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Vie des arts

English Reports

Volume 44, numéro 177, hiver 1999–2000

URI : https://id.erudit.org/iderudit/53096ac

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Éditeur(s) La Société La Vie des Arts

ISSN 0042-5435 (imprimé) 1923-3183 (numérique)

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Citer ce compte rendu (1999). Compte rendu de [English Reports]. Vie des arts, 44(177), 80–87.

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Cet article est diffusé et préservé par Érudit. Érudit est un consortium interuniversitaire sans but lucratif composé de l’Université de Montréal, l’Université Laval et l’Université du Québec à Montréal. Il a pour mission la promotion et la valorisation de la recherche. https://www.erudit.org/fr/ LT In her recent publication the visual plane with a matter-of-fact MONTRÉAL LEON GOLUB: +•> Painting friends, the Beaver Hall self confidence, a directness that is i- Women Painters (1999), author disconcerting, as though the women WHILE THE CRIME PAINTING FRIENDS, Barbara Meadowcroft traces the portrayed are privy to some knowl­ IS BLAZING O THE BEAVER HALL lives and careers of these Montreal edge which eludes the viewer. Liane and Danny Taran Gallery, women artists whose life-long asso­ Saidye Bronfman Centre for WOMEN PAINTERS This book's strength lies pre­ ciation began when they met at art dominantly in its recognition of the Arts OJ Barbara Meadowcroft school in the early 1900s. Ten friendship as a powerful force that January 18 - March 5, 2000 women were affiliated with that united the ten women, and provided group: Emily Coonan, Nora Colyer, them with the sustaining environ­ on Prudence Heward, Mabel Lockerby, ment that made it possible for them Mabel May, Kathleen Morris, Lilias to paint. In this way, Meadowcroft's Torrance Newton, Sarah Robertson, findings constitute a sensitive Ann Savage, and Ethel Seath. Despite acknowledgement of the social and C their successes - clearly evidenced in political currents of the period, as their achievements (including well as of the ways in which women exhibiting with the Group of Seven, navigated these in order to carry out as well as internationally, throughout creative work. the 1920's and 30's) - their contri­ As Meadowcroft notes, only bution has been largely overlooked recently has attention begun to be by art historians. Meadowcroft pro­ paid 10 these women. We are tempt­ vides the first in-depth look at these ed to turn to these works for visual extraordinary women. In chapters Cover page: testimony of the cautionings of Dionysiac, Leon Golub. 1998 with such revealing titles as "Family x Christine di Stefano: gender is basic Acrylic on linen, 118.5 73-5 In. Ties" (Chapter Five) or "Surviving as in ways that we have yet to fully Painters in the Great Depression" understand... it functions as "a dif­ There's no salvation for Leon Front cover: Plate 23 (Chapter Seven), Meadowcroft pro­ Golub's decontextualized humans. Autumn (or Girl with Apple), ference that makes a difference" vides a long overdue discussion of Prudence Howard, 1942, even as it can no longer claim the These malcontents are Godless crea­ oil on canvas, 76 x 63,5 cm their lives and their careers, and of legitimating mantle of the difference. tures who live in a Godless world. The the conditions surrounding both. The figure of the shrinking woman walled empty urban scenarios they The material presented in may perhaps be best appreciated exist in are beyond redemption. As The notion of survival has long Painting Friends has been gleaned and utilized as an aporia within con­ icons of violence, corruption and provided fodder for art history, and from archival sources, as well as temporary theory: as a recurring abuse of power, these paintings are for those engaged with the complex from over 100 interviews with the paradox, question, dead end, or not purist or aesthetic but hit-and-run process of artistic production. There painters' friends and families. In blind spot to which we must repeat­ visual diatribes designed to CON­ is first the artist's own struggle to addition to numerous photographs edly return, because to ignore her VINCE ME OF MY ERRORS as the produce the work, and then begins and sketches in black and white, the altogether is to risk forgetting and painted graffiti in like Yeah (1994) the process that assures the exhorts. Graffiti "tagging" is com­ endurance of a particular work or book is illustrated with 24 colour thereby losing what is left of her. plates, which dilineate the three monly used by Golub to set the para­ collection. For women artists, how­ On the other hand, one might meters of the scene. An arrow marker ever, the question of survival themes that typified the artists' sub­ argue, di Stefanos reference to the jects: landscapes, still lifes, and por­ in the same painting points to an in­ assumes more complex dimensions. figure of the shrinking woman is not, verted skeleton with more words, this In order to paint at all, women artists traits. What is perhaps most interest­ by any means, what we see in these time "another joker out of business" historically have had to contend with ing about the paintings themselves powerful paintings. Rather, her ref­ adjacent to it. A man's face is a patriarchal socio-historical con­ when viewed in the context of a erence evokes a metaphor for these bleached out, pure white, objectified, text, to accommodate the prescribed "group" - as they are here - is the artists' scant presence in Canadian roles and responsibilities of domes­ frank openness with which the sub­ dehumanized. His mouth is caught art history. Meadowcroft's Painting open in some kind of abject scream tic production, which have taken jects are captured. In Beaver Hall friends enables us to look toward precedence over the exigencies of of anxiety whose source he will never Square (c. 1923) by Anne Savage, fostering a new understanding of the artistic work. As Griselda Pollock know. The horror is not about what for example, grey buildings, vertical role of such women painters, and to recently noted: windows, and thinly outlined trees goes on inside this man's skull but according them their rightful place the violence that exists as a universal Women live the conditions of stretch skyward, as bent figures and among this century's best. artistic production differentially horse-drawn carriages brace against common denominator in Golub's according to the social as well as the the whirling snow. The effect, despite Elizabeth Wood world. It's like a Henry Miller story subjective structures of gender and the monochromatic colours, is one that has been exhumed, all the im­ ages and insights have been thrown sexual difference, economic and cul­ of blunt energy; towering structures 1 Pollock, Griselda. (1999). Differencing the tural positionality. Painting or any countered by dwarfed figures press­ Canon. Feminist Desire and the Writing of around the place like shards of lost Art's Histories. New York: Routledge. p. reason. Identical replicas of sexy form of cultural practice, not only is ing to resist their upward thrust. A 146. dancers in triplicate, a man with his determined by social institutions and force of similar magnitude, but very 2 As Meadowcroft notes, of the ten artists, semiotic structures but is the site at different in mood, permeates the "Nine of the Beaver Hall women were fist clenched leaning against the spinsters - whether by choice or circum­ wall/edge of the painting. A dog se­ which these are articulated negotiat­ still-fife entitled Lilies (c. 1938) by stance is hard to say" (Montreal: Véhicule. ed and transformed. Sarah Robertson. Here sensuous 1999, p. 80). questered into a black square of blooms extend outward, now toward 3 "The nine single painters lived with their paint. Is Golub alluding to the trap of The group of artists known as parents and siblings for most of their lives. painting itself, the historicity of the act the Beaver Hall Women Painters the viewer, now away, against a win­ Some had little choice since their art did dow pane through which, between not provide them with a livelihood, but of painting? The textural scumbled ef­ were remarkable not only in their most were also influenced by family loyal­ fects, the gesturally painted tracts and determination and capacity to "nego­ the stems and leaves of the pulsating ty. Society expected unmarried daughters flowers, houses and lampposts peer to care for their parents (...) But the real words in paintings such as Uke Yeah tiate and transform", but also in the problem for these creative women was (1994), Scratch (1999) and Time's bonds of friendship which united humbly. Finally, among the most caused less by external circumstances remarkable in this collection are the than by the patriarchal image of woman as Up (1997) change our conception of them for life, and which enabled nurturer, which they had internalized". these scenes. The picture plane be­ them to realize their commitment to portraits, for example Self-Portrait (Meadowcroft, op.cit., p. 81) (c. 1929) by Lilias Torrance Newton, comes a wall that closes the space in, painting, despite the constraints of 4 Cited in Tong, Rosemarie Putnam. (1997). but not the pictures themselves. A institutions and structures which or Autumn (or Girl with apple) Feminist Thought. (Second Ed.). Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, pp. 210-211. dog-like body with bird on his back jeopardized their very careers as (1942) by Prudence Heward. Each depicts a solitary woman dominating shoulder is immersed in a black artists. ISBN 1-55065-125-0 (1999) square while dogs stare in anticipa-

