EVENTS / ÉVÉNEMENTS

2011

PUBLIC LECTURE: BARBARA CLAUSEN, THROUGH THE LENS OF JOAN JONAS
Thursday, February 10, 2011 1:00pm-3:00pm
Concordia University, EV-1.615, 1515 de Maisonneuve O, Montreal

Joan Jonas is one of the most important performance and video artists of our time. Her performances, installations and videos from her ground breaking Organic Honey series in the early 1970s to the highly acclaimed and most recent Reading Dante (2010) have been presented and exhibited in numerous international exhibitions world, giving vision to the visual politics that govern the cultural realities we live in to this day. Her vision of performance continues to inspire generations of artists, each seeing her work afresh. This generosity and curiosity lie at the heart of the collaborations she embarks on with artists of different generations, including Carlos Amorales, and Kiki Smith, as well as composers, Robert Ashley, Alvin Curran, and Jason Moran. Jonas’s work remains at the spearhead of performance art´s future: creating never ending scenarios and visions, giving life to artistic knowledge of all types and times, through her double lens. This lecture will look at Jonas particular exploration of gender, narrative and the concept of experience as a an act of translation and critical interaction.

Barbara Clausen is a curator and art historian working and living in Vienna and Montreal. She is currently a Visiting Research Fellow at

The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art at Concordia University in Montreal and researching on Canadian Performance art from the 1960s until today. She recently completed her PhD in art history at the University of Vienna on the Documentation of Performance Art and the work of Babette Mangolte. Since 1999, Clausen has curated in various art institutions in Europe and North America.

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SPEAKING OF PHOTOGRAPHY: JAYNE WARK, 'SERIOUS ART IS ONLY MADE IN BLACK AND WHITE': PHOTOGRAPHY AND CONCEPTUAL ART IN CANADA
Tuesday, February 15, 2011, 6:30pm
Concordia University, EV-1.605, Montreal

The premise that photography achieved the status of art when it began to be used by conceptual artists c. 1967-75 is now widely accepted. Conceptual artists valued photography as the “artless mass medium” of commerce, documentation, reportage, and information, and they deployed its indexical, referential, and amateurish aspects to ends that aimed to supersede the high-modernist aesthetic values of transcendence and autonomy. But apart from notable exceptions such as N.E. Thing Co., Michael Snow, and the so-called Vancouver School of photo-conceptualists, little attention has been paid to how photography was used in conceptual art in Canada. This lecture will begin to address that question by considering a selection of works by Canadian and other artists working in Canada in light of both broad international tendencies and of the particular conditions that inflected its manifestation in Canada.

Jayne Wark is Professor of Art History at NSCAD (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design) and has published on performance, video, and conceptual art. Her book, Radical Gestures: Feminism and Performance Art in North America, was published in 2006 by McGill-Queen’s University Press. She is the curator of the Atlantic section of the exhibition Traffic: Conceptual Art in Canada 1965-1980, which opened in Toronto in September 2010 and will tour to Halifax, Edmonton, Montreal, and Vancouver until 2012. She is also currently working on a book on the history of conceptual art in Canada.

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BOOK LAUNCH: FRANCOIS-MARC GAGNON, JEAN BERGER: PEINTRE ET COMPLICE?
Monday, April 18, 11:30am
Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
Concordia University, EV-3.725, Montreal

“We are a remarkable department. Not only do we write about works of art that exist, we write about artists who left behind no works of art to analyse.”
With these words, Loren Lerner, Chair of Concordia’s Department of Art History, opened the book launch for François-Marc Gagnon’s Jean Berger, peintre et complice? in the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art on April 18.

Gagnon, who serves as Director and Chair of the Institute, became intrigued with Berger’s life, starting with two pieces of information – Berger was a self-described painter in the New France at the very beginning of the 18th century and had written a “chanson diffamatoire” referring to his song’s subject as a “monstre de la nature.”

