Lyonel Feininger - New MMFA Exhibition

Lyonel Feininger

January 21 - May 13, 2012

at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Lyonel Feininger is an artist of exceptional talent whose works include comic strips, caricatures, whimsical toys, woodcuts, photographs, musical fugues, figurative painting, and the transcendental paintings of architecture and the sea.

Come and see this exhibition, you will discover a great artist who, most likely, you do not know at all, or do not know enough about. He is indeed a surprising find! Multi-talented and diversified, he astonishes with his interpretation of the reality of his subjects, be they people, buildings or seascapes. The shapes and colours he uses create a rhythmical cadence, an illusion of movement in the scene, in the virtual world he has conjured within the canvas. Many of his paintings seem not to stand still, they have a wave-like vibrancy of their own. You will also see in his works both the expressionist and cubist elements, as well as quirky distortions of a caricaturist.

Lyonel Feininger seems to have fallen in the past through the cracks of the art historians’ attention. This was probably mainly due to the fact that his artistic career was torn between two continents: between Germany and America. He was born in America to German parents. He moved alone to Germany at age 16. His artistic career was very much diversified, and even included teaching at Bauhaus, where he was hired by Walter Gropius as the first faculty appointment.

Although Feininger was held in high esteem in Germany, where his career began and took deep roots, he had to flee to America in 1937 at the age of 66 because of the World War II and his Jewish wife. He therefore had to reestablish himself as an artist once again, on a different continent, and at an advanced age, which must have been quite a difficult task. He lived in America until his death in New York City in 1956 at the age of 84.

Also amazing is the diversification of his talent. He loved the fugues of Bach, and had written some fugues himself. You will find exhibited his personal violin, which he often played in the mornings before breakfast. You will also see colourful toys he made for his son, his caricatures, cartoons, and some photographs. He produced a large body of photographic works between 1928 and 1956 which he had not shared with the public but only with his friends, and which came to light only after his death.

In addition to Lyonel Feininger’s works, the last room of this present MMFA exhibition also displays black and white photographs of his son Andreas Feininger, an accomplished and a renown American photographer. One can easily discover in his works the influence his father had on him.

I highly recommend this exhibition. Come and discover for yourself this amazingly creative artist. You will also be able to pick up a pamphlet at the museum with all the activities it offers, and all the free films and lectures that are scheduled.

To find out more about this exhibition and the opening hours, visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website.

You can purchase the exhibition catalogue at the Museum's Boutique and Store.

Click on images to enlarge them.

List of photos as they appear in the text

1. Feininger, Bathers on the Beach I, 1912, Oil on canvas 50.5 x 65.7

Harvard Art Museums, Busch-Reisinger Museum, Cambridge, Massachusetts; Association Fund BR54.7, © Estate of Lyonel Feininger / SODRAC (2011)

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

2. Lyonel Feininger, Bird Cloud, 1926, Oil on canvas 43.8 x 71.1 cm

Harvard Art Museums/Busch-Reisinger Museum; Cambridge, Massachusetts; purchase in memory of Eda K. Loeb BR50.414, © Estate of Lyonel Feininger / SODRAC (2011)

Photo © President and Fellows of Harvard College

3. Lyonel Feininger, Yellow Street II, 1918, Oil on canvas 95 x 86.1 cm

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Purchase; gift of The Maxwell Cummings Family Foundation, The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' Volunteer Association, John G. McConnell, C.B.E., Mr. and Mrs. A Murray Vaughan, Harold Lawson Bequest, and Horsley and Annie Townsend Bequest.,© Estate of Lyonel Feininger / SODRAC (2011)

Photo MMFA

4. Lyonel Feininger, New York 1871 – New York 1956

The Kin-der-Kids, The Chicago Sunday Tribune, April 29, 1906
59.4 x 45.3 cm Commercial lithograph

The Museum of Modern Art, New York; gift of the artist 260.1944.1
© Estate of Lyonel Feininger / SODRAC (2011)
Digital Image © The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by SCALA / Art Resource, NY

5.  Lyonel Feininger, Locomotive With Big Wheal, 1910, MMFA Exibition 2012

Photo by Nadia Slejskova

MMFA: Big Bang

MMFA - the Montreal Museum of Fine Art is currently featuring Big Bang exhibition. It runs from November 6, 2011 to January 22, 2012.  This exhibition was created and produced by the Museum as a celebration of the creative process. A number of contemporary Quebec artists were invited to choose a work from the museum’s permanent collection as a starting point and on the basis of that work let themselves be inspired to create a work of their own. In this way, the museum is paying tribute to Quebec’s creativity.

