Curated by: Hedwidge Asselin
Vernissage: Thursday, September 11 at 6 pm
Exhibition: September 5 to 27, 2003
Lecture by curator: Friday, September 19 at 7:30 pm
Exhibition Press Release:
Vues du paysage, a group landscape painting exhibition featuring the work of ten contemporary Quebec artists. The works range from detailed observations of nature (Renée Duval, Suzanne Joubert and Eric Le Ménédeu), to landscapes of the imagination (in Michel Boulanger’s paintings figures emerge from tangled masses of trees and rocks). While vivid colour and expressive brushstrokes qualify many of the paintings (Catherine Bates, Nycol Beaulieu, Kate Busch, Peter Hoffer and Sean Rudman), other, more formally abstract works suggest vast landscapes that blur the boundaries between earth and sky (Dominique Goupil).
“The landscape genre in art history is directly linked to the development of secular thinking, to an affirmation of man’s position in the world”, states Hedwidge Asselin, guest curator at the McClure. What role does the representation of landscape play in a society dominated by new technologies ? The strict geometry and linearity inherent to the technological world is, in a sense, threatening to the environment and consequently has intensified our appreciation of nature.
Born in Montreal, Hedwidge Asselin has taught philosophy and art history in several colleges and universities in Quebec. Ms. Asselin has been a member of the Association Internationale des critiques d’art for over twenty years and has published articles in several art magazines, including Vie des arts, Etc. Montréal, Espace and Vanguard. Ms. Asselin is often invited to curate exhibitions and to participate in selection committees for exhibitions such as the Symposium de la jeune peinture de Baie-Saint-Paul and Les Femmeuses.