80 I VIE DES ARTS N"177 tion in Scratch. The random frag­ OTTAWA/HULL Under the Sign of the Cross.Cre- nation and the visceral connection ments tell a story of a disjunctive so­ ative Expressions ofChristianit y in with traditional practices. So, as we ciety where imagery has power, but Canada will be on display from No­ make our way to the moon faithfully the sequences are broken down, de- EMERGENCE FROM vember 5, 1999 to March 18, 2001 clutching our time capsules bulging contextualized, some elements have THE SHADOW: in the Arts and Traditions Hall of the with meaningful relics and getting been erased, others we seek and find. Canadian Museum of Civilization. closer to angels, it will be the be­ FIRST PEOPLES Leon Golub's paintings are exis­ This is an exhibition of religious musing sound of our Aibo barking at tential whodunits contorted tales of PHOTOGRAPHIC objects created by Canadian artists of a falling star that will spur us on to America's moral decline and third PERSPECTIVES paintings, sculptures, icons, bibles, new directions. world paramilitary law. Somehow the PRESENTED UNTIL JANUARY 2, miniature models and music that il­ Franceska Gnarowski brutality is sexual, explicit, provoca­ 2001 IN THE ART GALLERY OF THE lustrate the impact of Christianity on tive. In the 1960s, Golub was one of FIRST PEOPLES HALL OF THE Canada as an integral part of the CANADIAN a very few American painters ad­ CANADIAN MUSEUM OF country's heritage and cultural pro­ dressing the Vietnam War in his work. CIVILIZATION, HULL file. The works represent several of MUSEUM FOR By the 1970s, several series of paint­ the Christian denominations such as CONTEMPORARY ings including Mercenaries, Riots, Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox. PHOTOGRAPHY, white Squad and Horsing Around Curator Dr. Robert Klymasz ex­ OTTAWA earned Leon Golub a reputation as plained that though the Museums do America's foremost political painter not have a religious collection, its IUST THE FACTS: CONTEMPORARY of the century's end. 1 The real ac­ ethnology, folk art and war art col­ DOCUMENTARY APPROACHES claim for his work came in the early lections contain an eclectic range of 24.09.99-16.01.2000 1980s when the art dealers rediscov­ Christian-inspired items that create a ered Golub. The subject of a major powerful exhibition just in time to •I 'WSSSfJS'BIM retrospective at the Irish Museum of celebrate the second millennium of Daughter oflesse Lewis, Modern Art in Dublin in the summer by anthropologist F.W. Waugh Christ's birth. " I hope that this ex­ of 2(HK), Leon Golub remains one of Are You my Sister, Shelley Niro hibition will touch people on a per­ America's most controversial realist sonal level at the same time as they painters. These images of interroga­ enjoy the variety of creative ways tors, mercenaries, of abstruse vio­ The twenty first century looms Canadians have been moved to ex­ lence, torture, coercion, and brutal­ before us with the promise/threat of press their faith, " said Klymasz. ity are now well known to art advanced technology affecting every­ Certain works are of particular audiences yet his recent work is less thing fromth e very nature of what we interest such as a stunning serigraph well known. Disjunctive and frag­ eat to providing us with robotic pets. of Christ with a crown of thorns by mentary, Golub's most recent work We are hysterical with Trekkian pos­ Tsimshian artist Roy Henry Vickers BHltfflf'l looks postModern, sanitized and rel­ sibilities as we look to the moon for or renowned Inuit artist Pudlo Pud- ativized. His love of Mexican mural- more space, but before embarking lat's exquisite stonecut print of an ist Orozco's early work shines on that journey it may be wise to take Purification. Arctic angel. Eastern Orthodox icons Jane Ash Poitras, 1999, through, but the causes of the evil, a look at Emergence from the x such as Slavco Protic~s gleamingly mixed media on canvas. 121.9 9M cm, control and brutality that permeate Shadow, curated by photographer patriotic Mother of God of Canada courtesy Mira Godard Gallery the recent paintings are more invisi­ Jeffrey Thomas. have a serene and universal power ble, inexplicit and abstract than any Adjacent Chateau Laurier, the The exhibit is inspired by an­ to communicate the motivations of social realist's paintings could be. Ac­ Museum for Contemporary Canadian thropological field photographs the artist. cording to Stuart Horodner of Buck- Photography, celebrates the end of taken at the dawn of the twentieth nell University's Art Gallery in Lewis- Both Emergence from the the 1990 s with a '90 s survey that un­ century by Geological Survey staff burg, Pennsylvania, curator of Leon Shadow and Under the Sign of the derscores the tendencies used in var­ (now the CMC) F. W. Waugh, Charles Golub: While the Crime is Blazing (in Cross leave us at once bemused and ious cross media by Canadian artists. Marius Barbeau, Francis Knowles consort with David Liss), Golub's comforted. While we anticipate the The CMCP, part of the National and Harlan Smith. They recorded anti-media, activist and issue-ori­ future, we are inextricably rooted in Gallery of Canada, the state of the art languages, histories, activities and ented paintings may be well known the present, a moment that passes of photography as it develops in ways of life in writing and through but the recent work has not been quickly into history. If we take our Canada, has an extensive collection photography providing Thomas with dealt with sufficiently: "This exhibi­ inspiration from the artists in Emer­ and archives for research, as well as the premise "0 ancestry is an im­ tion looks at a period (1994-99) gence, then we are comforted and an active ongoing exhibitions pro­ portant part of who we are as First marked by shifts in process as well buoyed by their unshakeable convic­ gramme as exemplified by this ex­ Peoples, these photographs provide as attitude. Still examining power re­ tion in the process of self-determi- hibit. The range of on wall works and an interesting window to the past. By lationships, the artist (now 77 years use of mixed media juxtapositions juxtaposing them with the works of old) is now equally addressing the in­ underline the range of practice in a contemporary First Peoples artists, it terrogations within himself (anger, field that has become more and became easy to see how the past of­ cynicism, doubts) and painting with more off the wall, and on to maga­ ten informs the present in both artis­ a hit-and-run approach, letting frag­ zines, silver screens and video. tic and cultural terms." ments of figures and animals and Michael J.Molter texts define classic struggles of self in The exhibition features more space." These seldom seen recent than seventy historical photographs, paintings further dismantle the ob­ as well as contemporary photo­ jectified realism of Golub's earlier graphic-based works by Shelley Niro, style. Godless Golub's While the Greg Staats, Mary Anne Barkhouse, Crime is Blazing show is a contro­ Greg Hill, Rosalie Favell and Barry versial must see. Ace. Coming out of an artistic re­ naissance which began in the early John K. Grande 1980s, the works of all six First Peo­ i Montreal's Museum of Fine Arts was the first art museum in North America to pur- ples artists speak, in this exhibition, chase one of Leon Golub's Mercenaries to issues of community and continu­ paintings. ity and the influence of ancestry and No Power Greater, (detail), family history on who we become. Carole Condé and Karl Beveridge. Mother of God of Canada, 1990-91 Spavco Protic N.D. (94-38878) COLL. CMC