Nearly 20 artists from various artistic branches, several of them internationally renowned, responded to the Museum’s invitation. As a result, the works of these artists are presented in this show: Jennifer Alleyn and Nancy Huston (film and literature), Denys Arcand and Adad Hannah (film and visual arts), Melissa Auf der Maur (music), Geneviève Cadieux (visial arts), Marie Chouinard (dance), Collectif Rita (design), Claude Cormier (urban design), Jean Derome (music), En masse (mural art), Pierre Lapoint and Jean Verville (music and architecture), Renata Morales (fashion), Wadji Mouawad (theatre), Jeannot Painchaud (circus arts), Rolland Poulin (sculpture), Michel Rabagliatti (comics), and Gilles Saucier (architecture).

Visit the Museum  and see the result of this creative process. Maybe you yourself will be inspired to created a work of your own based on some of the art piece from the Museum’s permanent collection.

I personally was inspired by one of the Museum’s gems to create and propagate my own artistic expression, inline with the Big Bang's objectives. Here is the result. I rather like it and feel it merits attention. If I had the means, I'd make it into a large poster celebrating the MMFA museum.

The painting to the left is by the French painter James Tissot, entitled October, 1877, from MMFA's permanent collection. On the right is my own take on that painting. It is a photo of the enigmatic and vivacious Grand Dame of the Museum, Madame Nathalie Bondil, the MMFA’s director and chief curator. I took this photo during the press conference inaugurating the Big Bang show on November 2, 2011. The postural likeness and expression of both women, and to some extent of their dress and shoes is quire remarkable, though Madame Bondil's look is obviously quite contemporary.

Parallel to Big Bang runs another show, called In My Mind’s Eye, a collection of paintings and other works by Dorothea Rockburne. It is her first Canadian retrospective. She was born and educated in Montreal, but later moved to the United States, where her works are featured in the collections of numerous institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and MOMA.

The admission to all the Museums exhibitions and collections is currently free.

The painting to the left is by Dorothea Rockburne, entitled Mozart and Mozart Upside Down and Backwards, 1985-87.





For more information visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' website

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

McCord Museum

There are currently two exhibitions on display at the Montreal's McCord Museum.

Toys 2 

This exibiton which targets mainly children, or those who are children at heart, rans from November 18, 2011 to March 11, 2012.

This is the Museum's second exhibition of toys. The first one took place a year ago. It was a great success and attracted some 30,000 visitors. This year has a special theme: a cat chasing, or rather searching, for a mouse. The young visitors have “to help” a cat to find a mouse. All are assured that the cat does not really want to eat the mouse, but simply to play with it.

The exhibition is broken into four separate themes through which the chasing of the mouse is pursuit. This is an engaging way for children to view more than 200 toys and artefacts, some of which date back almost 150 years. The exhibited pieces for this show were chosen from an amalgamation of some 11,000 items from Museum's various collections.

The children will be engaged in some physical activity as they have to climb under low ceiling entries, as for instance is the case of a masterfully constructed igloo, where pieces of “ice” are made from white pillows which could be lifted to reveal some of the museum’s treasures. Another such crawling entry leads to a treasure trove with costumes, where children can dress up and assume role playing.

Admission to this exhibition is free for children 12 and under. 

The second exhibition currently at the McCord museum:

Edward Burtynsky : OIL

This is another excellent exhibition currently on display at the McCord Museum. It runs from October 6, 2011 to January 8, 2012. It consists of 56 large colour photographs by a Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky. Burtynsky explores the subject of oil and how this natural resource redefines the world as we know it, how it affects nature and the natural scenery. The vast landscapes shown in the photographs, offer rarely seen glimpses of oil production and distribution, of oil fields, oil sands, and oil refineries. Burtynsky’s work shows the impact the petroleum industry has on the lives of people, cities, the land, and the environment. His stunning photo images carry a social and ecological message that is disturbing but also thought-provoking. The images are artistically superb and beautiful, yet this does not diminish the intended impact of Burtynsky’s message nor the concerned opinion of the viewer.

