Marc Gauthier

[L’église d’Auvers-sur-Oise, Vincent van Gogh, 1890, oil on canvas, 74×94,5 cm, Musée d’Orsay]

A selection of recent articles on computer science and art.* Researchers at Penn State analyze the patterns and geometric characteristics of van Gogh’s stroke brush to detect counterfeits. [Article]

* A new software called Zotero allows historians to classify images, web pages and texts more efficiently. Could the image of the college professor surrounded by his/her boxes of documents be soon part of… history? [Article]

* A new technique allows graphic artists to change their images to emphasize one part of the picture to guide a viewer’s attention. [Article]

Tags: 3D, Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, Amitabh Varshney, Andrew Mellon Foundation, C. Richard Johnson Jr., Center for History and New Media (CHNM), Collections, color, contrast, Cornell University, Daniel Cohen, database, Ella Hendricks, Eric Postma, Eugene Brevdo, George Mason University, Igor J. Berezhnoy, illumination, Ingrid Daubechies, James Z. Wang, Jia Li, Kroller-Muller Museum, look, Masstricht University, National Science Foundation, Nova, PBS, Penn State, Philips Research Europe, Princeton, Shannon M. Hughes, United States Institute of Museum and Library Services, University of Maryland, Van Gogh, Van Gogh Museum, Weina Ge, Youngmin Kim, Zotero

Quebec-City lovers know that there is excavation work currently underway on Couillard street in the older part of the town, near the convenience store and the Temporel coffee shop.

What these lovers may not know is that this work is going on on a spot designated as rich from an archeological standpoint.

In a 1998 study, the firm Ehtnoscop stated that lot 022 shows masonry structure that was on a 1709 map. This building, built on the former course of the street, was built before that date. Some archeological works already found a stone structure and artifacts.

[Details, excavation work, Couillard street]

How does the city of Quebec treat this heritage? Easy: it uses shovels and scraps the stones.

Very sad.

And just to make matters worse, I’ll put up this picture of the Intendant’s Palace, the residence of the French governor of the colony. So there you have all the 400th-anniversary historical celebration you need, while going to the Paul McCartney concert.

Mea Culpa: User «P» on the French version of this post noted that water pipes werebeing repaired, not gas pipes.  

Tags: 1709, 400th anniversary, archeology, Couillard street, Ethnoscop, French governor, Intendant's Palace, Paul McCartney, Quebec City, Temporel

[Pêche interdite/No Fishing [Fishing prohibited/No Fishing], Thierry Arcand-Bossé, 2008, Quebec City]

Efforts to improve nearby ramps of highway Dufferin-Montmorency continue in the Saint-Roch district of Quebec City. The destruction of two ramps freed some space where a new park will be built: Xi’an park.

Since June, manhole covers decorated by Quebec artists have been put in place. These works of art are integrated into the street furniture of the city.

[Future Xi’an Park, 2008, Quebec City]

Non-profit organization Folie/Culture is behind this initiative. In a previous post, I related my visit to the workshop of artist Paryse Martin, who had shown me the design for her cover. The result is as pleasing as the drawing suggested.

[Sketch, Quand la nature fait naître des fictions [When nature creates fictions], Paryse Martin, 2008, Quebec City]

[Quand la nature fait naître des fictions [When nature creates fictions], Paryse Martin, 2008, Quebec City]

Did you know? Folie/Culture “seeks to inform, to raise awareness, and to promote in the area of mental health. It organises events that follow unusual directions in research while at the same time motivating reflection on questions relating to painful social issues.”

[Dérapage [Slippage], Cooke-Sasseville, 2008, Quebec City]

The idea of integrating a banana peel on laughs and to call it Dérapage [Slippage] makes one smile. It should be noted that Cooke-Sasseville appears to have a busy summer! The duo also participates in the Triennal at the Montreal Museum of contemporary art and in Quebec Gold, which takes place in the city of Reims (France).

You can download a map of the circuit by visiting the website of Folie/Culture. I also prepared a circuit on Google Maps.

[Circuit, Google Maps]

[Prière d’écraser [Please crush], François Chevalier, 2008, Quebec City]

Did you know? Xi’an park owes its name to the nearby street. It marks the site of the former Chinatown of Quebec City, ravaged when the highway was built. The city of Quebec also has a cooperation agreement with the Chinese city of Xi’an since 1999.