VIE DES ARTS N' 177 I 81 labour surrounding us, our bodies, paintings face directly into the TORONTO YECHEL GAGNON our souls. Reitzenstein's works are clouds! This obvious relationship be­ TROT: created through the act of artistic EXCAVATION tween the real and the represented AROUND THE TOWN resurrection. "He commenced sal­ Feb. 12 to March 11, 2000 heightens the sense of the artist cap­ vaging invasive and blighted lengths V. MacDonnell Gallery turing a fleeting moment and move­ of grapevine, effectively aiding the vi­ The word excavation reads as ment of nature with mortal hands TREES, CLOUDS, tality of the woodland... "With these dig to me. An archaeological and paint More than mortal hands GOD AND MAN: vines he used a lost wood process of word/activity that implies that the tower certainly proves we have ISSUES ANO IDEAS bronze casting to simultaneously im­ through unearthing the past we will mortal ears. The show's three fold SURROUNDING mortalize and incinerate each vine. better position ourselves for the fu­ relationship between the site, the Through many processes of alchemy ture. Gagnon's "excavation" is a dig millenium and the clouds is made THE MILLENIUM and labour the bronze and the into plywood. Using electric routers, obvious in a deceptively understated REINHARD REITZENSTEIN bronze cast are realized. Reitzenstein chisel knives, belt sanders, and oils way upon entering the foyer of the March 18 - April 12, 2000 then brazes (welds) the cast vine to reveal natural growth patterns in 360 restaurant. Olga Korper Gallery fragments into benches and chair the highly processed woods lami­ With ears still popping from a configurations. nated into one of North Americas fa­ speedy ascension in the glass eleva­ When I think about nature and vorite building materials. Gagnon tor one might take the time to turn am presented with a bench and a states "I investigate this material by and look at the Stephen Andrews chair my immediate connection is to revealing the layering of the product, works hung as a poignant diptych. the park and the lawn. A park bench hence reversing the production The left piece reads December while a lawn chair. Is this the way we liv­ process. This allows me to explore the right reads January. In each the ing in the 21st century experience the dichotomy between the func­ text is boldly inscribed upon our natural environment? Are we tional use of the plywood and its na­ ephemeral, skin like clouds realized seated passively, contentedly? How ture. Tall and towering these wall- in dark smears on velum. Andrew's mounted sculptures seem almost a Reinhard Reitzenstein do we think of "the natural world"? works are fragment of a much larger Lost Wood Series. #7.1997-98, Are we living in the natural world or forest of eroding hybrid trees re­ calendar series. One full year piece Cast Bronze, 60x115x60 cm simply harvesting from it? With so vealing themselves through their own is included within the body of the many important questions raised deconstruction. Conversely the show. These works were created to In a global economy where nat­ through looking and thinking about strong elongated rectangular visual­ express loss, optimism, and the pass­ ural resources are traded for big these works it is indeed very thought­ ized lyrical excavations can be read ing of time in response to the many bucks and exported far too often to ful of the artist to provide a seat. as signposts to our living culture. A friends and colleagues lost to AIDS. where human labour is sold the little anthropology can indeed Through conversation with Birch, I cheapest, we might not sit so com­ change the findings of future ar­ was also informed that Morrow's chaeology. You dig? fortably if we were magically privy to l.Claire Christie, "Reclaiming Grace' works we also created as means of the history of growth, harvest, and (catalogue text),1999. dealing with death. Morrow's clouds are peppered with blimps bearing text such as BOO or Hoo and the 7 hats of the 7 dwarfs cascade through the cloudscapes like hankies on the wind. The creation of personal sym­ bolism through appropriating pop culture iconography sets up a visual dialect that the viewer may decipher and emotionally respond to.

