Marc Gauthier

* 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]

* 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.

Le Devoir food columnist Philippe Mollé wrote an article last week on the Fairmont Queen Elizabeth hotel in Montreal. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the keys moments of the hotel were related, including the presence of a tapestry by famed Quebec artist Jean Dallaire. [ Read the column here (in French) ]

In a letter to the editor this morning, Serge G. Morin corrects some of the assertions found in Mollé’s column. Incidently, he notices that the work isn’t in fact a tapestry but rather a knotted rug. Also, it went missing when the hotel underwent renovations after Expo 67. [ Read the letter here (in French) ]

I spent two nights at the Queen E this week. After reading the Mollé column, I asked the desk to see the work of Dallaire. First, the help desk didn’t understand what I was looking for. Then, when they finally understood, they looked at me as if I’d just said that Lennon was still singing in room 1742. I finally decided to let the matter go when I was bounced off to three different staffers who didn’t have the answer.

While in Montreal, I took some time to visit the Casino where I wanted to see some works that are in the building. In particular, I was looking for a mural by Serge Lemoyne. At first, the staff of the Casino couldn’t help me. It seems I was the first one asking to see the Lemoyne mural in the 7 years the woman had been working there. Finally, with some help and a couple of telephone calls, she directed me to the buffet on the 5th floor.

On my way up, I stopped on the first floor. In the entrance hall, there are two paintings greeting visitors. I wish I could’ve written down the name of the artists but the security guard was very suspicious of me. He granted me with a “Can I help you?” that meant business. It seems not a lot of people come in this space to look at the works of art.

In the elevator that took me to the 5th floor, another employee asked if he could help me. When I told him the purpose of my visit, his look was one of disbelief. I could feel his eyes following me as I made my way to the closed buffet. But there I saw the Lemoyne mural, a very nice piece if I might say so. It livens up the environment in a bright yet subtle way. Unfortunately, a piece of equipment was put in the middle of the mural when some renovations were done after 1992.

So I ask myself: What is the purpose of public art if it isn’t put forward to the public? Isn’t that a mistake when trying to distinguish one’s business from the competitors? Even though those two buildings are not museums, isn’t it the purpose of including art on their premises to better the client’s experience? Possessing an unique work, isn’t that the best way to proclaim one’s uniqueness? Isn’t that what the Vegas casinos do in a kitschy way?

It is possible to see an old picture of the Serge Lemoyne mural on this personal Web site.