Montréal, January 25, 2006. Eleven remarkable works from the Collection will be on display in the south galleries of the museum while the magnificent Anselm Kiefer exhibition is on. The Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal presents The Collection from February 11 to October 9, 2006.
At the heart of this new hanging is an extraordinary painting by German artist Anselm Kiefer, being shown here for the first time in North America. This work is Die Fraüen der Antike (Women of Antiquity), 1999, from the series of the same name. Its evocative power is echoed in Gary Hill’s video installation Dervish, 1993-1995, also a contemplative work. Photographs by Angela Grauerholz (Lessing, 1992), Jeff Wall (Citizen, 1996), Roberto Pellegrinuzzi (Éléments pour un sablier, 2005) and Arnaud Maggs (Joseph Beuys: 100 Frontal Views, Düsseldorf, 21.10.80, 1980) tackle the major genres?landscape, genre paintings and staged scenes, and portraits, including this recurring picture of Joseph Beuys, another emblematic figure in German art. Video art pioneer Nam June Paik pays his own tribute to Beuys in his Untitled, 1989, in this case a work on canvas. Like Kiefer, Ron Martin (The Forgotten Gesture No. 6, 1976), John McCracken (Black Plank, 1965-1968) and Roland Poulin (Le Dernier Jardin, 1999) focus literally on the materiality and expressiveness of black. Lastly, Kiefer’s spiral between “heaven and earth” finds an alter ego in Paterson Ewen’s Star Traces Around Polaris, 1973.
The exhibition The Collection is organized by Paulette Gagnon, the museum’s chief curator, who is in charge of the Montréal presentation of the exhibition Anselm Kiefer: Heaven and Earth, and Josée Bélisle, the curator responsible for the museum’s permanent collection.
Reading room
In conjunction with this show, the Media Centre has set up a reading room in the Senator Louis P. Gélinas Lounge adjoining the exhibition galleries.
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.
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