Plateau Exhibition at PAC Museum, Montreal

Lives and Times of the Plateau

October 23, 2012 - September 1, 2014

Pointe-à-Callière Museum of Archaeology is presenting an exhibition about the history of Montreal's Plateau Mont-Royal neighbourhood, its distinctive character and creativity. It showcases the Plateau as a meeting place of the artistic and intellectual vitality as well as the entrepreneurial daring which symbolize Montréal’s diverse and vibrant culture. 

In less than 200 years, the Plateau was transformed from totally agrarian area, with four small villages, into a working-class neighbourhood which later became a fully diversified urban community. This rapid pace of urban evolution made Plateau Mont-Royal one of the sources of major transformations that marked the city’s history, while at the same time becoming a meeting place of people with colourful pasts and futures.

Plateau is known for its famous triplexes with balconies, spiral staircases and green back lanes. It  is even proclaimed as one of the best places to live. 

Plateau Mont-Royal is also considered to be a "creative" neighbourhood. A number of Quebec artists either lived in the Plateau, had their studios there, or painted the Plateau neighbourhoods.

For more information about the Lives and Times of the Plateau exhibition, visit the PAC Museum's website

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

Splendore a Venezia Exhibition at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Splendore a Venezia: 
Art and Music from the Renaissance to Baroque in the Serenissima

October 12, 2013 to January 19, 2014


 The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is hosting a new temporary exhibition on Venice art and music, ranging from the early sixteenth century to the fall of the Serenissima at the close of the eighteenth century. La Serenissima was the name for the Republic of Venice, from the title Serenissimo, literally meaning 'the most/very serene'.

This is an interdisciplinary and also an innovative exhibition. It aims to explore the  important interrelationships that existed between the visual arts and music in the Venetian Republic, and how they served the political ambitions of the state and its civic institutions, becoming increasingly central to the economy of the Republic.

The exhibition brings together approximately 120 paintings, prints, and drawings, as well as historical instruments, musical manuscripts, and texts. On display are masterworks by many renowned artists associated with the musical life of Venice, such as Titian, Tintoretto, Bassano, Giovanni Battista, Domenico Tiepolo, and Francesco Guardi, many of whom were also amateur musicians. There are also works by Bernardo Strozzi, Pietro Longhi and Canaletto whose paintings show the role of music in the the Venetian everyday life. 

This  exhibition  also  includes  manuscripts  and  publications  by  Venetian composers like the Gabrieli, Monteverdi, Albinoni, Lotti and Vivaldi and a number of Venecian musical instruments. The exhibition's halls are organized around various time periods, and also thematically. Each hall portrays a specific musical style which can be heard by the visitors as a background theme. In addition, the exhibition's free audio guide consists only of musical excerpts that connect by numbers to some works on display.

The works on loan for this exhibition, including precious historical instruments, have been contributed by 61 international collections in Canada and abroad: 

• From the United States – the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Morgan Library & Museum, the New York Public Library, the Wadsworth Atheneum, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the National Gallery of Art (Washington).
• From Italy – the Palatine Gallery, Uffizi, Capitoline, Cini Foundation, Accademia (Venice), Museo Correr.
• Rrom the rest of Europe – Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches Museum, Madrid’s Thyssen‐Bornemisza, London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery and National Gallery, and the Louvre. From the beginning, the Cité de la musique in Paris has contributed to this exhibition with its scientific expertise and by loaning major instruments.

After Montreal, the exhibition will travel to the Portland Art Museum in Oregon, where it will be open to public from March 7 to June 8, 2014.

Visit Montreal Museum's of Fine Arts' website, where you will find more information on this exhibition and related activities:

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

Splendore a Venezia: Christophe Koch Archlute Unveiling

 Christophe Koch Archlute Unveiled

This musical instrument unveiling took place in the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' preparation for their upcoming exhibiton Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to Baroque in the Serenissima.

The exhibition will be held from October 12, 2013 to January 19, 2014. 

This archlute is one of the most important musical instruments among the 120 different that will be displayed works in the upcoming exhibition.  The Archlute of Christophe Koch is a lute to which an extended pegbox has been added to hold unfretted bass courses. This exceptional piece has arrived from the Cite de la Musique in Paris. It's body is made of kingwood decorated with ivory. It represents an excellent example of the Venetian mid-seventeenth century taste.

