Congrats to Olaf de Winter and Mari Clayton for the success of their fundraising event last Sunday in the McClure Gallery — a Japanese Tea Ceremony by Tatsuko Cooper in support of the Ashinaga Fund. Ceramicists from across the community gave their work and helped to raise over $2200 for Ashinaga – a non-profit organization which helps children who lost parents in the 2011 Tsunami. Thanks to all for your generosity.
April 23, 2012
I just finished reading Bento’s Sketchbook: How does the impulse to draw something begin? by art critic/writer/artist John Berger. It’s a meditation on the practice of drawing, inspired by Berger’s curiosity about Spinoza – also known as Bento de Spinoza – who, besides being a philosopher, was also a sporadic draughtsman, though none of his sketchbooks were ever found. For years, Berger imagined finding the missing sketchbooks, wondering what the drawings might reveal about the famous philosopher. One day a friend gives him a new sketchbook and he decides, “This is Bento’s!” So he starts to draw, taking inspiration from the philosopher’s vision and exploring the practice of drawing and the way in which art guides our gaze to the world. While the book rambles in places and the philosophical quotes from Spinoza’s Ethics need a couple of reads, there are many inspiring comments about drawing. Berger draws parallels between the act of piloting a bike and the act of drawing. He notes that drawing is an exercise in “orientation…When I’m drawing, I feel a little closer to the way birds navigate when flying, or to hares finding shelter if pursued…” And Berger’s own drawings are lyrical, exploratory and beautiful. His most famous books are Ways of Seeing and About Looking but another good book is Titian: Nymph and Shepherd, a kind of imaginative meeting of the great Venetian master and a poetic rambling commentary on the meaning of art.
So inspiring to hear the laureates accept their awards and talk about their life long commitment to their art practice. Montreal’s Jana Sterbak was amongst them and Geoffrey James honoured Montreal’s Gabor Szilasi as one of his ongoing inspirations. Rideau Hall itself is inspiring, the walls hung top to bottom with Canadian art.
Click for more information on the Governor General’s Awards.
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts is presenting a Print exhibition by 22 RCA artist members from Ontario and Quebec at the John B. Aird Gallery, April 3 – 27, 2012. The show presents an overview of what’s current in printmaking today and brings together artists from different cultural backgrounds.
Click to view the Aird Press Release
Click to view the RCA PRINT 2012 Evite
Have you seen the list of films showing at the 30th FIFA, Montreal’s International Festival of Films on Art? I’ve already booked 8 tickets, mostly for films on painters such as Anselm Keifer, Cy Twombly, Odilon Redon and Lucien Freud. Last night
I had the rare opportunity to hear René Rozon, founder of the Festival, speak at the University Club of Montreal. Mr.Rozen is a world recognzied art and film critic and he entertained the audience with fascinating excerpts from some of the films that will show in this year’s festival which takes place from the 15th to 25th of March. FIFA is unique in the world and features about 250 films on many different art forms. The festival, which lasts for 10 days, is held in various locations – Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Canadian Center for Architecture, Place des Arts, Concordia University, etc.
Here’s the link for more information: www.artfifa.com
As a visual artist, listening to music is a sure stimulus to the imagination. Over the last month I’ve attended two concerts and was reminded yet again of the way in which the two art disciplines share a language and underlying formal qualities. One “sees” the music visually as texture, rhythm, colour, line, foreground, midground and background, etc. – much has been written about this subject. For instance Kandinsky could hear as well as see colour (a condition called synaesthesia).
The first concert was Iranian tar and sehtar improvisional music by Hossein Alizadeh – a leading Iranian classical composer and musician. He is a virtuosic player of the six stringed Persion tar and the four stringed sehtar. The second concert was right here in our McClure Gallery last Friday night – a cocktail hour performance of baroque cello duets by two amazing cellists with Arion Orchestre: Jaap ter Linden, a pioneer of early music who has played with the worlds finest orchestras and who is renowned for his interpretations of Bach’s Cello Suites along with one of his former students, Kate Bennett Haynes, an emerging musician who is pursuing a doctorate degree in Music at McGill. The high wood ceiling and wood floor provide a remarkabe acoustic atmosphere.
I left both concerts full of inspirations for new paintings. But also returned home and looked up Whistler’s Nocturne in Blue and Gold, inspired by Chopin’s Nocturnes – just one example of this rich artistic interface.
Here’s some photos from David Lafrance’s vernissage in the McClure Gallery last Thursday. As you can see it was well attended. We published a 28 page catalogue to accompany the show and were lucky enough to have Robert Enright and Jean Philippe Gagnon write the texts. This Thursday – February 9 – David’s giving a talk in the gallery at 7.:00 – a chance to hear him discuss his painting practice and how he composes those quirky landscapes strewn with all manner of symbols and images.
Well, its over – Square Affair – our end of November fundraising exhibition. 300 works on the gallery walls: two long days and nights to hang, five days on show, two more days to dismantle. A tremendous effort by exhausted but undaunted volunteers and staff but what a resounding success.
