Montreal 2019 - Old Town/Port, Museum des Beaux Arts

While the main purpose for our trip to Montreal was to attend the MURAL Street Art Festival, my husband Rich and I allocated some time to also visit the Old Town and Portland areas as well as the Museum of Fine Arts, which we could get into for free using our reciprocal visit privileges from our membership with the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO).  After spending our Friday morning on a scouting trip of the route of the festival in preparation for our walking tour the next day, we continued east along Boulevard St.Laurent towards the Old Town.

As we got near the old town, we encountered Parc de la Presse, named after the nearby La Presse newspaper. A group of sculptures by Elisabeth Buffoli called “Les Touristes” can be found in this small park. The white plaster-cast figures depict a middle aged couple, a man and his child who is pointing up at something, a roller blader and a dog, who are all enjoying the serene setting.  The work was created to celebrate Montreal’s 375th birthday. Just east of Parc de la Presse is Place d’Armes, Montreal’s second oldest public square.  A monument of Paul de Chomdey, the founder of Montreal sits at the centre of the square, which is surrounded by such architecturally stunning buildings as Notre-Dame Basilica, Saint-Sulpice Seminary, the red-bricked New York Life Insurance Building featuring a clock tower, the Art Deco-styled Aldred Building and the Neoclassical-styled Bank of Montreal Head Office with the Pantheon-like façade and gorgeous interior.

A cute pair of statues titled “The English Pug and the French Poodle” by Marc Andre J. Fortier flank two sides of Place d’Armes.  In one corner, a dapperly dressed Englishman holds an English Pug as he looks up haughtily at the Notre Dame Basilica, a symbol of religion for French Canadians.  At the other side of the square, an equally arrogant French woman in a Chanel suit holding a French Poodle is turning her nose up at the Bank of Montreal, a symbol of English Power.  The dogs have no socio-political agendas or prejudices and just want to play with each other.  Nicknamed “The Two Snobs”, the work cleverly satirizes the cultural divide between English and French Canadians.

Walking north on Rue Saint-Paul, we planned to walk between Rue Saint-Pierre and the Bonsecours Market, an area that is full of little shops, eateries and many small private art galleries.  On the recommendation of a friend, we stopped at Le Petit Dep (The Small Depot), a charming high-end convenience store and café where we could rest and have a cold drink before starting our art gallery trek.  We ordered a chocolate-coffee ice cream milk shake to share, since we didn’t want to spoil our upcoming dinner, but it was so good that we quickly ordered a second one.

There were so many art galleries along this stretch that we literally crisscrossed Rue Saint-Paul for blocks on end, going into one gallery after another.  Most of them specialized in contemporary works including drawings, paintings, collage and sculptures.  We saw many interesting works but after a while, the various galleries blended together so we didn’t really know where we saw which piece.  However two galleries stood out for us since in each case, we saw items that we really liked and semi-seriously considered purchasing.

The first was Galerie Blanche where we were intrigued by the life-sized bronze sculpture of a Rubenesque woman savouring a selection from a box of chocolates which she holds in her hands.  We found out that the Montreal sculptor is Rose-Aimée Bélanger who specializes in creating feminine, rotund but sensual subjects that she likes to call her “rondes” (rounds).  Bélanger was actually commissioned in 2002 to create an outdoor sculpture, resulting in “Les Chuchoteuses” or “The Gossipers” depicting three seated women deep in conversation with one another.  We would see this sculpture when we continued our walk north on Rue Saint-Paul.  Wandering deeper into the gallery, we found another of her works, a medium-sized (16inches tall) bronze called “My Last Cigarette”, depicting a woman seated in an arm chair, seductively puffing on her cigarette.  I really liked these bronzes but at 6 figures for the large one and 5 figures for the medium sized one, they were obviously out of our price range for an impromptu purchase.  However the gallery owner tempted me when he showed us several smaller pieces (around 7-10 inches tall) that went for low to mid 4 figures, including a scaled down version of the woman eating the chocolates.  This was still quite a bit of money to spend on a whim and we would need to pay for shipping on top of that, but it at least gave us pause.  As we do with any large purchase that we are considering, we decided to think about it while we looked at more galleries and if we still felt the need after that, we could return and negotiate a price.