In conjunction with the exhibition, the Art Musica Foundation will present a full-scale concert series: 20 concerts, 7 lectures, and two films.

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' website for more information on the exhibition and all the upcoming events.

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

Splendore a Venezia: Canaletto Painting Unveiling

Canaletto's painting unveiled:
"The Return of the State Galley to the Pier on Ascention Day"

The unveiling took place at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts today, in a preparation for their new exhibition Splendore a Venezia: Art and Music from the Renaissance to Baroque in the Serenissima.

The exhibition will be held from October 12, 2013 to January 19, 2014. 

Canalleto's real name was Giovanni Antonio Canal. This painting is on loan from the Dulwich Picture Gallery, London, United Kingdom. It is one of the most important paintings among the 120 works that will be on display at the exhibition.

Another item that will be on display is "Donatella", the traditional Venetian gondola crafted in the late 20th century by Pietro Amadi. It is composed of various woods, stainless steal and brass. and has already been delivered to the museum, see picture below.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts has also launched a new catalogue entitled Art and Music in Venice, published by the museum for the Splendore a Venezia exhibition:

For more information on the exhibition as well as the fees and opening hours, visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' website

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

The Gardens of Light 2013

The Gardens of Light

Montréal Botanical Garden

September 6 - November 3, 2013

Don't miss this very colourful annual display of light, shapes and artistically conceived lanterns at the Montreal's Botanical Gardens.  

  

Discover the Japanese Garden enhanced by a fine and subtle lighting design. Also not to be missed is the Chinese Garden. It's magnificent The Magic of Lantern display presents many scenes from the traditional Chinese life, culture, and even nature and architecture. At dusk, and until 9 p.m., beautiful pathways emerge in the two Gardens of Light, pathways full of contrasts, mysterious and magic.

For more information, visit the The Gardens of Light website

http://calendrier.espacepourlavie.ca/gardens-of-light

World Press Photo 13: Montreal 2013

World Press Photo 13

The world's largest and most prestigious photo-journalism exhibition returns to the Montreal's Bonsecours Market, the exact location where it was held last year.

This year's event showcases 150 of the year's most memorable press photographs.

There are harsh-reality photographs on display. They show what many people on this planet face every day, which luckily for us does not correspond to our reality. The photo below depicts an explosion in Gaza strip. Incredibly, in the midst of the smoke, right in the centre of the picture, one can clearly see an outline of a white dove, a symbol of peace. The photo is by Bernat Armangue from The Associate Press. It won the 1^st Prize for Spot News Stories.

The picture below is by Rodrigo Abd, The Associate Press. It has won the 1^st Prize General News Singles. It shows Aida crying, as she recovers from severe injuries sustained during a bombardment of her home in Syria, in the northern city of Idlib. Her husband an two children were killed in the attack.

The exhibition also presents a few excellent photos that comment on the pollution of our environment and planet. One of them, just below, shows how oceans are littered with waists of human activity and with plastics. The photo is of a slow-moving, filter-feeding Whale Shark found in tropical and warm waters. It is the largest non-mammalian vertebrates on the planet and is currently listed as vulnerable species. Whale sharks feed by drifting with their mouth open, drawing in plankton, fish and crustaceans. Foreign objects, such as plastics, can also be drawn into shark’s digestive system, causing harm. This photograph by Thomas P. Pescheak has merited the 3rd Prize in the Nature Stories category.

The following photograph by Micah Albert, USA, has won the 1st Prize in the Contemporary Issues Singles category. It offers a lot of hope. It shows the resiliency of the human spirit even in adverse surroundings where, even in a dump, a person can be drawn to books and learning. In the photo, a woman sits on bags of waste she salvaged, at the Dandora municipal dump outside Nairobi, Kenya. She said she enjoyed looking at books during a brake from picking up garbage.

The last photo is by Wei Seng Chen from Malaysia, who won the 1^st Prize in Sports Action Singles category. A competitor and his charge reach the finish of a bull race in Batu Snagur, West Sumata, Indonesia. Pacu Jawi is a 400-year-old tradition in the area, held after the rice harvest. Competitors yoke themselves barefoot to two bulls using a wooden harness, and drive the animals by gripping their tails.

To find more about this exhibition visit the World Press Photo 13 website

http://worldpressphotomontreal.ca