[Cité suspendue [Suspended City], Laurent Gagnon, 2008, Quebec City]

It would have been interesting to name the artists on their plates. At the very least, a panel indicating the intention behind the idea to passerbies would have communicated the intentions of the exhibit to a wider audience. Furthermore, the absence of a title takes away basic information that adds to the pleasure when watching the works.

Finally, the rust that has emerged quickly surprises me: are these works permanent or will they be withdrawn at the end of the year? An article [in French] suggests that they’ll stay in place until the end of their useful life. Folie/Culture says that the exhibit closes on December 31, 2008. In all cases, it would seem like their useful life is relatively short…

[Vertigo, Jacques Samson, 2008, Quebec City]

It is difficult to talk about this exhibition without a mention of the censorship which hit artist Martin Bureau. Indeed, his drawing of Queen Elizabeth II mixed with a reindeer head was censured by the foundry Bibby Ste-Croix (a subsidiary of McWane located in Alabama) and the city of Quebec. If the artist wanted “to make people talk”, it seems that critic is liken to “Debbie-Downers” in the Old-Capital. The censorship thus took place without raising an eyebrow.

The exhibition Manhole Madness is presented on Saint-Vallier street, under the ramps of Highway Dufferin-Montmorency, until December 31st, 2008. The initiative is an official event of the 400th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City.

Further reading:
* My post on the drawing from Paryse Martin
* My post on manhole cover art
* My circuit on Google Maps
* The site of the organization Folie/Culture
* Official map to identify the works
* Carte officielle pour repérer les oeuvres
* Des Photographs taken during the inauguration on June 2008
* Article in French from weekly Voir with a picture of the artists
* Canoe, in French, on Martin Bureau’s censorship

Tags: 400th anniversary, Alabama, artist, banana peel, Bibby Ste-Croix, Canoe, censorship, Chinatown, Cité suspendue, Cooke-Sasseville, Debbie Downers, Dérapage, Design, drawing, Fishing prohibited/No Fishing, Folie/Culture, foundry, France, François Chevalier, Google Maps, highway Dufferin-Montmorency, Jacques Samson, laughs, Laurent Gagnon, manhole cover art, manhole covers, Manhole Madness, Martin Bureau, McWane, mental health, Montreal Museum of contemporary art, Old-Capital, Paryse Martin, Pêche interdite/No Fishing, Please crush, Prière d'écraser, Quand la nature fait naître des fictions, Quebec City, Quebec Gold, Queen Elizabeth II, Reims, reindeer, Research, rust, Saint-Roch, Saint-Vallier street, sketch, Slippage, street furniture, Suspended City, Thierry Arcand-Bossé, Triennal, Vertigo, weekly Voir, When nature creates fictions, workshop, Xi'an park

[Alfred Pellan (1958), Gabriel-Desmarais Fund [Fond Gabriel-Desmarais], Quebec National Library and Archives [Bibliothèque nationale du Québec]]

The Quebec National Library and Archives [Bibliothèque nationale du Québec] has put online their first photographs from Gabriel Desmarais. Working in the Quebec artistic community for many years, it is now possible to see several of his photos on the Internet.

If the collection presents popular quebec artists (like Dominique Michel and Jean-Pierre Ferland), some visual artists were also captured on film like painters Alfred Pellan (1958), Jacques de Tonnancour (1961), Rita Legendre (1961), Guido Molinari (1964), Marcel Barbeau (1964) and sculptor Jean-Julien Bourgault (1964).

It is the first step to digitize 4200 pictures of the photographer.

Tags: Alfred Pellan, artistic community, Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Dominique Michel, Fond Gabriel-Desmarais, Gabriel-Desmarais Fund, Guido Molinari, Internet, Jacques de Tonnancour, Jean-Julien Bourgault, Jean-Pierre Ferland, Marcel Barbeau, painters, photographs, photos, Quebec National Library and Archives, Rita Legendre, sculptor

[Improv Everywhere]

After paralyzing a New York train station and creating a musical in a shopping mall, Improv Everywhere does it again.

This time, the group, helped by pairs of identical twins, created a mirror effect in the New York subway. The video is available on their site and on youtube.