Yechel Gagnon, Untitled, 1999, Gouged Plywood, 240x70 cm

STEPHEN ANDREWS JAMES LAHEY DAVID MORROW CURATED BY ROBERT BIRCH

C.N. Tower lames Lahey 360 Restaurant-301 Front St. W Cloud Portrait, acrylic on canvas, As the temperature drops and the 22.5 x 30 cm. 1999 millenium takes hold each of us will probably find ourselves standing qui­ Conversely Lahey's works seem to etly outside one morning exhaling be very much about painting clouds. small breath clouds. Each cloud may His palette changes in an almost im­ act as punctuation or exclamation of pressionist manner as a means of cap­ our very mortal selves as we gently turing light and color. Softly he wields mentally review our past, present the pigment to represent the mist veils and future goals and exploits. This is as their soothing, inspiring, lush, in­ possibly the same quiet sensibility tangible selves. But it is paint and paint that fueled Robert Birch's concep­ is what Lahey shows in Rood Screen. tion of an equally quiet yet poignant This work is a diptych with one side millenium show housed in the tallest a cloudscape and the other a flat color building on earth. For the "Gallery" field of computer screen blue. in the clouds Birch has constructed Through this juxtaposition two things an exhibition of clouds. Due to the are immediately evident. Firstly the structure of the tower the cloud sky is not just blue and secondly both

82 I VIE DES ARTS N° 177 sides do the same thing. Each presents show called Cross Eyed. The theme Over time, the ritual of painting an openness and an eternity of space of this show was collaboration. The the same thing over and over again, to be visually entered. While the show looked slick from start to fin­ and seeing how each finished work cloudscape side makes the viewer ish but it wasn't a gallery show. Mem­ looked and felt so different, became aware of the air moving in the at­ bers of the collective wrote for itself the true subject and nature of mosphere the color field side seems grants, sent out press releases, sat the work. These paintings sing with to make me more aware of the air the show, and tended bar at the open­ juicy brushwork and sensuous moving within my own lungs. So with ing. For this show Mark Bell and Tom colour that moves and in a physical, the memory of heavens visual em­ Dean's collaboration produced 7 im­ visceral style. brace filling my thoughts I descend. ages. Each image was a computer The true subject content is the The glass elevator reminds me of manipulation of Grunevald's Cruci­ beauty of the brushwork. These Snow White laid out in her glass box fixion 1512 -1516. Within the belly paintings celebrate how a brush­ and I wonder if Morrow thought of this appropriated altarpiece image stroke can take ones breath away. about that in regards to the site too? they laid "a little of everything, love, Each portrait is a description of the Leaving the elevator and stepping out death, life..." as Bell puts it. Those Tom Dean/Mark Bell body experience when it was being into the grounded world again I ex­ Silence of the Lambs. 1998/99 (detail) images are now bound and called painted. Like Cindy Sherman and hale into the night. No breath clouds. Digital output on Splash printer God Magazine: The Silence of the Mariko Mori, Stewart uses herself as Courtesy Edward Day Gallery Maybe in the morning. Lambs. It strikes me as amazing and the blank canvas on which things can inspiring that the theme of an artist happen. to peruse a splattering of works in initiated show could create the fer­ Stewart looked for inspiration to an intimate space. And for those of tile ground necessary to produce the German artist Baselitz who paints TOM DEAN you who would Uke to purchase a lit­ collaborative work that Dean felt all his work with the top of the head April 2000, Edward Day Gallery tle piece but don't have the cash or strongly enough about to request at the bottom of the canvas. Other in­ Chaos, alchemy, wonder bread space for a large work, Dean has cre­ permission to present it to the world. fluences include Germaine Koh and dots, babies, dick bones, God Maga­ ated a trilogy of God Magazine. The Indeed Dean's name is often listed Janet Werner. Other works evidence zine, and a floating staircase. This Silence of the Lambs, The Beati­ with younger artists in large collec­ an emotional rawness, when the tips body of work questions the Universe tudes, and an oldie but a goodie The tive shows. A few that come to mind and downs of life inevitably found pre Y2K and comes up smiling. But Ten Commandments. These are are The Sex Show, Karaoke, and The their way into the paintings. behind every smiling face is a grin­ available at the Edward Day Gallery Dmg Show. It's silly to think of Tom ning skull. So to the XLVIII Biennale and at Art Métropole whose efforts Dean as representing Canada and di Venezia and back journeyed artist are responsible for the production of Canadian artists on the international Tom Dean with crates and crates and this excellent multiple. The firsttim e stage. Art is not a sport. No one is MARC SÉGUIN crates. For those of you, like myself, I ever saw the images that comprise the best because art is not a linear Nocturnal Solutions, who didn't shadow the trek of the picture book The Silence of the progression. I must confess (it's the ArtCore, October, 1999 Canada's foremost artist the Edward Lambs I was in a rented warehouse lapsed catholic in me) I am feeling Séguin's upcoming exhibitions Day Gallery maybe a fine opportunity attending an artist initiative collective very patriotic right now. include a solo to be held at the Musée Elizabeth Fearon d'art contemporain de Montréal in November 2000 which will travel to the Centre Culturel Canadien in Paris in spring 2001. In his signature style REVIEWS expansive colourfields are juxta­ SUSAN N.STEWART: posed with figure drawing reminis­ DENIAL OF SURFACE cent of the Italian trans avant-garde. V. MacDonnell Gallery Intense psychological content and Nov 20th to Dec 18th, 1999 compositional simplicity blend in the fragment and the whole in which the Susan N. Stewart's work deals undecisive character of the work is with our relationship with our bod­ in the end it's strength. ies and how our bodies are a part (SMUEmr LTD, nature. In particular she draws links Michael J.Molter between the spiritual, the sexual and the creative. In this series of self-por­ traits Stewart explores the formalist content of painting. The work is en permanence about the slipperiness of paint, the thrill of brushstrokes and the power Jean-Paul Riopelle of painting to deny a flat surface.