It turned out the song had been written about local Montreal apothecary Claude Sainte-Olive, a man who sued Berger in court for assault. Gagnon has spent the last 40 years puzzling out the transcripts of that trial and related documents, revolving around an attack after a night of drinking. His research has led to a rare portrait of the day-to-day life of the different social strata of New France and the conditions in Montreal at that time. Gagnon was awarded the Quebec Government’s 2010 Prix Gérard-Morisset for his significant contributions to the preservation of the province’s cultural heritage.

 “What I learned was not exactly what I had got in school,” laughed Gagnon at the launch. Despite lessons filled with noble tales of saintly do-gooders, he was confronted by evidence of “soldiers with nothing to do except drink. And there were a lot of pubs at the time.”

Gagnon does not pronounce on Berger’s guilt, but does credit Berger’s notoriety for the wealth of documentation left behind, suggesting a more law-abiding citizen might not have left such a rich archive of documents. Gagnon adds that simply puzzling out the court reporter’s personal notations (‘pe’ for ‘paroisse’) was a lengthy process in itself.

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A COLD WAR TOURIST AND HIS CAMERA: MARTHA LANGFORD & JOHN LANGFORD
Tuesday, March 15, 2011, 6:30pm
Concordia University, York Amphitheatre (EV 1.605)
1515 Ste-Catherine Street West, Montreal

Cold War-era imagery is defined by the striking contrast between the ideal of the nuclear family and the nightmare of nuclear annihilation. In 1963, Warren Langford, a Second World War air force veteran and career public servant, travelled through Europe, North America, and Africa as part of the National Defence College's curriculum of Cold War training. Langford, never before much interested in photography, bought a camera and produced some 200 slides of his travels. In their recent book, A Cold War Tourist and His Camera, his art-historian daughter and political-scientist son bring his photographs - an unexpected combination of iconic images of Cold War dangers and touristic snapshots - back into view. Martha Langford and John Langford examine their father's apparently innocuous photographic experience, revealing the complexity of both the images and their creator. Looking at the ways that the historical and the private are represented and remembered, they stage the family slide show as you've never seen it before.
Followed by a book launch, co-hosted by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, McGill-Queen's University Press, and the Art History Graduate Students Association.

Martha Langford holds a Concordia University Research Chair in Art History and is the author of Suspended Conversations: The Afterlife of Memory in Photographic Albums and Scissors, Paper, Stone: Expressions of Memory in Contemporary Photographic Art.
John Langford is a professor in the School of Public Administration at the University of Victoria and is the author or co-author of numerous books and articles on administrative reform and public sector ethics.

Speaking of Photography is made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, with additional support from the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Concordia University Research Chair in Art History; the Art History Graduate Student Association; Figura, centre de recherche sur le texte et l'imaginaire, Université du Québec à Montréal; and Château Versailles Hotel.

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THE CURRENT STATE OF CANADIAN ART HISTORICAL RESEARCH
 
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 10:00am-11:00am
Friday, April 15, 2011, 10:00am-11:00am
Wednesday, April 20, 2011, 10:00am-11:00am
Concordia University, EV-3.760 (Art History Department Seminar Room), Montreal

The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art 
and the Department of Art History present a series of public talks on:
The Current State of Canadian Art Historical Research

Date: Wednesday, April 13, 2011
Time: 10:00-11:00
Location: EV 3.760 (Art History Dept. Seminar Room)
Presenter: Dr. Laurier Lacroix, Professor Emeritus
Département d'histoire de l'art de l'Université du Québec Montréal

dDate: Friday, April 15, 2011
Time: 10:00-11:00
Location: EV 3.760 (Art History Dept. Seminar Room)
Presenter: Dr. Lynda Jessup
Department of Art, Queen's University

Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Time: 10:00-11:00
Location: EV 3.760 (Art History Dept. Seminar Room)
Presenter: Dr. Martha Langford
Department of Art History, Concordia University

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FRANCOIS MARC GAGNON: CANADIAN ART, THE LIMITS OF PAINTING
Wednesdays, May 4, 11, 18 and 25, 2011, 3:30pm
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
1380 Sherbrooke Street W
Maxwell Cummings Auditorium
Montreal

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to host the annual lecture series on Canadian art presented by François-Marc Gagnon, Director of Concordia University’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art. This series was presented in French in April.