Tags: identical twins, improv everywhere, new york, subway

[Cliffs near Dieppe, Claude Monet, 1897, oil on canvas, 65×100 cm]

A Frenchman living in Florida was indicted this week for attempting to sell stolen paintings. He was trying to sell the four artworks stolen at gunpoint from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice last year - and that have been found since. The asking price? Three million dollars for the four paintings, a bargain!

Makes me wonder how many stolen works are sleeping in the coffers of wealthy individuals without scruples at this very moment…

Tags: Cliffs near Dieppe, Jan Brueghel, Monet, Museum of Fine Arts in Nice, Sisley, stolen paintings

[El Coloso [The Colossus], attributed to the School of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, c.1808-1812, oil on canvas, 116 x 105 cm, Museo del Prado]

The Museo del Prado (Madrid) has made it official: El Coloso will now be attributed to the School of Goya but not to the Spanish master. The site of the museum has not yet been updated.

The first sign that something was wrong about this painting first appeared in April: El Coloso was not part of a comprehensive retrospective of the Prado devoted to the painter.

[El Coloso [The Colossus] (detail), attributed to the School of Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, c.1808-1812, oil on canvas, 116 x 105 cm, Museo del Prado]

The poor quality of the bulls represented in the painting raised the suspicions of the curators since Goya was very familiar with the anatomy of these animals.

Keep your museum guides, they are now part of art history…

Tags: bulls, El Coloso, Francisco de Goya y Lucientes, Madrid, Museo del Prado, The Colossus

* The exhibit Le Louvre à Québec [The Louvre Museum in Quebec City] now has a microsite.

* Claude Monet’s The basin of waterlilies sold for 80.5 million Canadian dollars this week. In an AFP article, printed by several newspapers across the world, the conversion from British pounds to Euros is completely crazy. Forty million pounds is equivalent to about 50 million, not 80… Jeers go to Montreal daily Le Devoir for reproducing the mistaken conversion while cheers are in order for Cyberpresse. Perhaps the agency issued a correction that was not published? More details at Le Figaro.

[newyorkcitywaterfalls.com]

* Waterfalls will flow under the Brooklyn Bridge and three other spots the East River this summer. [article]

* How to detect forgery? Easy: you just have to check for the presence or absence of nuclear isotopes caused by nuclear explosions. [article]

* Who knew that John McEnroe and Tatum O’Neal had been captured by Andy Warhol? The double portrait is on sale in London on 1st July. [see the work]

* A new copyright law could see the light of day in the USA. It would allow the reproduction of works whose authors can not be traced. In Canada, you have to go through the Copyright Board when such a case occurs to fill out an application. Board then possibly delivers a license.

* Always the same debate: one commentator finds that art is empty.

[City of Shadows, Alexey Titarenko]

* I’ve been observing these pictures from Alexey Titarenko and I don’t get tired. In his serie City of Shadows, he stretched the exposure time of his camera to catch the passage of people on his film prints. The result provides ghostly photographs where passerbies seem to leave parts of themselves behind them… [see all images]

* In computer news, Carnegie-Mellon (PA) has developed software to determine the most likely place where a photograph was taken. An algorithm is looking for similar photos on Flickr… One step closer to the recognition of images by computers. [article]

Tags: . Le Devoir, AFP, Alexey Titarenko, algorithm, Andy Warhol, British pounds, Brooklyn Bridge, Canada, Carnegie-Mellon, City of Shadows, Claude Monet, Copyright Board, copyright law, Cyberpresse, East River, Euros, Flickr, forgery, John McEnroe, Le Figaro, Le Louvre à Québec, London, newyorkcitywaterfalls, nuclear isotopes, software, Tatum O'Neal, The basin of waterlilies, The Louvre Museum in Quebec City, USA

* Quebec City launched a contest for the realization of a work of contemporary art in the borough of Beauport. The work will fit a place with water jets on the avenue Royale. Budget: $ 80.000. Deadline: July 7, 2008. [details]

* Montreal daily Le Devoir reported in its weekend edition that the National Gallery of Canada could terminate its agreement with the City of Energy in Shawinigan. The budget cuts of the Conservative government would be to blame.

[Ron Mueck, Baby; source: wikipedia.org]

All the more reason to enjoy the exhibition by Ron Mueck and Guy Ben-Ner, which runs until September 1st 2008.

