Marc Gauthier

The Quebec organization responsible for statistics, Institut de la statistique du Québec, just published recent data on art pieces bought by institutions such as large corporations, museums and cities.

In the document titled Statistiques en bref no. 35, it appears that sculptures are becoming the most popular form of art bought by that type of collectors. Over a four-year period, the number of sculptures bought went from a miserable 40 to an honorable 1208 pieces! And that doesn’t even include public art which has its own category.

It is also worthwhile to mention that the number of institutions dropped from 146 to 114 while at the same time the number of art pieces sold went from 1305 to 2797. In other words, there are fewer collectors buying more art pieces. This means that art bought that way in Quebec is more and more held in fewer hands.

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Stephen Harper’s government published yesterday its new budget for Canada. I didn’t see a lot of new money for culture - not surprising. On the Web site, I did find this proposal regarding Canadian museums. I quote:

« The Government is committed to making investments in the renewal of its four National Museums (the National Gallery of Canada, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Canada Science and Technology Musuem and the Canadian Museum of Nature) to address operating and infrastructure pressures. The Government is reinvesting $9 million over two years from strategic review savings to address these pressures. These investments will assist in strengthening Canada’s cultural institutions and protecting its cultural heritage for future generations.

The budget is allocating $9 million over two years to address operating and infrastructure pressures in Canada’s National Museums. »

Let’s just hope this money doesn’t go mainly for infrastructures but that operations will also get a fair share.

Multidisciplinary Jean Dubois exhibited Les Errances de l’écho [The Wanderings of Echo] at Mois Multi 9 in Quebec City. This simple-looking mirror tempts onlookers by inviting them to look closer at their own reflections. Once they get too close, the mirror speaks to them. It’s a play on Alice in Wonderland and the Narcissus myth. [Further reading]

There’s a kid waiting to meet you at The Museum of Modern Art in New York. Like any kid, it will amuse you, it will ask you lots of questions, and it might even bother you a little bit. But unlike most kids, it doesn’t walk or talk, and it pays perfect attention. Meet Wizkid: part computer, part robot, a Swiss kid who’s changing our concept of how people interact with machines.

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The week in the rear-back mirror
* Can you make the difference between true art and gibberish?
* Antiques Roadshow discovered a Suzor-Coté painting bought for 15 bucks
* Pablo Valbuena’s Augmented Sulpture #1 at Mois Multi 9
* The judge ruled in Marc-André Jacques Fortier vs Saint-Dizier Gallery
* One hopes the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Québec will be bold
* Save that floppy disk : obsolete media storage is being researched

The obsolence of technology causes problems for institutions safeguarding knowledge on outdated storage media. For example, one has to see the speed at which the music industry went from LP vinyls to audiocassette, CDs and Mp3s to understand what the challenges facing the retrieval of data on obsolete media. These challenges are the subject of a just-published Christian Science Monitor article.There appears to be some possible solutions to migrate data from obsolete technology to current ones. On one hand, it is possible to maintain old computers and readers to be able to read archaic media. Microsoft chose such an approach. The company has purchased many computer systems, even the historic Altair computer, to be able to run every single operating sytem it produced. This expensive solution may not be a problem for a company with the means of Microsoft but it isn’t necessarily the solution for everyone.

Another solution is emulation. This allows a simulation of the old system on the new system. That way, obsolete media can be accessed. The problem that arises in that case is the emulation of emulators when new technologies are put in place.

Both solutions are expensives ones. Two teams of researchers, one American , the other European, will be looking for answers for these challenges in the coming years.

There are already three models being discussed: a pay-per-use model where users pay for each transfer, a privatized model where corporations hosting the files are responsible for its maintenance and a public model where the governments are the ones responsible for the public good.

The American project, lead by Dr. Francine Berman of the San Diego Supercomputer Center, is funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) and the Library of Congress. The NSF provided in total 100 million dollars in funds to her project and four other ones.

