McCord 2020: Robert Walker-Griffintown

GRIFFINTOWN
EVOLVING MONTREAL
Photos by Robert Walker

February 7 - August 9, 2020

This exhibition represents the first photography commission under the Evolving Montreal program, created by the McCord Museum to document the undergoing rapid transformation of Montreal's neighbourhoods. On displays are some 20 large-format photoprints, along with the projection of another approximately 100 images. Also included are photos from the McCord’s collection.

Robert Walker, a Montreal street photographer, presents a photografic tour of
Griffintown. With his colourful shots from 2018 and 2019, Walker prompts the audience to observe how this Montreal neighbourhood is being transformed by radical changes to its urban fabric. He shows frenzied and haphazard real estate development, and focuses on the loss of the old buildings. This brings into focus the need to preserve our architectural heritage and our common history.

Walker's photoprints are screens that capture the clash of the past and the present, expressing it with colours, shapes and patterns. His photos capture an awkward blend of the remains of the working-class, of the industrial district, and the new contemporary buildings that are replacing them and that are designed for the well-off. A recuring pattern in his photos is vericality of architectural and constraction objects. They contrast with the horizontality of the Grffuntown of the past as shown on the photos from the McCord Museum's collection. This is how the new face of Griffintown, one of Montreal’s oldest and most storied neighbourhoods, is emerging.

Robert Walker:

“I found Griffintown to be a beehive of colourful activity. Demolition shovels, construction cranes, pile drivers, cement mixers, dump trucks, all dramatically highlighted against the dramatic background of the Montreal cityscape. The Transformation of Griffintown turned out to be an exhilarating and challenging project”. 

EVOLVING MONTREAL – A NEW PROGRAM OF PHOTOGRAPHIC COMMISSIONS

To document Montreal’s ongoing urban transformation and promote documentary photography, over the next three years the McCord Museum will be commissioning some well-known local photographers to explore the changes occurring in a neighbourhood of their choice. This program has been made possible thanks in part to funding from the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

Rober Walker presenting his photo book.

Robet Wlker talking to journalists.

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All photos in this article by Nadia Slejskova.

CULTURAL ACTIVITIES THAT ACCOMPANY THE EXHIBITION

Screening of the documentary film Horse Palace by Nadine Gomez
Wednesday, February 19, 6 p.m., free
Between the abandoned factories and decrepit buildings of Griffintown is Montreal’s oldest stable, the last remnant of a bygone era. Like an urban tale, this documentary invites us to reflect on the meaning and value of our cities’ intangible heritage.

Photobook Club: About Griffintown with Robert Walker
Wednesday, April 8, 6 p.m., free
The Photobook Club Montréal invites photography enthusiasts to join the discussion group that has the city as its photographic subject for this edition.

Dialogue with Robert Walker
Wednesday, May 5, 6 p.m., free
In conjunction with the exhibition Griffintown, Robert Walker will speak with Hélène Samson, Curator, Photography at the Musée, about his long photographic practice that has taken him from Montreal to Warsaw and New York.

City Talks – Special Edition
Griffintown – Evolving Montreal
Wednesday, June 3, 6 p.m., free
The McCord Museum and Héritage Montréal offer a discussion on the recent transformation of this neighbourhood.

For more information about current exhibitions and activities, visit the McCord Museum website.

McCord 2019 - 2020: Jean-Claude Poitras

JEAN-CLAUDE POITRAS
FASHION AND INSPIRATION

Ocober 24, 2019 - April 26, 2020

McCord Museum features works by a Montreal fashion designer Jean-Claude Poitras whose career span over three decades from the 1970s to 2000s and made a definitive mark on the ready-to-wear (prêt-à-porter) clothing industry in Montreal and the rest of Canada. He is considered to be an icon in the world of fashion and design.

Jean-Claude Poitras received the Order of Canada in 1995. In 1996 he was appointed a Knight of the Order of Quebec (Ordre national du Québec), and was promoted to Officer in 2012. On October 11, 2019 he received the Prix du Québec. His awards also include Fil D'Or de Monte-Carlo in 1989, and two Griffes D'Or in Quebec, in 1991.

This exhibition was jointly organized by the McCord Museum and the Museum of Civilization in Quebec City.

Click on images to enlarge them.
All photos in this article by Nadia Slejskova.

Read about Jean-Claude Poitras exibition at Centre d’art Diane-Dufresne in 2017 here.

For more information about current exhibitions, visit the McCord Museum website.

MMFA 2019: Bruce Bailey Collection - Paterson Ewen

Paterson Ewen's Paitings
Bailey Collection

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) is currently exhibiting works from a private collection of an Ontario philanthropist and art collector W. Bruce C. Bailey. You can read about this exhibition entitled ForEvery Atom Belonging to Me as Good Belongs to You here.

