THE AUTOMATISTS IN BUFFALO
19/03/2010 to 30/05/2010
Author :Barbeau Marcel
Date : 19/03/2010
While visiting Buffalo to attend the opening of the exhibition « The Automatiste Revolution Montreal 1941-1960 », Marcel Barbeau has participated in the gallery educational services weekly familly workshop, called « The Automatiste lottery ». The children, their parents and grands-parents were invited to produced gouaches, drawings or collages inspired by the exhibition usng a technique selected at random. Marcel Barbeaumade comment on these, pointing out the strongest aspects of these works. Image courtesy Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York. Photograph by Tom Loonan.
On Thursday March 18, Marcel Barbeau attended the opening of the major exhibition « The Automatists Revolution: Montreal 1941-1960» at the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo. Marcel Barbeau participated in the press conference for this exhibition, in a docent tour and in a family workshop, on march 19. This last activity was, for the artist, a way to renew with his educational involvement in educational activities, in the Fifties and later in the Seventies. Barbeau attended conferences and performances organized in relation with the exhibition on March 18 and 20.
Although, the Montreal group held one of its first group show in New York in the mid Forties and although some of its members, Borduas, Riopelle and Barbeau widely exhibited individually in the United States, this is the first extensive retrospective of the works of this group of Canadian abstract artists to be shown in the United States. The hosting of this exhibition by the famous Albright–Knox Art Gallery, in Buffalo is a major step towards international recognition for these artists and for Canadian Art. For the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, founded in 1862, is among the oldest public arts organizations in the United States. The museum has one of the most brilliant and largest modern and contemporary collections in the world. It enjoys a worldwide reputation as an outstanding center of modern art.
Guest curated by Roald Nasgaard, Professor of Art History at Florida State University, this exhibition documenting the history of the Automatist, Canada’s first truly avant-garde art movement was organized with the support of the Varley Art Gallery in Markam where it was presented at first from October 2009 to February 2010. This well documented exhibition includes five early paintings by Marcel Barbeau from the Forties and the Fifties.
Beside this exhibition, the Albright–Knox Art Gallery presents highlights of its rich collection of American Abstract expressionists, which have been recently reproduced on stamps. An exhibition of abstract expressionist and Surrealistic works from the collection is also shown, offering to visitors a whole historical and aesthetic background to better understand the sources, the similarities to a parallel neighour art movement and the uniqueness of the Automatists.
The exhibition and the catalogue have been produced with help of the Varley-McKay Art Foundation and of private donors. Marcel Barbeau has received a grant from Conseil des arts et de lettres Québec to attend this event, competed by some help from the Albright Knox Gallery covering his hotel and restaurant expenses in Buffalo.
For more information, visit the gallery web site: www.albrightknox.org/
Phone: 716.882.8700
The Albright-Knox Gallery is located at: 1285 Elmwood Avenue, Buffalo, New York, US
To see Marcel Barbeau, Françoise Sullivan, Roald Nasgard and dand views of the exhibition at the Albrightknox, visit: http://video.artvoice.com/artvoicetv.php?permalink=0000001027
For major events, Marcel Barbeau and his wife Ninon were dressed by the Montreal designer Yves-Jean Lacasse from Envers, www.yvesjeanlacasse.com/
Info:
1285 Elmwood Avenue
Buffalo, New York
USA
Téléphone: 716.882.8700
Télécopieur: 716.882.8700
Courriel : Ilana Chlebowski