As it turns out, a few galleries later we found something that we liked even more and was much more within our impulse-buy price range.  As we were casually browsing the works in Galerie Le Luxart, we came across a mixed medium work by Leila Labelle called “Haute Couture: Midnight Ball” that immediately caught our attention.  It consists of a watercolour and acrylic based painting of a woman in a beautiful blue gown but the top part of the gown and her hair ornament are created with handmade papers and fabrics that ruffle and pop out 3-dimensionally from the canvas and are adorned with tiny Swarovski crystals and pearls that glisten when light is shone upon them.  The canvas is made to look like wallpaper with the use of gold leaf, more crystals and other accessories.  Labelle’s background in fashion design is apparent, as her Haute Couture collection “presents a vintage fashion narrative inspired by the High Fashion companies of Paris including Coco Chanel and Dior”.  I have always wanted a 3-dimensional mixed-medium painting and I fell in love with this piece.  The price was significantly less than any of the sculptures that we were mildly considering (and had already started to cool on) and felt even less expensive in comparison.  The clincher came when we were told that the work would be shipped free of charge.  We made the decision to buy the painting before even leaving the gallery (although we did walk around a few times while we thought about it).   The piece was delivered to us a week later and came with a certificate of authenticity.  I have named my lovely lady in blue “Annabelle” and she sparkles when the light is shone upon her.

At the end of our stroll north along Rue Saint-Paul, we came to the Bonsecours Market and the Old Port area.  We thought the market would be a food and farmers market, similar to the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto.  Instead it seemed to be mainly souvenir and clothing stores which did not interest us.   We continued on to the waterfront where we saw people zip-lining down towards a giant Ferris wheel, some food trucks and two rows of tents containing gift and souvenir shops set up by the water.   We found a bench and sat by the water for a while before heading off to dinner.

We arrived in Montreal late Wednesday night and spent the next  day touring the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts which consists of five pavilions and a sculpture garden spanning across three buildings located along Rue Sherbrooke.  The original Beaux Arts building (now called the Michael and Renata Hornstein Pavilion – orange section on the map) was erected in 1912 and now houses the collection of Islamic, Asian, African and Columbian Art.  In 1976 the building was extended to add the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion (green section) which now contains the Decorative Arts and Design exhibits, many of which were donated by the Stewarts.  The modernist-styled Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion (red section) was added across the street in 1991 and special temporary exhibits are now shown there.  Added in 2011, the Claire and Marc Bourgie (blue section) Pavilion resides in a renovated late 19^th Century Revival church with Tiffany stained glass windows.  It houses the collection of Canadian, Inuit and Quebec art while the outdoor sculpture garden is situated on the street along side of it.  Finally in 2016, the Hornstein Pavilion for Peace (purple) was the latest addition, timed to celebrate Montreal’s 375^th anniversary and displays International art (mostly European and North American).  Even though we had allocated most of the day to inspecting the exhibits in this museum, there was still too much for us to see it all.  Accordingly we prioritized and chose the areas that we were most interested in, leaving the rest for a future visit.   We decided to concentrate on International and Canadian modern and contemporary art, Decorative Arts and Design and the Sculpture Garden. 

Usually all the buildings and pavilions are connected by underground passageways but access to the older sections were closed for renovations, so we had to go outside and cross Rue Sherbrooke to get into them.  The passageways between the pavilions are lined with art.  An Inuit totem pole can be found in front of the entrance to the Bourgie pavilion Canadian Art Pavilion.  American pop artist Jim Dine’s “At the Carnival” (1996) consists of three giant painted wood carvings inspired by the armless Venus de Milo, rendered as cubist-shaped headless forms.  American George Segal’s 1990 installation called “Graffiti Wall” that features three male figures shown together but also isolated from each other.  Segal’s ongoing themes of loneliness and disenfranchisement in blue-collared, working class America is also on display in another installation called “Woman Sitting on a Bed” (1993) found in the International Contemporary Art section.  Often also referred to as the “Black Room”, the work depicts a darkened room where a nude middle-aged woman sits on a rumpled bed with her back turned towards us, lit only by a stark overhead light.  The entire space is painted black as Segal interprets the depressive side of the American experience.

