黑料不打烊

Montr茅al, January 28, 2009 鈥� From January 28 to March 7, 2009, Montr茅al鈥檚 Galerie Simon Blais will present two new exhibitions. In order to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the founding of their gallery, Sylvie and Simon Blais have chosen to show works representing the acquisitions they have made over the years as both dealers and collectors of art. How does one become a collector? What is a collection (or collections)? How does one build a collection? This exhibition shows how a true passion for art has evolved over the years. During the course of their careers as art dealers, Sylvie and Simon Blais discovered, and then presented, the work of many artists from Qu茅bec and Europe. Their gallery has become known for its special focus on modern and contemporary, mainly abstract, works on paper, organizing retrospectives of the work of such artists as McEwen, Riopelle, Gaucher, Ferron, Letendre, Alleyn and Dumouchel, and monographic exhibitions that can feature up to 50 years of work, some of it often never previously shown. All this has left its mark on the life of the gallery: some works that could now be described as rarities have enriched collections and the gallery, as well as their owners. This exhibition invites the public to discover the full breadth of Galerie Simon Blais鈥� activities. From Qu茅bec and European abstract art of the 1950s and 1960s it is but a small step towards showing more examples of 20th-century and other art, ranging from that of Africa to Qu茅bec folk art to Middle Eastern antiquities, since the collector鈥檚 passion knows no boundaries. Sculptures, prints, drawings and paintings are exhibited in a manner that, although it might appear incoherent to the eyes of specialists, nonetheless illustrates the formal connections uniting them. Joan Mir贸 and Joan Mitchell, Antoni T脿pies and Zao Wou-Ki, Sam Francis and Richard Serra, among others, will all have their place on the gallery鈥檚 walls during this very personal exhibition, a tribute to all those artists who have fostered the Galerie Simon Blais founders鈥� vocation as dealers and nurtured their passion for collecting. Clothing in Art is the product of recent and less recent contemporary works in the gallery鈥檚 collection. After having realized that Antoni T脿pies and Betty Goodwin had both dealt with the same subject at the same time, that is, in the early 1970s, and having discovered that shirt and jacket motifs have been used by a number of artists who are currently very much in the public eye, such an exhibition seemed requisite. Whether it is Louise Viger and her mixed-media installation, John Heward and his painted tarps, or the great American artist Ann Hamilton and her tribute to Joseph Beuys, all the artists featured approach the concept of clothing as an exterior skin that may become armour or, in Genevi猫ve Cadieux鈥� take, simply a ceremonial garment. However it is treated, it is a theme that continues to be current. As for the contemporary artists whose work has been shown and collected by the gallery since 1989, they will be spotlighted in a second instalment of the exhibition, A Second Look at Our Favourites, during the summer of 2009.