622 Richmond Street West, Toronto Ontario M5V 1Y9 Tel.: (416) 504-5445 Fax: (416) 504-5446 Susan N. Stewart Blonde Bombshell Oil on canvas Prometheus, 1999, oil on canvas, 145 x 105 cm Membre de l'Association Professionnelle des Galeries d'Art du Canada 18 x 18 in Courtesy V. MacDonnell Gallery courtesy ArtCore Gallery

VIE DES ARTS ND177 I 8Î REGINA not shy away from provocative lects erotic works from many of and nuance behind a seemingly shows. The second largest gallery, Canada's leading Native artists. A few empty surface, that makes this show Saskatchewan The Dunlop, is not only housed in pieces may be familiar-Daphne a revelation. Fluffy also introduces the Regina PubUc Library, but shares Odjig's naughty but morally instruc­ us to the darker meanings of Japan­ CURATORIAL a board. As a department of the li­ tional "Smoke House" works-but ese cuteness, its consequences for brary The Dunlop is mandated to others are surprises, I don't remem­ gender construction, national iden­ PRACTICE provide information. Its facilitators ber seeing Norval Morrisseau's huge, tity, and commercialization. are specially trained to not only of­ entwined male couple in his coffee- Both exhibitions offer medicine fer facts but interpretations. The table book. While not salacious, the and meaning with a sugar-coating. gallery also has a critic's residency, exhibition is a provocation; part of The sort of art and curatorial direc­ impressive publications, and a com­ the ongoing project to render First tion Regina is planning for the future. munity branch (Sherwood Village). Nations People completely human in David Garneau Neutral Ground, the city's oldest the dominant culture's imaginary. artist-run centre, programs the For me, the most poignant works greatest range of experimental works were Thirza Cuthand's videos which

Wesakehak and the Old Woman and has recently branched into elec­ negotiate her bi-racial and lesbian on a Bed of Gold Leaves, tronic art. The Antechamber, an up­ self in a self-reflexive but entirely G. Ray McCallum, 1999 lacquer and oil on canvas start artist and film-maker-run guileless manner that elicits both 96 x 152 cm gallery and film site-with a taste for laughter and tears. Altogether, this is minimal and photo-based work-is a a ground-breaking show demanding testament to what you can do with a both more works and a tour. Regina is not only home to the communitarian spirit and much Another example of exceptional Royal Canadian Mounties and their cheaper rents. curatorial representation is Anthony Museum, but it has, per capita, one Long associated with a strong Kiendl's international group show of the most vibrant art scenes in First Nations contemporary art exploring cuteness, Fluffy (The Dun­ Canada. No longer just the home of scene, as exemplified in the work by lop Art Gallery, Oct. 16-Jan. 2). While crowd-pleasers Joe Fafard, Vic Ci- Bob Boyer, Edward Poitras, the this trend has been around a few cansky, David Thauberger, and the unique fine arts program at the years, Kiendl deepens it with thought­ Regina Five legacy, the city also of­ Saskatchewan Indian Federated Col­ ful selection, clever juxtaposition and fers challenging contemporary art lege, and the recent addition of cu­ by avoiding empty-headed kitsch for and innovative curatatorial practice. rator Lee-Ann Martin to the museum kitsch's sake. A rose is a rose is a With 30,000 square feet of exhi­ staff at the Mackenzie has solidified rose, but a teddy bear by Mike Kelly, bition space to feed, the Mackenzie Mr. DOB Regina's reputation. The blush-in­ and one by Shannon Berard-Gar- TAKASHI Murakami. 1996 Art Gallery presents the most art. Ably ducing Exposed: Aesthetics of Abo­ diner, or Iain Baxter are not the iden­ vinyl, helium balancing regional responsibility courtesy of Tomio Koyama Gallery riginal Erotic Art (Sept. 24-Dec. 5), tical. And it is this play of subtlety- photo: Don Hall with a national perspective, they do co-curated with Morgan Wood, col- the discovery of rich thought, feeling Wyona Mulcaster