* Le Moulin des images [The Mill of Pictures] from Robert Lepage is projected on the mill of the Bunge in Quebec City’s port. No narrative but a series of impressions. You will find a slideshow of interest on the site of Ex Machina.

[Ex Machina]

* The Naval Museum of Quebec deserves to be better known. Located in the Old Port, it offers two exhibitions this summer. The Refectory is a work by Isabelle Laverdière which interprets exchanges that occurred between marine enemies over centuries on the St. Lawrence River. By Sea and In Stone covers the development of defensive works in the region. The exhibition is presented in collaboration with the Museum of the Royal 22nd Regiment [Citadel], the Museum of the Regiment of Voltigeurs of Quebec [Armoury; currently closed due to fire] and the Musee du Regiment de la Chaudière.

* Quebec Gold presents the works of 17 artists from the nation in Reims (France) this summer, in collaboration with L’Oeil de Poisson. Those invited are: Jean-Pierre Aubé, Mathieu Beauséjour, BGL, Sylvain Bouthillette, Michel de Broin, Cooke-Sasseville, Doyon-Rivest, Jérôme Fortin, Dominique Gaucher, Pascal Grandmaison, Isabelle Hayeur, Guillaume Lachapelle, Emmanuelle Léonard, Yann Pocreau, Yannick Pouliot, Michael A. Robinson et Ève K. Tremblay.
Note that Michel de Broin, Cooke-Sasseville, Doyon-Rivest, Isabelle Hayeur and Yannick Pouliot are also part of the Triennial of the Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal.

* Many works of contemporary artists were acquired by Loto-Quebec after Manif d’art 4. Works of the following artists have been acquired: Éveline Boulva, Eve Cadieux, Don Darby, Isabelle Véronique, Lucia Lefebvre, Reno Salvail, Helga Schlitter, Bill Vincent and Giorgia Volpe. Moreover, Nathalie Thibault and Cooke-Sasseville received scholarships. Note that the latter is part of the Triennial of The Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal and, as mentioned earlier, his works will be exhibited in Reims.

* The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts offers a free and individual tour next Wednesday. [details]

* In conjunction with the exhibition The Louvre in Quebec, the National Gallery of Quebec [Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec] offers free shows of the film Louvre, the visit. Performances are at 13h30 and 15h00 on the following dates:
June: 15, 18, 22 and 29
July: 2, 9, 13, 20, 23, 27 and 30
August: 3, 6, 10, 13, 20, 24, 27 and 31

* The market for contemporary sculpture continues to be strong. For example, the sculpture My Lonesome Cowboy by Takashi Murakami was sold for $ 13.5 million in May. Artprice provides a market analysis.

[Takashi Murakami, My Lonesome Cowboy, 1998, epoxy resin]

* Mexico is too small for the Guggenheim.

* Collector Charles Saatchi bought many works of three graduates in visual arts.

* Going by San Francisco? An exhibition on women Impressionists has just begun at the Museum of Fine Arts. A selection of works is available on the Museum’s Picasa account.

[Berthe Morisot, Interior, 1872, oil on canvas]

* And on a more personal note, I finished my intensive summer course in art history. Entitled Impression and Sensation: Aspects of the Artistic Subjectivity in Modern Painting in the Nineteenth Century, it was a deepening experience of landscape painting, the Impressionists and Cezanne.