The exhibition presents 3 impressive works by Paterson Ewen (1925-2002). He was born in Montreal and in the late 1960s moved to London, Ontario. It was there that he developed his hallmark carved-wood style paintings. There are two such striking attention-holders oaintings on display at the MMFA’s Bailey Collection exhibition.

At the top of this article you can see his painting Right Angle Tree, 1977, acrylic and metal on gouged plywood. Just below is his Comet, 1970s - 1980s, acrylic on gouged plywood. 

The third Paterson Ewen’s painting at the exhibition is Forked Lightning, 1971, acrylic, canvas, linoleum, and metal on gouged plywood (see below). It especially attracted my attention when I noticed quite unexpectedly a faded figure of a man at the bottom of one of the lightning's branches, the middle of his head to the left of the lowest leftward zig-zag. Ewen is a non-figurative artist, and this image of a man who appears to admire the nature's powerful light display, was quite a surprise. I invite you to visit the exhibition to discover this hidden image for yourself, as my photo does not do it full justice.

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Hover over images for description and credits.

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

You can read more about W. Bruce C. Bailey's collection here.

MMFA 2019: Bruce Bailey Collection

FOR EVERY ATOM BELONGING TO ME AS GOOD 

BELONGS TO YOU

Selections from the Bailey Collection

December 4, 2019 – March 29, 2020

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) presents a selection of artworks from a private art collection of an Ontario philanthropist, collector, and MMFA patron W. Bruce C. Bailey. It offers to the public over 100 paintings, sculptures, photographs, and works on paper from different time periods and cultures, all from Bailey's vast collection.

The exhibition borrowed its name For Every Atom Belonging to Me as Good Belongs to You from the title of Walt Whitman's poem Song of Myself (1881). Like this poem, W. Bruce C. Bailey's collection is meant to invite the audience to consider how art expresses unique sensibilities and also some shared commonalities of human experience.

Nathalie Bondil, MMFA's Director General and Chief Curator, has stated:

"So many words could be used to describe Bruce Bailey: gentleman-farmer, magician of the everyday, brilliant intellect, passionate heart, friend to artists, patron of the arts, lavish salonnier and extravagant businessman. An Ontarian who loves Quebec, fiercely proud Canadian and citizen of the world, this man of faith and conviction is unveiling his collection, revealing a deep, complex humanity, with its doubts and its struggles. He is committed to contemporary art that explores the timeliest of topics: gender, indigenous issues, feminism, conflicts. With his generosity and his vision, he encourages the best artists at home and abroad. This steadfast friend of the Museum has loaned works by Peter Doig and Robert Mapplethorpe, and enriched its collections with spectacular pieces by Kent Monkman, Shary Boyle, Geneviève Cadieux, Kim Dorland and Tony Matelli.  Moreover, thanks to his exceptional donations and fundraising efforts, the Museum has been able to purchase remarkable works by old masters and contemporary artists."

Started in 1975, Mr Bailey's collection stands out through its interest in the Other. The collector is strongly attracted to works that deal with the meaning of "being human" and with good, evil, beauty, sadness, neglect and ugliness in humanity. The dichotomies of life/death, black/white, good/bad and love/hate reflect the facets of human condition.

Mr. Bailey is a major patron of the Canadian arts community. Every other year, he holds a country celebration on his estate in Ontario, with all profits going to the MMFA to enrich its collection.  The funds raised made it possible to acquire historical works such as the Modello for the "Portrait of Louis XIV in Royal Ceremonial Robes" (1701) by Hyacinthe Rigaud, as well as recent acquisitions by contemporary artists Shilpa Gupta, Gauri Gill and Betsabeé Romero. Since 2003, Bailey has donated numerous works to the Museum by artists that include Jules de Balincourt, Geneviève Cadieux, Petah Coyne, Evergon, Tyler Bright Hilton, John Massey, Tony Matelli, Kent Monkman and Erik Parker. He has served on the MMFA's Acquisition Committee –International Art after 1900 since November 2010. 

This exhibition is organized by the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in collaboration with W. Bruce C. Bailey.

Curator: Mary-Dailey Desmarais, Curator of International Modern and Contemporary Art, MMFA.

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Exibition Location
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Contemporary Art Square, Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion – Level S2

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Additionally, you can read a separate article about Paterson Ewen's paintings at the Bruce Bailey Collection ehhibition here.