We started in the Modern Art section of the Peace Pavilion for International art where we saw works by iconic artists.  The “Tripod vase” (1951) was created by ceramist Suzanne Ramié using earthenware glazed in white before Pablo Picasso used blue paint to add facial features on two sides.  The face on the front is accompanied with a set of hands to give the appearance that the woman is leaning on her elbows while holding up her head.  The face on the back cleverly uses the curved handle of the pitcher to represent the nose.  Salvador Dali designed a silver chess set (1971) for the American Chess Foundation at the bequest of his fellow surrealist artist and chess lover Marcel Duchamp. Except for the rooks, which were modeled after the tower-like salt shakers from the St. Regis Hotel in New York, the chess pieces were made as replicas of the fingers of Dali and Gala, his wife and muse. Sculptor, painter and furniture designer Niki de Saint Phalle is known for her vibrantly colourful, large-scaled sculptures of whimsical animals, monsters and rotund female figures.  She created two arm chairs named Clarice (after her friend Clarice Rivers) and Charly out of painted polyester, each designed to look like a seated person whose arms form the arms and legs form the arms and legs of the chairs.  The seat of each chairs represents the symbolic “lap” of a comforting parent.  Between the two chairs is a table and stool decorated with the heads of comical snakes.  Icelandic artist Gudmundur Gudmundsson (aka Erró) is known for his pop art collages.  His work “Christmas White House” (1974) uses Chinese Socialist posters and magazine clippings to depict the fictional conquest of the USA by Mao Zedong and his Red Guard, one of whom is shown guarding the White House at Christmas time with a decorated tree in the background.

The most interesting work in the International Contemporary Art section is the large “Jewellery Case” with many drawers, made of cypress wood and shaped in the form of a grenade.  Created in 1999 by the artist collective “Los Carpinteros” (the carpenters) from Havana Cuba, the juxtaposition of a piece of decorative art created with a military form is quite unexpected and jarring.  American pop artist Tom Wesselmann gives 3-dimensional physical form to his quickly drawn scribbles an doodles by having them recreated as large-scaled “steel drawings” cut to precision using lasers.  Using just a few strips of enamel-painted cut steel to represent his “Standing Nude (Variation #7), Wesselmann's piece feels surprisingly provocative, especially with his emphasis on the breasts and pubic hair of the figure.  German artist Stephan Balkenhol’s giant head sculptures (1990) take inspiration from the large bronze busts created in Roman times, but he modernizes his giant heads of a man and woman by carving them out of wood, yet leaving the carvings rough and unfinished, as well as placing them on table-like stools instead of pedestals.  Tom Stella ‘s “The Pitchpoling” (1990) mixed media sculpture pays tribute to and is based on Chapter 84 of Herman Melville’s iconic novel Moby Dick, which describes the great whale being pierced or pitchpoled by a small harpoon.  Viewing the abstract, colourful sculpture from various angles, you can see the curves and fins of the whale as well as the roiling waves. The title of Mark Tansy’s “Action Painting II” (1984) seems to hint at the “meta” nature of this work, as opposed to the similarly named gestural artistic style of the Abstract Expressionists.  His green/grey toned painting depicts a space shuttle rocket lifting off in the background while a group of artists sit or stand in front of canvases on easels, trying to capture the event.  Is the titular action the flight of the rocket or the act of the people trying to paint it, or the act of Tansy depicting this fictional scenario?  In the same vein, Tansy’s earlier work “Action Painting I” is a black and white rendering of a single female painter capturing the moment when a car crashes and overturns in a ball of smoke.