May 4 — Words
In the seventeenth century, it was said that painting was mute speech. But soon enough, artists found the means to make their paintings speak, either by adding captions on cards or ex votos, words attributed to the Angel and the Virgin in Annunciation scenes, or by writing words on banners or inscribing messages directly on the canvas.

May 11 — Movement
How can painting suggest movement? Time-lapse photography showed the way for the Cubists and Futurists. In Canada, Alfred Pellan integrated their teachings into his own art. Another option was to guide the movements of the eye, as Paul-Émile Borduas did in his large black-and-white canvases.

May 18 — Time
Like movement, time cannot be captured in a painting. And yet, the portrait is intended to be a way of evoking the past and resisting time (portraits of nuns in early Quebec art). But attempts have nonetheless been made to transpose the effect of music into painting (Suzor-Coté and Brandtner).

May 25 — Emotions
The world of the emotions is more directly expressed in theatre and film. We will see how religion and history put constraints on early Quebec art in exploring the entire range of emotions. In contemporary art, photography and video have taken up this task.

The Museum extends its thanks to Concordia University’s Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art for its collaboration on the presentation of this programme.

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Le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal a le plaisir d'accueillir la série annuelle de conférences sur l'art canadien présentées par François-Marc Gagnon, directeur de l'Institut de recherche en art canadien Gail et Stephen A. Jarislowsky de l'Université Concordia. Cette série a été présentée en français en avril.

4 mai — Words
Au XVIIe siècle, on disait que la peinture était un discours muet. On aura cependant bientôt trouvé le moyen de la faire parler, en ajoutant des légendes sur les cartes ou les exvotos, des paroles dans la bouche de l'Ange et de la Vierge dans les Annonciations, ou carrément en écrivant des textes sur les tableaux.


11 mai — Movement
Comment la peinture pourrait-elle suggérer le mouvement ? La chronophotographie a montré la voie aux cubistes et aux futuristes. Au Canada, Alfred Pellan a su intégrer leurs leçons à son art. On pouvait aussi guider les mouvements de l'oeil comme le fera Paul-Émile Borduas dans ses grands tableaux en noir et blanc.

18 mai — Time
Comme le mouvement, la durée semble échapper à la peinture. Pourtant, le portrait se voudra une manière d'évoquer le passé et de résister au temps (portraits de religieuses dans l'art ancien du Québec). On a néanmoins tenté de transposer en peinture l'effet de la musique (Suzor-Coté, Brandtner).

25 mai — Emotions
L'univers des émotions s'exprime plus volontiers au théâtre et au cinéma. Nous verrons comment la religion et l'histoire ont contraint notre peinture ancienne à explorer tout le registre des émotions. Dans l'art actuel, la photographie et la vidéo ont pris le relais.

Le Musée remercie l'Institut de recherche en art canadien Gail et Stephen A. Jarislowsky de l'Université Concordia pour sa collaboration à la présentation de ce programme

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2010

Marion Wagshal: Private Views
and Alisha Piercy (Vitrines)
January 5 - February 5, 2010.

FOFA Gallery: Concordia University, 1515 Ste-Catherine W., EV 01.615, Montreal.
http://fofagallery.concordia.ca
Vernissage: Thurs., Jan 14th, 5 to 7 p.m.

Main Gallery
Private Views: Marion Wagschal

In the main gallery and black box celebrated contemporary artist Marion Wagschal makes a departure from her signature intimate portraits of the everyday with Private Views, creating drawings that are almost cartoon-like in character and reminiscent of classical watercolours and illustrations of fairytales. Private Views marks the first time that Wagschal has shown an exhibition of drawings in over two decades.

Black Box:
Marion Wagschal: In Conversation
Produced by the The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art as part of their ongoing oral history project. The FOFA is thrilled with this collaboration.
 