The idea for Square Affair was inspired by AWOL Gallery’s annual Square Foot exhibition in Toronto. Their website shows people lined up down the street and around the corner waiting for the doors to open. I never imagined we’d see that kind of turnout here but I was more than a little wrong. Almost 400 people attended the gala event and they were lined up at the gallery door at 6 p.m., despite the lingering threat of freezing rain.
As anyone who has worked on fundraising events knows, success is measured in two ways. The most obvious is the raising of funds and on that count it was one of the most successful fundraisers we’ve had. We cleared over $26,000. Most of that was from sales – a third of the artworks sold. But we also had generous sponsorship – thanks to the efforts of our Board members – from Manulife Financial, Architem, Alcora and The Andy Adelson Fund of the Canadian Jewish Family Foundation. Not to mention Simply Wonderful whose food was ‘simply wonderful’ and who supported the event as a patron.
A special mention is due Pierre from Avenue des Arts – our local art supply store – who provided the square panels for free– one, two and three square feet. It was a generous and gracious gesture that helped foster a sense of community around the event and of course, that is the second measure of success: building awareness of your institution and getting people involved.
Certainly, there was a very palpable sense of community in the air on opening night as you can see from the photos below. This was the first time we had an “inclusive” fundraiser; not just teachers and artists but students were also invited to participate. They wholeheartedly took up the cause, working diligently on their “squares” in class, at home, filling the gallery with inspired works. This year the Centre marked its 65th anniversary – it started in 1946 as a clay collective – and the value of inclusiveness which lies at the heart of our mandate was something we wanted to honour and celebrate. It was truly heartwarming to see such an enthusiastic response and we thank everyone who participated in helping us surpass expectations.
Robert Thellier and friends
Victoria LeBlanc, Sandra Paikowsky and Dean Barrière
Nikola Reford and friends
On a final note, on behalf of all our staff, we wish you a Happy Holiday Season with family and friends and lots of inspired creativity for 2012. And we hope to see you in January either in the gallery or in the studio, paintbrush in hand.
Due to popular demand, the McClure Gallery has recently undertaken a second printing of the book John Fox: Refiguration. Originally published in 2010 to accompany an exhibition of the same title, the book explores the artist’s return to representation in the mid 1980s, after fifteen years of painting non-figurative images. The publication includes over 60 colour plates of the artist’s later oil paintings, watercolours and drawings, with texts by well-known art historian Sandra Paikowsky and Montreal artists Peter Krausz and Michael Smith.
John Fox (b. 1927) lived and worked in Montreal, with lengthy annual visits to Venice, Italy from the mid 1970’s until his death there in 2008. The artist was a mentor and friend to many artists in the Montreal community throughout his career. In May 2012, Battat Contemporary Gallery, Montreal, will feature a selection of John Fox’s abstract paintings. The exhibition will provide insights into the work that preceded the text and images in John Fox Refiguration.
John Fox: Refiguration is available at the McClure Gallery or through ABC Art Books Canada. Limited copies are available.
Recently I was asked to give a talk on why art is important to children. The research on the benefits of arts education is so far reaching, it was hard to know where to begin. When a child creates, they are quite literally nourishing their entire being.
First, the arts draw on a range of intelligences – not just linguistic, logical and mathematical intelligences upon which most schools are based. Arts education stimulates and develops the imagination. It refines cognitive, creative and critical thinking skills. It strengthens problem solving.
Arts education heightens children’s self-esteem; it makes them feel good about what they have to say and how they say it. It increases the motivation to learn, and also creates cultural and historical awareness.
Arts education teaches children life skills – such as working co-operatively, articulating a vision, and thinking outside the box. Very importantly, children develop the ability to imagine what might be instead of only what is. A child begins with a blank piece of paper, adds a line, a colour, another line, another colour. Suddenly there is a house, a park, a community, two faces smiling at each other, holding hands, reaching for the sun. Out of nothing a child creates something. This is a profoundly valuable habit of mind and imagination – the key to creating new solutions to old problems, to facing the many challenges of the future.
Art also promotes the idea that there is more than one solution to a problem, more than one answer to a question. It therefore nurtures experiences of tolerance and empathy. While in math, 2 and 2 will forever equal 4, in art, in painting for instance, red, yellow and blue equal as many responses as there are children in the class and every single response is correct and it is good and it is deemed worthy. When a child paints a picture, molds a shape out of clay, they are developing their understanding of what it means to be human, they are learning to make meaning of their world and of themselves.
All these most fundamental skills nourished at a young age have profound effects on them as adults, regardless of the vocation a child might choose. This is some of the most surprising research for those who think that we must choose between science and art.
Finally of course, there is the element of joy – there is joy, fun, passion, creative fulfillment and a sense of personal freedom in making art. It is the kind of learning we must always safeguard.
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