Tags: . Le Devoir, 1872, Armoury, art history, Artistic Subjectivity, artprice, avenue Royale, Beauport, Berthe Morisot, BGL, Bill Vincent, Bunge, By Sea and In Stone, Cezanne, Charles Saatchi, Citadel, City of Energy, Conservative government, contemporary art, contemporary sculpture, Cooke-Sasseville, Dominique Gaucher, Don Darby, Doyon-Rivest, Emmanuelle Léonard, Eve Cadieux, Ève K. Tremblay, Éveline Boulva, Ex Machina, France, Giorgia Volpe, Guggenheim, Guillaume Lachapelle, Guy Ben-Ner, Helga Schlitter, Impression, Impressionists, Interior, Isabelle Hayeur, Isabelle Laverdière, Isabelle Véronique, Jean-Pierre Aubé, Jérôme Fortin, L'Oeil de Poisson, landscape painting, Le Moulin des images, Loto-Québec, Louvre, Lucia Lefebvre, Manif d'art 4, market analysis, Mathieu Beauséjour, Mexico, Michael A. Robinson, Michel de Broin, Modern Painting, Montreal, Musee du Regiment de la Chaudière, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Museum of Contemporary Art of Montreal, Museum of Fine Arts of San Francisco, Museum of the Regiment of Voltigeurs of Quebec, Museum of the Royal 22nd Regiment, My Lonesome Cowboy, Nathalie Thibault, National Gallery of Canada, National Gallery of Quebec, Naval Museum of Quebec, Nineteenth Century, oil on canvas, Old Port, Pascal Grandmaison, Picasa, Quebec City, Quebec Gold, Reims, Reno Salvail, Robert Lepage, Ron Mueck, San Francisco, Sensation, Shawinigan, St. Lawrence River, Sylvain Bouthillette, Takashi Murakami, The Louvre in Quebec, The Mill of Pictures, the visit, Triennial, visual arts, Yann Pocreau, Yannick Pouliot

Half of Quebec museums operate with a budget of less than $ 123,000.

Manif d’Art 4 draws to its end - we’re in the final sprint until Sunday.

The Museum of French America [Musée de l’Amérique-Française] presents Forgotten Presence: The Huguenots in New France until March 22, 2009.

[photo credits: Idra Labrie, Musée de l’Amérique-Française]

This week is also the good time to visit the archaeological area of the Palais in Quebec City. It is open to the public until June 13. It is on this location the Palace of the Intendant of New France was located. It is also where the first brewery operated in Quebec. The Côte du Palais draws its name from the building.

The Visionaries’ Garden [Le Potager des Visionnaires] was inaugurated this week. Charming - but I didn’t take my breath away.

Another week, another grandiose architectural project for Dubai. This week: a new amphitheatre for the opera, designed by Zaha Hadid and Patrik Schumacher. It must be where all that money from oil is spent. [Other photos]

[Draft of a cultural centre and an opera, Dubai; Source: Dezeen Blog]

A museum guard who did not like a painting by Vija Celmin decided to cut it with a key. The act of vandalism has proved fatal to the work. The painting Night Sky # 12 was exposed in the Carnegie Museum in Pittsburgh.

Some gold artworks stolen from the Museum of Anthropology at the University of BC are back.

In 1957, an art gallery in California is closed by police in Los Angeles. The exhibition by Wallace Berman is considered obscene. It will be the only solo exhibition of the artist.
In 1962, Andy Warhol presents his first solo exhibition at the same place: Andy Warhol: Campbell’s Soup Cans. Five cans were sold at $ 100 each, but the owner of the gallery bought the lot to keep it intact.
Both events took place in the Ferus Gallery. Its story is told in the documentary The Cool School, which was broadcasted this week by Independent Lenses. It reruns on Vermont Public Television (WETK) (Thursday 12, 3:00; Friday, 13, 22.00) and PBS Mountain Lake (WCFE) (Sunday 15, 23:30). Set your VCRs!

The photographer Claude Dityvon died in La Rochelle.

The exhibition of contemporary art Art Basel ended with a massive crowd success: 60,000 people have passed through the doors.

A Russian billionaire decides not to sponsor a retrospective devoted to Kabakov. The event will take place anyway.

Tate Britain asks the public to help it buy an oil sketch by Rubens. The work in question, The Apotheosis of James I, is a study of the ceiling of the Banqueting House in London. It is important for some English people.

[Banqueting House; source: wikimedia.org]

Tags: Andy Warhol, Art Basel, Banqueting House, Campbell's Soup Cans, Carnegie Museum, Claude Dityvon, Design Zaha Hadid, Dezeen Blog, Dubai, Ferus Gallery, Idra Labrie, Kabakov, La Rochelle, Le Potager des Visionnaires, Manif d'art 4, Musée de l'Amérique-Française, Museum of Anthropology at the University of BC, Museum of French-America, Night Sky #12, Patrik Schumacher, PBS Mountain Lake (WCFE), Pittsburgh, Quebec museums, Rubens, Tate Britain, The Cool School, The Huguenots in New France, Vermont Public Television (WETK), Vija Celmin, Visionaries' Garden, Wallace Berman