York Corridor Vitrines

YOU HAVE HAIR LIKE FLAGS,
FLAGS THAT POINT
IN MANY DIRECTIONS
AT ONCE BUT CANNOT
PINPOINT LAND
WHEN LOST
AT SEA
Alisha Piercy

In the York Corridor Vitrines, Alisha Piercy is creating an exhibition of wall drawings in situ that combine aspects of Chinese mist-in-the-mountains brushwork paintings with texts that evoke a double meaning. The work will change daily throughout the exhibition as Piercy continues to draw into the central work, “Campfire Float”.   She is paralleling the risk and desire for better inherent in the drawings subject to that of making art.

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2009

Speaking of Photography Lecture Series Presents: Carol Williams, Trent University.January 19, 2009. 6:30 pm
Concordia University: Ste-Catherine Street West, EV-1.605, Montreal.

In Framing the West: Race, Gender, and the Photographic Frontier in the Pacific Northwest, Carol Williams argues that 19th-century portraiture on the British northwest coast benefited Euro/Anglo-American settlement and disadvantaged Aboriginal subjects who, during this period, were dispossessed of civil rights and territory as well as penalized for cultural, linguistic, and ceremonial practices. Does the power to construct public, or bureaucratic, meaning for the photograph across both time and space always remain in the hands of those possessing political, economic, racial, or social authority?

Carol Williams, a historian, holds a Canada Research Chair in Feminist and Gender Studies at Trent University. Her first book, Framing the West: Race, Gender, and the Photographic Frontier in the Pacific Northwest (OUP, 2003), challenged the conventional assumption that Euro-American newcomers uniformly controlled the photographic gaze in the 19th-century colonial setting. She has written extensively on contemporary art and photography including, most recently, on Dagmar Dahle, Jin-me Yoon, and Marian Penner Bancroft, and has published interviews with Doreen Jensen, Laiwan, Jamelie Hassan, Sara Diamond, and Melinda Mollineaux, among others. Before entering academia as a mature student, she laboured as a waitress.

Speaking of Photography is organized by the Department of Art History, Concordia University, and made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The 2008-09 series is also supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Special Individualized Programs, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University; the Concordia University Research Chair in Art History; Ciel Variable magazine; and Château Versailles Hotel.

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Comics, Japanese Popular Culture and Contemporary Art
March 13, 2009, 1:00 - 5:30 pm

Concordia University York Auditorium:
EV-1.615, 1515 St-Catherine Street West, (Metro Guy-Concordia), Montreal.

This interdisciplinary panel brings together six scholars, artists, and curators to examine the convergence of comics, Japanese popular culture, and contemporary art as increasingly interrelated fields of study and practice. Manga and anime provide starting points to consider a wide range of historical periods, social worlds, and cultural productions provoked by questions such as: What kinds of alternative views of culture, history, and life are presented through these forms? What implications do their appearances in contemporary art have for representations of difference? What are some contributions to this activity by artists in Canada? From comic books, films, toys, and contemporary art, to race and animals, representation and critique, and the possibilities of revisionist histories, this panel seeks to showcase the diverse conceptual and creative approaches to this emerging phenomenon and to further cultural dialogue and exchange.
Speakers:

Thomas Lamarre is professor of East Asian Studies, Art History and Communications Studies, McGill University.

Matthew Penney is assistant professor, Department of History, Concordia University.

Joanne Hui is an artist and a doctoral student, Humanities Doctoral Program, Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University.

Ryan Rice is an independent curator and artist in Montreal.
Marc Steinberg is a postdoctoral fellow, Department of Art History and Communication Studies, McGill University.

Howie Tsui is a visual artist and musician in Ottawa.
Conference organizers: Alice Ming Wai Jim (convenor), assistant professor, Department of Art History Concordia University

Joanne Hui, doctoral student, Humanities Doctoral Program, Interdisciplinary Studies in Society and Culture, Concordia University

This conference panel is organized in conjunction with the Department of Art History and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University.

