complete the work based on the wagon’s design. The roof of the car was painted with Lennon’s zodiac sign, Libra. The newly painted Rolls-Royce was delivered to Lennon in May 1967. But the car’s radical transformation did not meet with unanimous approval. One day, in downtown London, an old woman attacked the car with her umbrella, yelling: “You swine, how dare you do this to a Rolls-Royce?” Proof that the English have a great deal of respect for this symbol of British dignity.

A short film from 1967 gives the exhibition visitors a glimpse of the Rolls, with its new paint job, driving along a country road, and shows the various transformations made to the car.

Visit the Pointe-à-Callière Museum's website for more information and opening hours.

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

PAC Museum: New Mariner's House Pavilion

The Mariners' House
Inauguration

March 6, 2013

The Mariners’ House is the Pointe-à-Callière (PAC) Museum's first step toward creating the Montréal Archaeology and History Complex. This project is expected to be completed by 2017. The building, PAC Museum's fifth pavilion, is located at the junction of Place d'Youville and Place Royal. It was renovated and redesigned by Dan S. Hanganu and Provencher Roy + Associate architects, the same consortium that designed the Éperon building – the PAC Museum’s main building, as well as the archaeological crypt underneath the Place Royal square.

Two pictures above show two historical faces of the original building. Between 1875-1953 it was the Montreal Sailors’ Institute. Then it was rebuild and from 1954 to 2012 it housed homeless people and was called The Résidence du Vieux-Port (The Old Port Residence).

Presently, the architects have redesigned the building to make the new Mariner's House a contemporary, urban structure that blends seamlessly with the Museum’s Éperon building that was built in 1992. As you can see in the photo at the top of this post, the façade on Place d’Youville has a two-storey glass curtain wall that brings in a lot of natural light. This gives the building a sense of transparency and invites visitors to explore this new space.

During the renovations of the Mariners’ House, the project crew was surprised to find a time capsule buried when the building was erected in 1953-1954. The sealed box contained a number of symbolic items.  In the photo below to the left you can see its content. 

The new Time Capsule (on the right) was displayed at the new pavilion's inauguration ceremony. However, its contents were not shown or revealed. A signed list of dignitaries present at the inauguration ceremony was inserted inside the capsule.

A number of special elements can be discovered in the new pavilion. For instance, the back of foyer opens onto a monumental staircase. Its back wall  displays an original work of art by Montréal artist Nicolas Baier.

The building's many windows, especially those on levels 3 and 4, offer views of the Old Port, the St. Lawrence River, and Old Montréal.

The new pavilion serves many purposes. At the  basement level there is an educational area for children where they can participate in their own "archaeological digs", by searching for pieces of historical treasures in sand boxes.

The temporary exhibition spaces are located on two levels, the ground and the first floor. On the ground level, there is also a large projection-theatre room.

The first floor also houses the PAC Museum's souvenir boutique, as seen on two pictures just below.

The third floor is taken up by the museum's offices. And the top forth floor has a magnificent glassed in reception area, with a superb view of old Montreal.

To find out more about the current and upcoming exhibitions, visit the  PAC Museum's website

http://pacmusee.qc.ca/en