ARTnotes

INTRODUCING SUZY LAKE

ART GALLERY |OF |ONTARIO

This is a self portrait Suzy Lake created

in 2009 by lying on a flatbed scanner

for ten minutes. It's a confrontation

with mortality. It's like confronting

your own mortality. It's sad because

it makes me think of lost youth.

It's hard to reconcile myself to age

and in this image she is uncompromising.

Imitations of Myself #1 1973

1973! Suzy Lake is a groundbreaking photographer/artist.

Morrice and Lyman in the Company of Matisse

This is excellent show is at the McMichael Gallery until. The curator has assembled over 100 paintings by these three artists.James Wilson Morrice became friends with Matisse after leaving Canada for Paris. John Lyman studied with Matisse and subsequently spearheaded the Modernism in Montreal, where he was born.

Included in the exhibition is Matisse's, "Nude on a Yellow Sofa",1928. The yellow of the sofa is the sun itself streaming in from the right. The woman's gaze is directed toward the light which illuminates and models her face with brilliant intensity.

A flowered screen behind her is patterned with leaves drawn in with thick lines. these contrast with the delicate contours outlining the model's limbs and torso. It's worth to driving to Kleinberg for this painting alone. ( Its usual home is the National Gallery of Canada.)

The influence of Matisse can be appreciated in the work of his student John Lyman, who, like J.W. Morrice, left Canada to work in Paris and North Africa.

"Indolent youth"by John Lyman. Oil on Canvas.( c.1928)

I thought Lyman's approach to the male nude unusual and daring for the time. The graphic outline and expressive colours are typical of Lyman's work.

J.W.Morrice, Rainy Evening, Paris. c.1900. Oil on canvas

Unfortunately the restaurant at McMichael has been replaced by a not very efficient cafe. This woman dining there alone is reminiscent of Degas.

J.W. Morrice is a master of colour tonalitites. Matisse said of him that "in composition he saw the art of arranging in a complex manner the diverse elements at a painter's command to express his feelings."

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORARY CANADIAN ART RECONCEIVED

Imagine the Art Gallery as a Trojan horse, moving from site to site around the city, unleashing culture as it moves! TBD-To Be Destroyed: Responses From a Call For Ideas consists of several parts, one of which is a wall-installation featuring the results of "a call for architects to destroy existing paradigms about art galleries"(MOCCA). From purely speculative, largely incomprehensible culture-babble to eminently practicable, and clearly articulated, sixty-nine architects each presents a single page encapsulating their vision for the future. One of the best is one of the simplest : make the gallery more inclusive by unifying it with its locale. For example, remove the huge iron fence and parking lot in front of MOCCA and replace them with a walkway and inviting green space.

Populus

MOCCA, exterior

MOCCA,exterior

Populus, detail.

The Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art is moving from its current site on Queen Street West, so this concept will not be realized there, but it's worth serious consideration whatever form the next incarnation takes.

RBC Peoples' Choice Award Ceramics

Tonight the annual RBC Emerging Artist People's Choice Award will announce the winner of the Ceramic Artist prize at the Gardiner Museum. The winner receives $10,000 from the Royal Bank of Canada.
What purpose does this type of competition serve? Obviously, it's a high-profile marketing tool for the bank, while the Museum benefits from higher attendance and more intimacy with the world of high finance. But Museum curators, collectors and dealers determine the financial worth of any given artwork at any given time. Are these types of competition intended to provide hoi polloi gallery goers with the illusion that they are participating meaningfully in the process of validating art, deciding what is art?
I think People's Choice awards in the Visual Arts are fun but ultimately not a very meaningful way of recognizing achievement or supporting artists.

Riva Cooper "Viral Series" 2012-2014 ceramic, glaze, decal. Detail

Work by two of the finalists, Riva Cooper and Zimra Beiner:

Riva Cooper "Viral Series" Detail

Riva Cooper "Viral Series" 2012-2014 ceramic, glaze, decal. Detail

Zimra Beiner ,"Dark and Still" Glazed earthenware. 2014