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Speaking of Photography Lecture Series Presents: Joan M. Schwartz, Queens University.
October 1, 2009, 18:30 p.m.

Concordia University Amphitheatre EV-1.615,
1515 Ste-Catherine Street West, Montréal

Rethinking the Discursive Origins of Photography:
Alexander von Humboldt and the
Pursuit of Geographical Knowledge

The origins of photography have usually been traced to the aspirations of a professional diorama painter (Daguerre), on the one hand, and the frustrations of an amateur artist (Talbot), on the other. But, how might the history of photography be rewritten if the camera is considered a tool of the geographical imagination and the photograph as a way of seeing across space and time?

Joan M. Schwartz is Associate Professor and Queen's National Scholar, Department of Art, at Queen's University, Kingston. Previously Senior Specialist in Photography Acquisition and Research at the National Archives of Canada, she is a Fellow of the Society of American Archivists and an Adjunct Research Professor in both Geography and History at Carleton University, Ottawa. She is co-editor of Picturing Place: Photography and the Geographical Imagination (2003) and guest editor of special issues of BC Studies, History of Photography, Archival Science, and Archivaria.

Speaking of Photography is organized by the Department of Art History, Concordia University and is made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor, with additional support from the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Concordia University Research Chair in Art History; Ciel Variable magazine; and Château Versailles Hotel.

All lectures in the 2009-10 series will be held in the York Amphitheatre EV-1.615 on the ground floor of the Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex, 1515 Ste-Catherine Street West. Metro Guy-Concordia.

Lectures are free and open to the public.

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Silja Lehtonene: Curator’s Talk
Friday, October 30, 2009 at 1 pm.

Concordia University - Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, EV 003-719, 1515, rue Sainte-Catherine West, Montreal.

Artexte invites you to a public talk by contemporary art curator Silja Lehtonen – to take place at the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art (Concordia University) on Friday, October 30 at 1 pm. This is a free presentation and all are welcome.
Silja Lehtonen is Artexte’s current Researcher in Residence, and our first invited curator who comes to us under the auspices of a curatorial exchange between Quebec and Finland.
For her presentation, which will be given in English, Lehtonen will present the two distinct mandates of the museum where she works (contemporary art and medieval archaeology) as well as its programming. She will address some of the many facets that make up the arts network in her home country. This talk will also include details about Lehtonen’s current research at Artexte – which explores contemporary art practices (with a focus on sound art) in Quebec and Canada.
Silja Lehtonen is the Curator of Contemporary Art at Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova in Turku, Finland. Responsible for numerous exhibitions of both Finnish and international artists, she is an active member of the Turku arts community, and has organized the Turku Biennial since 2003.

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Artexte présente une conférence publique de la conservatrice d’art contemporain Silja Lehtonen. La conférence se tiendra à l’Institut de recherche en art canadien Gail et Stephen A. Jarislowsky de l’Université Concordia vendredi le 30 octobre, à 13 h. L’admission est gratuite et tous sont bienvenus.

Silja Lehtonen est actuellement chercheuse en résidence à Artexte, et elle est notre première conservatrice invitée sous les auspices d’un programme d’échange de conservateurs entre le Québec et la Finlande.

Lors de cette conférence, présentée en anglais, Mme Lehtonen décrira les deux mandats distincts du musée où elle travaille (art contemporain et archéologie médiévale) et nous fera part de la programmation de ce musée. Elle traitera également des diverses facettes du réseau artistique de son pays d’origine. Mme Lehtonen nous entretiendra également de la recherche qu’elle effectue présentement à Artexte et qui consiste en l’étude de pratiques d’art contemporain (notamment l’art sonore) au Québec et au Canada.

Silja Lehtonen est conservatrice d’art contemporain au musée Aboa Vetus & Ars Nova de Turku, en Finlande. Elle y est responsable de nombreuses expositions d’artistes finlandais et internationaux tout en étant active au sein de la communauté artistique de Turku. Depuis 2003, elle organise la Biennale de Turku.

