Press release
For immediate release

 

Montréal, September 22, 2005 - Calm, yet strangeness: the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal presents Sylvie Bouchard from October 7, 2005 to January 8, 2006.

An “Uncanny” Strangeness

At first glance, everything in Sylvie Bouchard’s work seems calm and serene: interior scenes, landscapes suspended in time, distilled portraits. Soon, however, “a feeling of disquiet, a sense of ‘uncanny’ strangeness” overtakes the viewer. According to the curator, Pierre Landry, this experience stems from subtle incongruities within the painting: arrangement of elements, framing, deployment of planes, and spatial inconsistencies appear as so many pictorial enigmas in oddly silent interiors.

The exhibition Sylvie Bouchard offers a survey of the work of one of the leading artists in the new figurative painting in Québec. It features some 50 paintings produced over the last 20 years. The works are grouped so as to highlight the major stages in her production. First are pieces produced after 1986, when the artist turned to the medium of painting, following her investigation of installation from 1983 to 1985. Using a wood support, she produced watercolours until 1990, some of them large in scale, then oil paintings until 1993. The works reveal landscapes with a dreamlike quality accentuated by her use of the transparency inherent in watercolour. Starting in 1992, the human figure emerges as a central focus in the depictions of interiors. Without abandoning the portrait, her work of the last decade, made up for the most part of oils on canvas, represents interiors on an intimate scale. The exhibition also includes several new pieces.

Sylvie Bouchard lives and works in Montréal. After completing studies in the visual arts and philosophy, she embarked on an artistic career in the early 1980s. At the time, she was working in the context of the return to painting, marked by references to the major themes (landscape, the human figure, interiors) and the history of painting. She soon became known for her creation of undefined spaces, her use of a fragmented narration and the dreamlike atmosphere that emanates from her work. Bouchard has taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including: Montréal tout-terrain, 1984 (collective of artists and art historians); Aurora Borealis, 1985 (Centre international d’art contemporain–CIAC); Les Temps chauds, 1988-1989 (Musée d’art contemporain); Diagonales Montréal, 1992 (CIAC); and D’entrée de jeu, 2001 (Centre d’exposition Expression). This exhibition is the first real survey of her career.

A 120-page catalogue accompanies the exhibition. It contains a text by curator Pierre Landry, an essay by art historian Christine Dubois, a biobibliography, a list of works and approximately 50 colour reproductions. It may be purchased for $29.95 at the Musée’s Olivieri bookstore, Librairie ABC Livres d’art, or from your local bookseller.

Sylvie Bouchard will meet the public on Wednesday, October 12 at 6 p.m. As part of the Point(s) of View series, curator Pierre Landry will present the exhibition on Wednesday, December 7 at 6 p.m.

The Musée d'art contemporain is a provincially owned corporation funded by the Ministère de la Culture et des Communications du Québec. It receives additional funding from the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council for the Arts. The exhibition Sylvie Bouchard has also received financial support from the Lichen advertising agency.

 

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