Top of the World, Wyona Mulcaster, 1999, Acrylic on canvas

Virginia Christopher Galleries 1134-8 Avenue S.W., Calgary, Alberta, Canada, T2P 1J5 Phone: (403) 263-4346, Fax: (403) 262-9644 E-mail: [email protected]

84 I VIE DES ARTS N'177 CALGARY CARROLL Back over 2,000 years with the Fayum portraiLs found in Egyptian TAYLOR-LINDOE gravesites from the era of Roman oc­ Trépanier Baer Gallery MUTTART PUBLIC cupation, with the help of modern in­ March 2000 ART GALLERY dustrial advances. The Trépanier Baer gallery's in­ The Muttart celebrates it's 22nd termittent museum-style tradition of anniversary to become the art gallery presenting artists with a body of work of Calgary. Moving in January 2000 developed thematically over time into two of Calgary's oldest refur­ contextualizes Taylor-Lindoe's con­ bished heritage buildings located stant metamorphis. downtown on Stephen Avenue Mall, Examining her own sense of ex­ it will become one of the city's visual perience within the history of women arts anchors, along with the Glen­ painters, Taylor-Lindoe's example bow, the Arts Centre, and Telus Con­ has impacted the national scene with vention Centre. others who are influenced by femi­ The new space will provide a nist thought. community-based visual arts gallery supporting both established and " It is knowing and understand­ ing your place and how things work " emerging artists with 16,000 square Caerimonia VI feet, four times the current space, to says Taylor-Lindoe. Celebrating who 1999 encaustic on canvas Top of the World include a new Education Centre and we are. It is time for beauty and cel­ Wyona Mulcaster ebration. " Women today do not need 1999 four distinct exhibition areas includ­ CHRISTOPHER KIER Acrylic on canvas ing Main Gallery, community gallery, to request an identity formed by children's gallery and media gallery. others, they declare their own." Newzones Gallery of Contemporary Art, March 2000 Karen Hasselfelt, Executive Director, WYNONA continues to work in collaboration Christopher Kier has chosen to MULCASTER with other galleries. Officially open­ revisit four iconic images he has Virginia Christopher Galleries mastered in Monumentum, the ing March 2, 2000 with Through the As Wynona Mulcaster, age 84, Latin word for memorial or histori­ Eyes of the Bears by Calgary artist daily rides her horses over the tough cal record. It is a two-part exhibition Maureen Enns, curated by Ewa Sni- dry landscape, she is taking visual with a catalogue organized by New- atycka, the multi-faceted exhibition notes for paintings that will describe zones in Calgary. and catalogue are based on Enns' her experience of the land and sky grizzly research in Kamchatka, Anatomy Lesson #5, Kier paints cross-culturally. His that make up her world of riding in Russia. Carrol Taylor Lindoe, 1998 encaustic colours relate to the earth: the open country. Her large semi-ab­ watercolor, chalk, graphite on paper 45 x 90 cm red ochre, polished ivory and grey stract landscapes can be from many granite. places where beauty is wrenched Two separate shapes, a cup and from a land that is bony yet teeming a house, or domus, signify our on­ with life. Raised on the hardy prairies going physical needs for nourish­ in Saskatchewan, she now divides ment and shelter. Spiritual require­ her time with the ruggedness of San ments to find peace with the Miguel de AUende, Mexico. The dry­ unknown are represented by two dif­ lands blend. ferent elongated shapes. The hori­ Hill Pasture shows a scattering of zontal bundle seems more personal, brown horses grazing the dusty perhaps sacred reminders for safe­ grasslands. Water, the giver of life, is keeping. This is for you to decide. A frequently hinted at with small ponds second vertical totemic shape sug­ or a creek surrounded by delicately gests a group spiritual hierarchy as coloured dry-land plants as in cultures progress, expand, and grow Roughland. more organized Mulcaster's sketchy surface of Kier believes these basic human acrylic paint, diluted and dragged "themes coincide with the millen­ dryly across the canvas, emphasizes nium crossing". They are appropri­ the raw, tough texture of the land she ate issues for this time "of passage, is part of. Details emerge in clusters offering, continuity, balance and of rocks, shadows within crevices, unity". It is a period for contempla­ scrubrush thickets, and hints of tion. colour with the hardy flower sur­ On Kier's personal level as an vivors. Her delicate transfer of this artist, it is his own way of celebrat­ raw beauty onto canvas invigourates ing the last ten years perfecting the as it pleases. challenging encaustic painting Mulcaster is one of the original process. Kier thoughtfully chooses Saskatchewan landscape painters, "the medium's tactile elements and influencing the work of such well- spontaneity," always discovering known artists as Ernest Lindner, Reta something else as he works with this Cowley, Dorothy Knowles, and most rigourous, but rewarding medium. recently David Alexander. As Virginia Technically difficult, it involves the Christopher brings in the new Mil­ process of mixing heated wax with lennium, she has chosen to honour raw pigments and then brushing it The Works International Visual Arts Society] survival with the hardy yet fragile repeatedly over the canvas. The lay­ suite 448, 10113-104 st. Edmonton Alberta T5J 1A1 work of this exceptional landscape tel: 780.426.2122 fax: 780.426.4673 j ering yields translucency and texture, artist. as if looking. www.theworks.ab.ca email: [email protected] j Anne Severson