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Loren Lerner (editor): Depicting Canada’s Children
NOVEMBER 19, 2009, 11 am.

Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Insitute for Studies in Canadian Art (Concordia University):
EV 003-725, Fine Arts -3rd floor, 1515 St,Catherine W., Montreal.

Depicting Canada’s Children is a critical analysis of the visual representation of Canadian children from the seventeenth century to the present. Recognizing the importance of methodological diversity, these essays discuss understandings of children and childhood derived from depictions across a wide range of media and contexts. But rather than simply examine images in formal settings, the authors take into account the components of the
images and the role of image-making in everyday life. The contributors provide a close study of the evolution of the figure of the child and shed light on the defining role children have played in the history of Canada and our assumptions about them. Rather than offer comprehensive historical coverage, this collection is a catalyst for further study through case studies that endorse innovative scholarship. This book will be of interest to scholars in art history, Canadian history, visual culture, Canadian studies, and the history of children.

Contributors:
Annmarie Adams, McGill University,Montreal
Alena M.Buis, Queen’s University, Kingston
Sherry Farrell Racette,Concordia University, Montreal
Derek Foster, Brock University, St.Catharines
François-Marc Gagnon, Concordia University,Montreal
Susan Hart, Concordia University, Montreal
Martha Langford, Concordia University, Montreal
Loren Lerner, Concordia University, Montreal
Patricia McKeever, University of Toronto
Margaret McNay, University of Western Ontario
Claudia Mitchell, Mc Gill University, Montreal
Sharon Murray, Concordia University, Montreal
Sandra Paikowsky, Concordia University, Montreal
Carol Payne, Carleton University, Ottawa
Jacqueline Reid-Walsh, Pennsylvania State University
Johanne Sloan, Concordia University, Montreal
David Theodore, Harvard University
Elspeth Tulloch, Université Laval, Quebec City
Abigail A.Van Slyck, Connecticut College
Andrea N. Walsh, University of Victoria
Monique Westra, Glenbow Museum, Calgary
Kai Wood Mah,School of the Art Institute, Chicago

Published by Wilfrid Laurier University Press.

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2008

Untold Histories: The Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowky Institute
for Studies in Canadian Art Public Conference Series
March 28, 2008. 9:30 - 4:00pm

Winnipeg Art Gallery: 300 Memorial Boulevard, Winnipeg, Manitoba.

9:30     Welcome, Denis Longchamps, Jarislowsky Institute

9:35     Introduction: Helen Delacretaz, Winnipeg Art Gallery

9:45     Francois-Marc Gagnon, Concordia University
           "Paul Kane as a new Pygmalion of Indian Portraits"


10:25   Morning pause 


10:40   Serena Keshavjee, University of Winnipeg
           “Pompidou on the Red: Late Modern Architecture at the University of Winnipeg”

11:20   Neil Minuk, University of Manitoba
           "A.J. Donahue: An Exceptional Architecture of Modest Means"


12:00   Lunch


1:30     Introduction: Denis Longchamps, Concordia University, Jarislowsky Institute

1:40     Oliver Botar, University of Manitoba
           "Fram Bauhaus to our House in Etobicoke: Andor Weininger’s Toronto Years"

2:20     Claudine Majzels, University of Winnipeg "Women and Art in Manitoba"


3:00     Afternoon pause


3:15     Sherry Farrell Racette, Concordia University -"From Pot Shards to Urban Shaman"

3:55     Conclusion: Francois-Marc Gagnon, Concordia University

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Francois Marc Gagnon:
Série Annuelle de Conférences sur l’art Canadien
Les phases de la vie en art canadien.
Mars 26, Avril 2, 9, 16, 23 et 30, 2008.
3:30pm en français

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts:
1379 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal.
www.mmfa.qc.ca

Par François-Marc Gagnon, directeur de l’Institut de recherches en art canadien Gail et Stephen A. Jarislowsky de l’Université Concordia Le Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal a le plaisir d’accueillir pour la septième année consécutive la série annuelle de conférences sur l’art canadien, présentées par François-Marc Gagnon.