To find more about these and other exhibitions and activities, visit the McCord Museum’s website

http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/

Colours of India

 

The current exhibition at Pointe-à-Callière, the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History is on display from November 8^th 2011 to April 22^nd 2012.

India, a geographically, socially, and culturally diverse country, expresses its heritage and traditions by means of its different religions, clothing, theatre, celebrations, religious ceremonies, and its daily life customs.

This exhibition  represents “a voyage into a mosaic of landscapes, ethnicities, and beliefs that have shaped Indian life, artistic expression, and culture. Through this exhibition—which coincides with the Year of India in Canada—Pointe-à-Callière is seeking to convey the importance of India’s cultural and religious heritage.”

Objects on display are sculptures, works of art, textiles, clothing, and finery. There are also presented film excerpts and soundtracks depicting major Indian ceremonies and rituals which complete and enrich the visitor’s experience.

One hundred objects deplayed at the Pointe-à-Callière come from  the collections of the Musée national des arts asiatiques Guimet in Paris.

The vibrantly coloured Indian textiles on display - including saris, shawls, veils, odhnis, turbans, and coats from the 18th and 19th centuries - come from their impressive textile collection, mainly from the personal collection of Krishna Riboud, the great-grandniece of Nobel laureate for literature Rabindranath Tagore. Krishna Riboud , well aware of the textiles’ priceless heritage value, worked for many years to preserve various fabrics, costumes, and clothing that today are part of this collection. Since the days of antiquity, India has been world-renowned for its variety of textiles.

Other objects on display are captivating terracotta, stone, bronze, and wood statues dating from the 2nd to the 19th century AD, representing kings or mythical gods, deity ornaments, or objects associated with rites. A dozen objects from The Royal Ontario Museum complete the collection of artefacts presented in Montréal, at Pointe-à-Callière.

The great gamut of colour at the exhibition is supplied by superb works of a French photographer Suzanne Held, which were carefully chosen from a vast collection of photos taken by her over 40 years of her travel to India. 

In the following video Suzanne Held speaks about her photos she took in India and exhibited at Musée des Arts Asiatiques at Nice. You can see many of those photos now in Montreal.

Suzanne Held, Inde éternelle

You will find more about the Montreal Museum of Archeology and History at Pointe-à-Callière, about their opening hours and their other activities, at the PAC museum website.

List of Photos as they appear in the text

1. Visual of the exhibition created by Dominique Boudrias from Pointe-à-Callière. ©Suzanne Held

2. View of the exhibition room, Photo by Alain Vandal

3. A woman cuts rushes in Agra. The Taj Mahal is a tomb to the memory of Mumtaz Mahal, favourite wife of the Mogul emperor Shah Jahan, the “king of the world.” She died giving birth to her fourteenth child, a girl who did not survive. In his despair the inconsolable emperor, his hair turned white overnight, summoned 20,000 labourers and master craftsmen to build the tomb. After 17 years the work was finished, but the State’s coffers were empty. Shah Jahan lost his throne and was imprisoned until his death by his son Aurangzeb. ©Suzanne Held

4. View of the exhibition room and textiles, Photo by Alain Vandal

5. Ganesha is the god who removes obstacles, very popular in India because he ensures the success of any undertaking. According to legend, Ganesha was decapitated in error by his father, Shiva. To atone for his mistake, Shiva decided to replace Ganesha’s head with the head of the first living creature he came across. © Musée Guimet, Paris

6. Srirangam temple (17th century) stands on the small island of Koledam, in south India, Dravidian India. This vast religious complex, dedicated to Vishnu, is a microcosm where hundreds of priests reside. The horse courtyard contains 953 pillars sculpted in the round representing armed horsemen mounted on rearing horses. Each statue, six metres high, is carved from a single block of granite. ©Suzanne Held

MMFA – New Bourgie Pavilion

Today, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) inaugurated the new Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion, which will become the home for the museum’s permanent collection of Quebec and Canadian Art. The pavilion also features a new 444-seat concert hall - Bourgie hall - build into the nave of the former 1894 heritage Erskine church, recognized for its excellent acoustics.

The new Bourgie pavilion is architecturally quite amazing. The old church masonry is combined with modern structures of large white marble sheets, glass and steel.

The Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art

It is spread over 6 levels with 600 works. There are 4 stories above the ground level and one below. Starting from the top, this is how the collection is subdivided:

Level 4 – Inuit Art, featuring 100 works from rich collection of sculpture and prints.

Indian Art and colonial period portraits in the background to the left, Bourgie Pavilion, Level 3.

Level 3 – Founding Identities theme – will feature contemporary and historical Ameridian Art as well as  works of colonial period (1700 to 1870s), dominated by portraiture and religious art.

Alfried Laliberté, Lost in Though, 1924.

Bourgie Pavilion, Level 2.

Level 2 -  Features the Annuals Exhibition Era (1980s – 1920s), and such artists as for instance Maurice Cullen, Ozias Leduc, James Wilson Maurice and Alfred Laliberté.

Lawren S. Harris, Log Cabin, 1923.

Bourgie Pavilion, Level 1.












Level 1 – Towards Modernism (1920s - 1930s) - present the Montreal’s Beaver Hall Group and its Quebec cityscapes and landscapes. This level also highlights the paintings from the Toronto based Group of Seven, and painters like Emily Carr and Marc-Aurèle Fortin.

Paul-Emil Bourdua, Composition 44, 1944. Bourgie Pavilion, Street Level.

Sherbrooke Stree Level -  The Age of the Manifesto (1040s - 1960s), with artists Paul-Emile Bordua and Alfred Pellan. A special place is also devoted for the works of Jean-Paul Riopelle (from 1947 to 1977).

Bourgie Pavilion, The Undeground Level. 

The underground Level – “The Mountain Gallery” – a thick layer of the mountain rock had to be removed to open this space to house the art from 1960s to 1970s with such artists as Louis Archambault, Greg Curnoe, Jean McEwen, Guido Millinari, Michael Snow and Calude Tousignant among others. This level leads directly into the underground passage that links all three MMFA pavilions.

The Bourgie Concert Hall

The artistic highlight of this hall ate magnificent Tiffany stained glass windows, along with the stained glass windows by Haworth and Charles William Kelsey.

Tiffany Stained Glass Windows, Bourgie Concert Hall.

The Hall has two Steinway & Sons’ Grand Pianos. One is on the stage of the concert hall, and the other one is in the practice room below the concert hall. This ensures that if a piece written for two pianos were to be performed, this Bourgie Hall would easily accommodate it.

Bourgie Concert Hall - the back of the Hall, Parterre and Balcony.

125 concerts have been scheduled for this Inaugural Season, spotlighting local musicians. The performances will include classical music as well as jazz, world and new music. Bourgie Hall will also hold a number of concert series with renowned musical ensembles.

For more information visit the Bourgie Hall website

http://www.sallebourgie.ca/

Also visit the website of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

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

Canadian International Organ Competition

Montreal Notre-Dame Basilica Organ

This is the second edition of
CIOC - the Canadian International Organ Competition


It will be held in Montreal, Canada, between October 5 and October 16, 2011. It will feature 16 top young organists from 11 countries: 4 women and 12 men, between 24 and 33 years of age.

- The first round of the competition will be held on October 5, 6 and 7 at the Church of the Immaculate Conception.


- The second round will be held on October 10 and 11 at the Saint-Jean-Baptist Church.


- The final round will be held on October 14 at the Notre-Dame Basilica.


The 2011 edition will close with a Gala Concert honouring the prizewinners on Sunday October 16, 2011 at Notre-Dame Basilica.


The winners will receive the following cash prizes:

First Prize:       $25,000

Second Prize:   $15,000

Third prize:      $10,000


Admission to the Competition Rounds and certain activities is free.  Suggested donation is $10. The general admission for the Gala concert is $20.


See the CIOC website for more information

http://www.ciocm.org/index.php?lang=e

World Press Photo Montreal 2011

The exhibition is being held at Marche Bonsecours between September 8 and October 2, 2011.

This is the 54^th edition of World Press Photo 11. It presents large-scale works of 54 photographers of different nationalities, arranged by 10 categories such as world news, art, nature, sports, portraits and everyday events. Two important selection criteria ware journalistic importance and the aesthetic merit of the work.

In the past there was heard a criticism that too much violence is portrayed in the photos. This simply reflects what is happening in the photo media at large, what photo journalists are covering and what they are obsessed about. Yet the impression of the predominantly violent photos is relative. The photos this year fall into three categories:

1. 6 %      Actual violence happening at the moment.
2. 20 %    People under duress – consequences of violence, natural disasters, and disease.
3. 74%     Non-violent, non-duress situations.

