Marc Gauthier

The Quebec Triennal is presented for the first time at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal [Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art]. Entitled “Nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed”, it offers 135 works created by 38 artists. Using this event as an excuse, I wondered about the Web presence of each of the artists presented.

To classify artists according to their Internet reputation, I selected three criterias: the number of links found by Google, the management of domain names [like artist_name.com] and the presence or absence of a page in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia.

[Julie Doucet, Pantalitaire 2, 2007, 8 collages, 30 x 137.1 cm]

The title of Queen of notoriety on the Internet is bestowed upon Julie Doucet. With 63,000 links on her behalf, 4 articles in Wikipedia, a website owned by a publisher and an official site, we can say without embarrassment that the artist is known on the Web, mainly because of her comics.

[David Altmejd, Berger [Shepherd], 2008, wood, mirror, crystal, horsehair and painting, 365.7 x 152.4 cm x 121.9, with the kind permission of the Andrea Rosen Gallery; photography: Ellen Page Wilson ]

Accompanying Julie Doucet atop the notoriety list on the Internet, David Altmejd ranks second with 51,400 links, 3 articles in Wikipedia and a cybersquatted site.

Among other results of this unpretentious study, I noted that many artists have websites well done: Nicolas Baier, Gwenaël Bélanger, Patrick Bernatchez, Michel de Broin, Raphaëlle de Groot, Manon De Pau, Doyon-Rivest, Romeo Gongora, Adad Hannah, Isabelle Hayeur, Bettina Hoffmann, Lynne Marsh, Serge Murphy, Jocelyn Robert.

Surprisingly, some artists prefer .net or .org instead of .com even when the latter is available. This is the case of Michel de Broin, Raphaëlle de Groot and Bettina Hoffmann.

It should finally be noted that David Ross and Carlos Sanchez were excluded from the rankings. The fact of the matter is that their names are also those of personalities known in other areas, which greatly disturbs the data.

Ranking of MACM Triennal artists according to their Internet presence

Julie Doucet: 11.30
David Altmejd: 9.14
Michel de Broin: 2.85
Isabelle Hayeur: 2.70
Jocelyn Robert: 2.42
Lynne Marsh: 2.15
Adad Hannah: 2.03
Bettina Hoffmann: 1.60
Nicolas Baier: 1.37
Michael Merrill: 1.26
Jason Sanchez: 1.23
Gwenaël Bélanger: 1.15
Patrick Bernatchez: 1.09
Doyon-Rivest: 1.08
Raphaëlle de Groot: 1.08
Serge Murphy: 1.06
Manon De Pauw: 1.06
Romeo Gongora: 1.01
Charles Guilbert: 0.70
Yannick Pouliot, WWKA, Louis-Philippe Eno, Chih-Chien Wang, Stephane Gilot, Etienne Zack, Cooke-Sasseville, Emanuel Licha, Manon Labrecque, Cynthia Girard, Karen Tam, Tricia Middleton, Jon Knowles, David Armstrong Six, Patrick Coutu, Valerie Blass, Anthony Burnham, Jonathan Plante, Adrian Norvid followed with less than 0.5.

Methodology

The name of the artist as well as the term art were entered in the search engine Google. I forced the search engine to include the term art in each of the pages found so that artists working with homonyms in other areas were not privileged.

The first five results are as follows:
David Ross: 163,000 links
Carlos Sanchez: 148,000 links
Julie Doucet: 63,000 links
David Altmejd: 51,400 links
Michel de Broin: 28,500 links

The last five results are as follows:
Valérie Blass: 360 liens
Anthony Burnham: 334 links
Romeo Gongora: 132 links
Jonathan Plante: 120 links
Adrian Norvid: 48 links

Each tens of thousands of links gave a point. Thus 163,000 links attributed 16.3 points.

The presence of articles in Wikipedia gave a point by page in each language.

Domain names purchased by a third person gave a point. David Altmejd and Lynne Marsh both “benefited” from this involuntary notoriety.

The presence of an official website gave a point.

It should be noted that this ranking has no scientific claim. It reflects the Internet buzz according to personal considerations from the author of this blog.

Each component of the scores can easily be criticized. Thus, Paris Hilton gets 3.3 million links, even when her name is bound to the word “art”. Moreover, the results vary from Google servers on which research is conducted. To be more effective, I would have had to use a search tool that searches the data centers of Google…

In the end, nothing beats a visit to the museum to let go of the buzz and feed one’s own thoughts!

* The Montréal Museum of Fine Arts offers tours of 30 minutes over lunch to discover an artist. A pleasant way to feed one’s soul. Upcoming events: 4th and 5th of June 2008 at 12.15. The artist: Jean-Paul Riopelle. [More]

* The Manif d’art 4 currently takes place in Quebec City. It takes a lot of courage and almost a survival guide to organize your activities on the website of the event. I’m still looking for a way to get a Manif card, necessary for the visit of Toi / You, la rencontre [You/You, The Encounter].

Despite these difficulties, it should be noted that the annual exhibition of visual arts students from Laval University, presented by Loto-Quebec, opens this Friday, May 30th.

* Television channel artv offers new episodes of the French series Palettes. Narrated by art historian Alain Jaubert, each episode explores the history behind a work of art that has marked Western art. If it isn’t found in the list of programs of the specialty channel, it still is worth a look, having been celebrated at the last FIFA Montreal. Being the happy owner of the 18-DVD box set, I recommend these films that are pleasantly instructive. This week: Burial at Ornans by Courbet [May 25 at 7:30, 28 / 5 3:28, 28 / 5 15:29].

[Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans, 1849-1850, oil on canvas, 314×663 cm, Musee d’Orsay, Paris; photographic source: Wikipedia]

* Quebec painter Claude Théberge died. The municipality of Notre-Dame-du-Lac has devoted a website to the artist.

* Record books will have to be revisited: skyscraper Burj Dubai is now the highest structure in the world. Peaking currently at 650 meters, it is expected to reach 819 meters by the end of its construction. By way of comparison, the CN Tower stretches over 553 meters [it is time to update the Web site describing it as the highest structure in the world, a title lost a few years ago …], the 1250 René-Levesque of Montreal [IBM-Marathon] measures 230 metres and the Complex G Quebec stands at 176 meters, with the antenna.

[Burj Dubai; photographic source: Wikipedia]

* The sequel to A Night at the Museum, starring Ben Stiller, began its shooting. The action takes place at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington. It is the first time in 162 years that the institution allows the use of its name in a film.

* Sir Anthony Caro, British sculptor, has be answered ‘No thank you!’ by the City of London. He offered them his most ambitious sculpture to date. Result: the work Millibank Steps is now on sale for nearly $ 5 million.

* The only complete copy of the Manuscrit du surréalisme by André Breton was sold this week for $ 5.5 million at Sotheby’s Paris. The lot included eight other manuscripts that many feared would be dispersed.