VIE DES ARTS N"177 I 8S EDMONTON recreates the era's sensory overload by hanging works of hard-edge ab­ straction on walls painted with equal ENTERPRISE intensity and edge. In a memorable The Works Society is pleased to gesture he hangs some paintings announce series of competitions for "back side out," a single ironic shot the new Art and Design in PubUc targeting several institutions includ­ Places Program for downtown Ed­ ing modernist painting, art market monton Alberta. A number of pro­ and art museums. First Nations film­ jects will be developed in partnership maker Loretta Todd takes the millen­ with the Canada Millennium Part­ nial slot with a tentative call to Utopian Shaman Dancing in Sunset, My Own Words, hope for renewed relationship of the nership Program which encourages Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun. 1989 Gu Xiong, 1993 public and private sector participa­ oil on canvas oil on canvas region's communities to the land and tion to create millennium projects Vancouver Art Gallery Vancouver Art Gallery to each other. that make a difference in the lives of Finally, in Recollect the VAG dis­ Canadians and their communities. in a moment of self-congratulatory the twenties and thirties, these artists plays recent acquisitions of Canadian For information on the art and de­ nostalgia. Several shows of historical declared a hope for Utopian harmony and international art of the last twenty sign competitions, contact Linda and contemporary art recall Van­ between the burgeoning industrial years. Two leading currents of art Wedman or Natalie Roy at The Works couver's persistent identity crisis be­ society of Vancouver and its over­ production deal with aboriginal is­ Society 780.426.2122. tween wilderness frontier and me­ whelming natural setting.Visions of sues and immigration experience, tropolis. Looking forward, there is Paradise offers Frederick Varley in The Works: A Visual Arts Cele­ highlighted respectively by Lawrence mixed excitement and apprehension Vancouver 1926 to 1936, the most bration, 15th Anniversary Festival: Paul Yuxweluptun and Gu Xiong. at the pressures that indigenous First creative decade of his career. British June 23 -July 5,2000. Local, regional, At the Contemporary Art Gallery Nations and immigrant Asians will Columbia lured the Group of Seven national and international artists are in January, Eleanor Bond joins the exert on the urban physiognomy. painter with the promise of personal presented in a forum for the exchange persistent quest for Vancouver's re­ liberty and opportunity to paint his of ideas that is unlike any other festi­ Grunt gallery led the way in No­ lationship to place with a set of large transcendent response to a landscape val in North America. The Works in vember with Live at the End of the paintings. The Winnipeg artist, he called "heaven" that "trembles downtown Edmonton presents a Century, a city wide festival of per­ known for her aerial views of indus­ within and pains with its wonder." spectacular array of artists and art­ formance art that recognized Van­ trial and rural sites in decline, is The show assembles for the first time works that range from experimental couver's seminal contribution to this preparing a Vancouver project simi­ in many years Varley's landscapes installations and performance art to contemporary practice. The Vancou­ lar to ones she has done in Chicago and portraits, illuminating his impact traditional art forms such as painting ver Art Gallery contributed as part of and Rotterdam. During research last on artistic vision and production on and sculpture. Exhibition proposals its own comprehensive viewing of February, Bond accumulated obser­ the Westcoast. currently being accepted to January Vancouver and Canadian art from the vations of aspects of the city from 22, 2000. Applications on the web at past century. Grouped in the VAG's Out of This Century is an exper­ North Shore mountains to the Fraser www.theworks.ab.ca. or call Vincent Millennium projects are four exhibi­ imental project that invited six na­ Delta, downtown high-rises and sub­ Gaspard 780.426.2122. tions that showcase the gallery's his­ tionally known Vancouver arts pro­ urban malls, fodder for utopie mus­ tory as cultural repository. fessionals to guest-curate their own ings from a vertiginous vantage point. Two historical shows outline Van­ selections from the gallery vaults. VANCOUVER couver's introduction to modernism Each took a decade, beginning with via John Vanderpant's photography landscape architect Cornelia Ober- and Frederick Varley's painting.The lander in the fifties and continuing VISIONS Rhetoric of Utopia presents Vander- with author Doug Coupland, radio This winter Vancouver, brassy pant and his circle seeking a mod­ host David Wisdom, filmmaker Mina jewel in the crown of the Pacific Rim, ernist style that broke with European Shum and playwright Tom Cone. Cou- pauses on the cusp of the Millennium tradition and British colonialism. In pland's gallery of sixties' art "by guys" Elevator Living in a Community-Built Neighbourhood, Eleanor Bond, 1998 oil on canvas lÏÏÏÏFÏÏLLLr 260 x 442 cm 510 Fan Sireet, Victoria, BC, V8W1E6 voice 250.383 8833 la* ?50 383.8841 The year 2000 is Year of the [email protected] Dragon, the most auspicious animal www.openspace.ca in the Chinese 12-year cycle and a favourable inauguration of the Mil­ lennium. In time for the Chinese March 14-18, 2000 New Year Sam Carter previews his 2000 Dragons Project at the Diane five davs cassandra miller Fards Gallery in February, before it poetrv music/paintings travels to the National Gallery of Malaysia in June. The former art di­ rector of the Canadian International Claudia nicoletti Dragon Boat Festival will create an performance "army" of 1000 ceramic dragons surrounded by 1000 paper dragons. Carter made the dragons from fired mansell girls daniel laskavin clay that he polychromed and leafed collaboration dance in silver and gold; and from hand- dance/music dyed paper made at the Gandhi nothing changes Ashram in India. After ten years of nothing remains the sames collecting dragon artifacts from around the world, Carter synthesizes the dragon into an optimistic