MMFA 2019: Van Horn's Japanese Ceramics

OBSESSION:

SIR WILLIAM VAN HORNE’S JAPANESE CERAMICS

November 20, 2019 – March 1, 2020 

Sir William Van Horne was a man of many achievements. As the president of the Canadian Pacific, he build Canada’s transcontinental railway. As a private man, he was an avid collector of Japanese ceramics which was made for the Japanese domestic market. Though he never visited Japan during his lifetime, the crates with the ceramics he purchased while in Canada were shiped to him by boats over the Pacific ocean.

He lived at 1139 Sherbrooke Street West in Montreal, just steps from the Museum. Between 1883 and 1893, he acquired close to 1,200 examples of Japanese ceramics. His collection was world renowned during his lifetime. It is exceptional not only for the number of objects it consists of, but most remarquably for the compulsive diligence with which he documented it. He knew every item in his collection by heart, and had an individual relationship with each item. Absolutely every item was catalogued in a series of notebooks, some on of them on view at the exhibition. In addition, Van Horn carefully illustrated his ceramic pieces, in some cases rendered them in large watercolour paintings. The MMFA exhibition includes several of these “case studies,” where an object, its description, sketch and watercolour are displayed side by side.

Van Horn lived at an era of private collectors, who knew each other, belonged to the same social circles, visited each other's collections, and staged private exhibitions at their homes. The collection of artistic objects activity was highly regarded and praised by Van Horn's peers.

Sir William Van Horne

William Cornelius Van Horne was born in 1843 in Illinois. At a very young age, he developed an interest in paleontology and fossil classification. Leaving school at age 13, he found a job with the Illinois Central Railway and then with the Chicago & Alton Railway, where he became superintendent general at the age of 29. He subsequently became president of the Southern Minnesota Railroad, where in his first year he successfully turned around the financially troubled company with his innovations.

In 1881, the Canadian Pacific Railway faced a daunting challenge: a dream of connecting the West Coast of the country with the East Coast by building a railroad within 10 years. To do so, the company called upon Van Horne’s talents. His assignment was to lay 4,665 kilometres of rail across a continent that had scarcely even been surveyed. He rose to the challenge in 1885, despite a host of obstacles, and spent 11 years as president of Canadian Pacific. Under his auspices, the company was restored to financial health and would become the world’s largest transportation system. He left this position to launch a railway in Cuba. His success and his involvement with the boards of directors of some 40 Canadian companies and organizations – including the Art Association of Montreal, the forerunner to the MMFA – made him one of the country’s most influential businessmen. When he died in 1915, he was a Canadian citizen, British knight, and a multimillionaire.

In 1944, Van Horne’s daughter donated a group of 595 works to the Art Association of Montreal, including paintings by Canaletto, Cézanne, Daumier, Greco, Guardi, Monet and Tiepolo, along with 217 Japanese ceramics. This was the beginning of the MMFA’S collection of Asian art. During his lifetime, Van Horne also gave 150 other ceramic objects from his collection to the ROM. 

  

Exibition Location

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion – Level 2

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Hover over images for description and credits.

For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions and activities, visit the museum's website.

Little Dickens

Centaur Theatre / 51th Season

LITTLE DICKENS

Quebec Premiere

November 19 - December 21, 2019

Created & Performed by Ronnie BURKETT

With Musical Arrangements by John ALCORN

Production Manager & Artistic Associate Terri GILLIS

Stage Manager Crystal SALVERDA

Every performance of Daisy Theatre show is unique, improvised on the spot, adjusted to the audience's mood and reactions. It also relies on the volunteers from the audience Burkett gets to participate in his play. Stated plainly, there is no written script. These puppet performances cannot be reproduced or performed by anybody else but their creator Ronnie Burkett.

Little Dickens is a funny and edgy remix of Charles Dickens’ classic Christmas Carol. It also launches the early Yuletide celebrations at Centaur.

The Dickens's character Scrooge is impersonated by the aging Diva Esmé. As she launces her midnight journey that leads to her inner redemption, she encounters many other Daisy Theatre well-known puppets, now all interpreting Dickens’ infamous characters. Presented in vaudevillian style, music ties all parts of the performance together: Christmas remixes and sultry jazz solos helping with the joyful merriment of the Fezziwig’s party.

ABOUT RONNIE BURKETT

Captivated by puppetry since the age of seven, Ronnie Burkett began touring his shows at the age of fourteen. His Theatre of Marionettes was formed in 1986, playing on Canada’s major stages and abroad. Ronnie received the 2009 Siminovitch Prize, The Herbert Whittaker Drama Bench Award for Outstanding Contribution to Canadian Theatre, a Village Voice OBIE Award and four Citations of Excellence from the American Center of the Union Internationale de la Marionnette. In 2019, Ronnie Burkett was appointed as an Officer of The Order of Canada.

AGE RESTRICTION: 16 years and over

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All photos courtesy of @ Centaur Theatre.

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

More about this performance here.