So although the number of works with the content of actual violence or people under duress is only about one quarter off all photos, it is remarkable the impact they have on the viewers who come out of the exhibition overwhelmed by the immediate impact of those photos.

The World Press official poster above features photo by Joost van Den Broek. It is a portrait of a 16 year old cadet Kiril Lewerski from a Russian naval ship Kruzenshtern. The innocent and direct gaze of the young cadet obscures effectively the fact that he is being trained in the art of war, how to kill, and how to destroy.

A question could be raised, is photo-journalistic photography just a direct representation of reality, simply an act of clicking a camera, or is there artistry involved. I am of the opinion that a successful photo with a high potential to impact a viewer is definitely art and has aesthetic merit. It represents a photographer's point of view. He is not only a window on the world's reality, but a filter of it. He selects the focus, the angle, the distance, the light aspects of his picture, and is guided in this process by his emotion, intellect and the desire to express what he thinks and feels about what he sees. He is the one who chooses the subject and the subject matter, he makes the adjustments, he chooses the eye level and the angles of the shoot in order to express what he sees in all its complexity. The final result is not simply a realistic picture but a totality of a story it narrates. It is an artistry to make photos that are not simplistic prints but become symbols of forces beyond the immediate representation.

The photo to the left is by Feisal Omar. It is of a man carrying a shark through the streets of Magadishu, Somalia. Somalians generally do not eat shark, but dry and salt its meat for export. The destroyed street, the shelled remains of the buildings that surround the man, and his huge load cry out of the heavy burden of the sharks of this world that ordinary Somalians carry on their shoulders amid the imposed devastation.

This photo by Ed Kashi is of a 9 year old Vietnamese girls Nguyen Thi Li who suffers from disabilities believed to be caused by the defoliating chemical Agent Orange used by the US forces during the Vietnam War. Notice the artistic quality of the photo, the lines, the light, the play of light and shadow, and the fact the subject is off-centre. This photo with painting-like composition definitely has a high aesthetic value.

The centrepiece of the Montreal's exhibition is the photo by a South African photographer Jodi Bieber seen on the left next to her World Press winning photo of the year 2010. It shows a young 18 year old Afgan girl Bibi Aisha who was disfigured, as punishment, after fleeing the violent treatment in her husband's family home. Her nose and ears were cut off, and she was abandoned in the mountainous clearing. She was later rescued, almost dead, and taken to a shelter in Kabul. She now lives permanently in Queens, New York and awaits a reconstructive surgery.

The photo is remarkable. Although the photographer states it deals with domestic violence, it is really about much more than that. It projects the shear strength of the girl's character, who apparently now walks in the streets without covering her face. Although she has a temporary protease, she does not like wearing it, since it makes her feel uncomfortable.

The photo appears to be a traditional three-quarters portrait. Yet, the lighting is natural day light, not studio lights, though it certainly does not give that impression. The girl is sitting in front of a window, and Jodi's assistant used a screen to direct the day light onto girl's face. The effect is quite stunning. The right side of the photo is all dark, to remind us of the dark and horrible act the girl has endured. Yet her face is illuminated and radiates light, and is symbolic of her inner strength. Moreover, to the left and above her head there is light which looks like a hallo, bringing the photo into spiritual realms where a comparison to a religious painting of the Madonna could be invoked.

Another serious subject matter is portrayed by the photographer Benjamin Lowy. He captured images of the oil floating to the surface after the explosion of the Deep Water horizon oil-drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. These four photos give an impression of being abstract paintings that portray the deceptive beauty of a horrific act of massive pollution.

In the category of sport, the photo by Adam Pretty stands out. It captures the 2000-metre steeplechase event at Youth Olympics at Bishan Stadium, Singapore, in August 2010, when Brazilian athlete Ioran Etchebury trips and falls head-first.  Although the main subject seems to be the fall of the runner, the overall effect of the photo, the flying arms and legs, the splashing water, the athletes' small heads, the diagonal lines of the limbs, and the central prominence of legs that do not touch ground create an interesting effect where the athlete, the person, seems to take a background role to the overall aesthetic composition of the photo with the subsequent subtle comment on this human activity.

Visit he World Press Photo website.