86 I VIE DES ARTS N"177 materials that convey a sense of Contemporaries, influenced by Ab­ 20th century woman is a packaged everyday drama. As Naylor suggests: straction Expressionism, both artists commodity. She is presented in ad­ "The work centers around architec­ share histories rich in abstraction vertisements, the entertainment field, tural forms, furniture and domestic and cultural difference maintaining a and men's magazines as an inani­ objects which act as physical long-time commitment to experi­ mate object divested of her human­ metaphors for the mother's body mentation in Canada to achieve their ity, leaving her only as a sex sym­ from which the maternal voice respective creative involve-ments. bol... .In my work, I express my love speaks." This culturally constructed Tousignant, (b.Montreal, 1932) the for the container and especially for voice is not gender specific but more esoteric, is best known for his its contents.'A 1967 painting from rather in Naylor's view, relies on the Op-inspired target paintings. With no this series, The Three Graces After Dragon Grouping, 1999 ceramic-polychrome, participation of both women and evidence of representation or brush­ Reubens, depicts the garter belt clad gold and silver leaf 2.5 x 7 in men. The implied narrator is that of stroke, these reductivist paintings graces in a tender Reubensque bur­ photo: Ken Mayor Storyteller/Protector, jil p. weaving's were considered shocking and radi­ lesque that brims with sensuous vi­ fictitious narratives, a series of ques­ cally frontal. The reserved French­ tality. Like deKooning's Women, we tions to be continued, are con­ man met Barnett Newman in the are confronted with sexually- emblem of global understanding structed in the future/present An in­ 1960's and was most impressed with charged imagery that ambiguously and cooperation that acknowledges vestigative or transgressive voice his new austere vocabulary of ab­ exploits the stereotype the artist pro­ while it challenges Vancouver's in­ unravels through a series of twenty- stract beauty. Tousignant moved fur­ poses to challenge. Dennis Burton's ternational role. nine representational panels that ref­ ther into abstraction with his Mono­ March exhibition at the Winchester This "celebration of dragons" erence the television series, The X- chromes, in which the paint and invites a unique opportunity to view will preview at the Diane Farris Files. weaving's inclusion of a virtual canvas share a continuous color- these erotic paintings (with post­ Gallery from February 1-28, 2000. component (website with projected soaked unity and a restrained emo­ modern eyes), and to reconsider or The exhibition will open at the Na­ images), further complicates the tional content. "Today I believe that redefine their relevance thirty years tional Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur, narrative, offering an "officially" whenever there is more than one vi­ later. Malaysia, from June 4, 2000. sanctioned government voice on sual plane on a surface there is nec­ Linda Giles Joan Richardson mothering policies established by the essarily an element of figuration." secret "Department of Maternai Af­ Claude Tousignant's February 2000 fairs." The artistic practices of Nay­ exhibition includes oil paintings, MILLENNIA / VICTORIA lor and weaving expose the contra­ Gong Chromatique (1966), and Set- OPEN SPACE dictions endemic to our society's timaie 3-69-47 (1969); some Mono­ devalued notions of mothering. Their chromes; and some works on paper. MARCH 14 -18, 2000 MILLENARIUM exposures raise questions that allow Simultaneously (1960's), then MUSINGS new and different discourses to oc­ Toronto painter Dennis Burton FIVE DAYS cur, to he continued... (b.Lethbridge, 1933), painted his POETRY FIELD NOTES FROM MATERNAL controversial project "The Garter MUSIC TERRITORY: AN EXHIBITION ABOUT Belt Series". DANCE MOTHERING This work was PERFORMANCE MARGARET NAYLOR considered to be MANSELL GIRLS jil p. weaving COLLABORATION ART GALLERY OF GREATER Burton's break with abstraction DANCE/MUSIC VICTORIA CASSANDRA MILLER and a return to a January 13 - March 5, 2000 MUSIC/PAINTINGS more precise CLAUDIA NICOLETTI style of painting, field notes from maternal terri­ POETRY i.e. representa­ tory is a multi-media installation in MUSIC tion. The paint­ three parts by Vancouver artists jil DANIEL LASKAVIN ings are beauti­ p.weaving and Margaret Naylor. In an DANCE fully constructed exhibition that resonates with humor, ART but how are they the artists examine mothering as a NOTHING CHANGES intended? Bur­ cultural construct while acknowl­ NOTHING REMAINS THE SAME ton quotes: "The OPEN SPACE/MILLENNIA edging, among other texts, the criti­ To be continued. cal influence of Mary Kelly's (1978) Jil P. Weaving, 1997, Post-Partum Document. The installa­ l,8licm.xl42cm.painted strip, computer with website courtesy Surrey Art Gallery tion relies on Naylor's object-related sculptures and weaving's sixty con­ tinuous feet of narrative paintings (oil and acrylic) installed comic- strip style, weaving has also created CLAUDE a website for "mombots" with pro­ TOUSIGNANT: jected CI) ROM images. A third com­ INTROSPECTIVE ponent, a proposed "Wall of Honor" consists of photographs of mothers DENNIS BURTON in all stages of motherhood. Orga­ GARTER BELT/INTERFACE. nized by curator Lisa Baldissera, the REVISITING OUR image wall will result as a call for AESTHETIC SITES submissions from the community. February 3 - 26, 2000 Field notes originated at Surrey Art March 2 - 31, 2000 Gallery accompanied by a catalogue WINCHESTER GALLERY with essays by Petra Watson and 1010 BROAD STREET Allyson Clay. Margaret Naylor's In two exhibitions for the new homey sculptures, (Motel, Picnic, millennium, Winchester Gallery re­ Schoolhouse, Treehouse, Water- examines the paintings of well-cele­ tower, Storyteller), employ ordinary brated Canadian artists, Claude Tou­ signant and Dennis Burton. Portrait Commission of Cynthia Kelly, Dennis Burton. 1965, oil on canvas 90 x 110 cm VIE DES ARTS N°177 I 87