The European project will try to find ways to protect 4.3 billion dollars of data a risk of being obsolete and lost.

These initiatives raise some questions.

In art, like everywhere else, new technology is transforming the way things are being done. They are being used by artists to produce current art pieces. But what will be left of video art made of BetaMax movies in 20, 30 or 100 years?

Although it is always possible to transfer these movies to DVDs, isn’t is a form of transformation of the art piece to do so? I guess each case has to be studied indiviually, according to the artist’s wishes.

But still, I wonder what Marshall McLuhan would say about this, he who stated that medium is the message?

To draw a comparison, in a world where oil on canvas would become obsolete, would anyone consider that a scan of the Mona Lisa is the same as the original painting?

Anyhow, the article doesn’t mention if the tast forces will study art pieces. Hopefully they will since there are archivists in the group. This is something to be followed in the coming years.

The Musée national des Beaux-arts du Québec would like to build a brand new building to display art pieces that are stored and cannot be shown because of a lack of space. Architecture students from Université Laval, working under the guidance of architect Diana Cardas, proposed various projects in that regard.

The university’s official paper, Le fil des événements, published a profile of some of those projects.

The thing that always surprises me in that project, without judging the quality of the students’ propositions or the desire of the museum’s direction, is how tame this whole enterprise is. I mean, the Guggenheim at Bilbao cost 100 million dollars while creating 11,000 square meters of brand new space. Quebec’s project will cost 90 million dollars for an extra 8,000 square meters.

There must be something I don’t understand. Otherwise, how can we explain that all the projects I saw thus far are bland? Wouldn’t this be the perfect occasion to create a new tourist attraction, something rooted in the 21st century? I mean, there aren’t that many occasions to build new cultural spaces for 90 million dollars…

Montreal daily Le Devoir prints a small article today on the legal battle between sculptor and painter Marc-André jacques Fortier and art gallery Saint-Dizier.There was on Tuesday a press release by the Quebec Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels (RAAV). The group is created by provincial law and is defined as «the association elected to represent all professional artists involved in a visual art creation process». From what I understand, the legal battle was mainly due to the absence of a written contract between the artist and the gallery, which led to numerous problems.

Written by Frédérique Doyon, the article reports the artist’s reaction after nine years of fighting. The article can be read online.

Afin d’illustrer ce billet judiciaire, j’ai choisi une reproduction de la fresque de Luca Giordano peinte au Palais des Medici-Riccardi à Florence (Italie). Intitulée Justice et créée entre 1684 et 1686, il s’agit d’un bel exemple du Baroque italien dans lequel on retrouve grandeur, effet dramatique et style personnel.

To illustrate this post, I chose Justice from Luca Giordano. The painting was made between 1684-1686 and can be viewed in the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi in Florence (Italy). It is a good example of Italian baroque, showing grandeur, drama and personal style.

One of the pieces presented at Mois Multi 9 in Quebec city is Augmented Sculpture #1. MM9’s Web site has done a wonderful job in writing a profile of Pablo Valbuena as well as his artistic intentions. Take a few minutes to read it, it’s worth the effort.

Personally, I found the piece fascinating. Light is used on the cubes to create relief without modifying matter. The artist uses light to sculpt some fascinating cubes, including a particular three-colored one that still lives with me.

So, if you happen to be in the Quebec City area, make sure to stop by Meduse Complex. The show runs until February 24th and there are no admission fees.

The most recent edition of the popular PBS show Antiques Roadshow delivered a surprise to any Quebec and Canadian art lover.

A Texas man brought in an oil on canvas bought by his wife in a pawn shop about twenty years ago. The price paid: 15 dollars.

I was shocked to see onscreen the signature of Suzor-Cote written in huge letters on the painting. For those who don’t know about him, Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté is a very popular Quebec artist from the turn of the 20th century.

The team at PBS gave the painting a value between 8,000$ and 12,000$ dollars for insurance purposes.