 

We saw some very interesting Canadian Modern/Contemporary Art on the bottom floor of the Bourgie Pavilion, which we were able to reach via one of the underground passageways.  I was fascinated by the upside-down bronze sculpture of the Statue of Liberty, balanced precariously by the tip of its flame.  Montreal sculptor Michel de Broin created “The Abyss of Liberty” in 2013, reducing it to human scale to further minimize the majestic nature of this iconic symbol.  This upturned work is a metaphor of the political climate in the United States after the attacks of September 11, 2001, reflecting the attack on freedom and democracy.  I also liked how the sculpture was lit from above so that shadows of the statue were cast in multiple directions on the floor.   Quebec painter Serge Lemoye ‘s acrylic painting of legendary Montreal Canadians goaltender Ken Dryden (1975) has almost an abstract feel, yet its subject is immediately recognizable.  Ottawa-born Marc Séguin’s “Woman and Moon” (2003) is part of a series of works depicting horrors and disasters of the contemporary world.  Once again inspired by the events of 9/11, the image of a woman falling from the sky memorializes on the victims who jumped/fell from the Twin Towers.  We saw the works by a couple of famous Canadian artists whose names we actually recognized.  Michael Snow’s repeated images of a walking woman in mid stride are ubiquitous as we have seen examples in many art galleries including the AGO back home in Toronto.  This one, called “Four Grey Panels and Four Figures” (1963), consists of the silhouettes of four identically shaped women, rendered in different colours and backgrounds, facing both to the left and to the right.  By contrast, the works on display by Jean-Paul Riopelle are a departure than the usual Abstract Expressionist “dab” paintings that he is mostly known for.  Here two paintings from his “Morning at Cape Tourmente” series (1990) called “Pheasants in the Aviary” and “Whirlygoose” depict images of birds on top of abstract backgrounds.

The main special exhibition on display featured the works of French fashion, jewellery and perfume designer Thierry Mugler, who has designed for fashion houses in Paris, London, Barcelona and Milan as well as costumes for various theatre groups, the Cirque de Soleil, director Robert Altman and singers including George Michael and Beyonce.  In 1985 he was commissioned to design over 70 costumes and accessories for a new production of Shakespeare’s Macbeth for the state-run theatre, the Comédie-Française.  In addition to sketches and sample costumes, this section of the exhibit featured a video called “The Incandescence of Lady Macbeth” which shows her descending into madness as her regal gown burns and disintegrates, leaving her in a  simple chiffon nightgown.

The exhibit offered room after room of Mugler’s creations, which were mostly fabulously vibrant and flamboyant, and does not match my impression of the meaning of “ready-to-wear”, which is how the fashion houses that he once worked for were described.  Even his versions of black evening gowns were uniquely accessorized with fancy headgears, feathers, sequins, lace capes and more.  He did not shy away from cleavage as illustrated in one “low-cut” gown where the front of the dress was hooked onto two nipple rings attached to the mannequin’s exposed breasts.  This was a far cry from the elegant yet relatively modest black dress that he famously designed for Demi Moore to wear in the movie Indecent Proposal.

My favourite parts of Mugler’s collection were the outfits that went beyond mere flamboyance, venturing into the theatrical or even fantastical realm.  One section was clearly inspired by sea as emphasized by the background images in the room.  There was a shimmering, tight-fitting gown that looked like a fish or mermaid while another that reminds me of a coral or sea urchin or some sort of sea plant.  I particularly liked the costumes inspired by and using various parts from vehicles.  There were several bustiers made with motorcycle or car parts such as the headlights, hood ornament, rear-view mirrors, front grill, odometer, compass and other dials.  One even had an ignition key attached to it while another was made entirely from the treads of rubber tires and a third had metal fenders extending backwards like wings.

Shown as a complementary feature the to Thierry Mugler Retrospective, “Montreal Couture” highlighted the works of 10 local artists, designers and collectives including Denis Gagnon, Phillip Dubue, Helmer Joseph, and Ying Gao.  Some of the pieces rivaled Mugler in creativity and audacity.  There was the bohemian “gown” made by assembling many small pieces cut from blue jeans and other materials, all held together by safety pins.  Several elegant dresses were made totally out of sewn together zippers, and the bright orange jump suits looked like the prison outfits worn by newbie prisoners in the show Orange is the New Black.  But most outrageous of all was the ensemble created by the collective provocatively called “Fecal Matter”.  I thought the short pink mini-dress, made out of plastic and vinyl with long detachable sleeves and a huge large bow that is worn as a backpack, was actually quite pretty.  But the accompanying thigh-high flesh-like “Skin Heel Boots” made from silicon, nylon, polycarbonate and fibreglass were the most grotesque and creepy items of clothing that I have ever seen.  The boots were shaped and moulded to replicate a pair of human legs and feet, except for the addition of horn-like heels and spikes protruding from the calves that turned these limbs into abominations.  It was a real shock to see these boots displayed next to the pretty pink dress, which probably was the point of the piece.  I enjoyed playing at the table where I could dress up little miniature mannequins to create my own sartorial creations from pieces of material.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Art’s Outdoor Sculpture Garden consists of 22 sculptures by artists including Barry Flanagan,  Jaume Plensa, Aaron Curry (whose work I thought was Alexander Calder’s), Mimmo Paladino are Anthony Gormley are positioned on both sides of Avenue du Musée, which runs eastward towards the Desmarais Pavilion, flanked by the Bourgie Pavilion to the north and the Horstein and Stewart Pavilions to the south.  The sidewalks and wide pedestrian road of the Avenue itself seem to be used for rotating art installations, as can be seen from images on the internet of past works.   My favourite sculpture along this stretch is the humorous welded bronze ostrich-like bird on roller skates named “Fanny Fanny” (1990) by César Baldaccini.

Sculptures are also found in front of each of the major Pavilions including one of Dale Chihuly’s iconic glass designs in front of the Horstein building, Jim Dine’s bronze “Twin Hearts” in front of the Desmarais building and David Altmejd’s “The Eye” in front of the Bourgie.   The cow sculpture by Joe Fafard can also be found in Toronto on the grounds of the TD Centre as part of a larger set of cows grouped together to form “The Pasture”.  I thought I recognized that cow when I first spotted it in the sculpture garden on the Avenue du Musée!

The last section of the Museum of Fine Arts that we explored was Decorative Arts and Design, and there were so many beautiful and fascinating pieces to look at.  We liked the three animal inspired chairs that were each so unique in its shape and material.  There was the Elephant Chair (2004) by Parisian Bernard Rancillac, made with reinforced polyester fiberglass and steel which was painted white.  The chair's back formed the elephant’s head and ears, the arm rests formed the trunk and the elongated seat represented the trunk.  French designer Hubert Le Gall’s Whale Chair (2004) has a metal frame covered with polyurethane foam and brown velvet, while Italian designer Riccardo Dalisi’s “Banc Mariposa” (1989) is a painted steel bench shaped like a butterfly.  We were intrigued by the strange light bulb sculpture (2012) by Pieke Bergmans of Netherlands that was made of blown crystal that was attached to a long-armed folding desk lamp.  From one angle the bulb looked like a comics “speech bubble” while from another, it looked like a whale (am I seeing whales everywhere?).  A unique sleigh, possibly from Germany, dates back to the 16th Century and is painted and gilded wood, iron and velvet for the seat.  Interestingly, it was a gift to the museum from the Canadian Pacific Railway.  There was a large case full of jewellery including Montrealer Maurice Brault’s “Venus de Caliari” brooch made from coral, turquoise, pearl and gold.  Our friend who likes cows would have liked Jessie Bromm’s Landscape II (2011), made from sandcast glass and various materials.  Bromm specializes in making miniature scenes.  Finally I really liked Karl Schantz’s vase made from blown cased glass and glass powder which looked so much like it was from the Art Nouveau era even though it was made in 1978.

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is an excellent museum with a huge collection that we have just scratched the surface of.  We will have to resume our exploration of it on our next visit to the city.