Le Musée remercie l’Institut de recherches en art canadien Gail et Stephen A. Jarislowsky de l’Université Concordia pour sa collaboration à la présentation de ce programme.

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Francois Marc Gagnon: Annual lecture series at the MMFA. The Depiction of Age in Canadian Art

May 7, 14, 21 and June 4, 11 and 18, 2008.
3:30pm In English

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts: 1379 Sherbrooke Street West, Montreal.
www.mmfa.qc.ca

For the seventh year now, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is pleased to present François-Marc Gagnon’s annual lecture series on Canadian art.

The Museum thanks the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Research Institute of Canadian Art at Concordia University for its collaboration in presenting this programme.

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Speaking of Photography Lecture Series Presents:
Jerry Zaslove: Mindfulness Toward Memory in Four Photographic Objects,
or how Benjamin’s Objects Speak to us

September 23, 2008. 6:30 pm
1515 Ste-Catherine Street West, EV-1.605
Concordia University, Montreal.

Jerry Zaslove will trace the line of Walter Benjamin’s demystifications of violence and memory from several of his meditations in “Berlin Childhood” around 1900 through the “Critique of Violence” to “The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproducibility” in order to show the continuity of his thought about art as form of reality that speaks to us as both object and dialectical image of that reality.

Jerry Zaslove is Professor emeritus of Humanities at Simon Fraser University where he was the founding director of the Institute for the Humanities and the Prague Field School. He is a consulting editor for West Coast Line. His recent publications include “Talking Through: This Space Around Four Pictures by Jeff Wall,” a dialogue with Glen Lowry in Locating Memory: Photographic Acts Berghahn Books, (2006); “Geological Poetics” in Unfinished Business, Photographing Vancouver Streets, 1955-1985 (West Coast Line Books, 2006); and “The Reparation of Dead Souls – Siegfried Kracauer’s Archimedean Exile,” in Exile, Science and Bildung (Palgrave/MacMillan, 2005). The topics of his writings and lectures range from literary modernism to public education and literacy, while his research on photography considers neighborhood mapping projects, as well as works by Alex Morrison and Jeff Wall.

Speaking of Photography is organized by the Department of Art History and made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The 2008-2009 series is also supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Special Individualized Programs, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University; /Ciel Variable/ magazine and Château Versailles Hotel.

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Writing Art: From Payant to the Present Jennifer Allen & Francois Dion

Discussion (in French) organized by the Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art and Artexte.

September 24, 2008. 3:00- 5:00 pm
1515 Ste-Catherine Street West, EV-3.719
Concordia University, Montreal (Metro Guy-Concordia)

In the first part of this presentation, Allen will describe the results of her research on René Payant's donation of exhibition catalogues to Artexte. An art historian and a critic, Payant privileged a theoretical and interdisciplinary approach to writing about art, whether classicist
painting, photography installation or feminist video. What role did the exhibition and the catalogue play in his writing? By comparing Payant's reviews with the catalogues he collected, Allen will show how the catalogue comes to function as documentation, aide-mémoire and site of confrontation.

The second part of this presentation takes the form of a discussion about contemporary strategies for writing about art between Allen and François Dion, the director of Artexte. Documenting Payant's oeuvre, which is caught between texts about artworks and also images of artworks, calls for a new way of writing art history: iconographism. While considering recent examples from W.G. Sebald's use of photographs in novels to the illustrated blog - Allen and Dion will also discuss attitudes towards catalogues among contemporary artists in both Montreal and Berlin.

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The Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art and the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema Present: an evening with Michael Snow

September 30, 2008. 7 pm
J.A de Sève Theatre: J.W. McConnell Library Building, Concordia University
1400 De Maisonneuve West, Montreal.

Acclaimed Canadian artist Michael Snow will introduce and talk with the
audience about three cinematic works:

Wavelength (1967)

WVLNT. Wavelength for Those Who Don't Have the Time (1967/2003)

SSHTOORRTY (2005)

The astonishingly varied and prolific output of Canadian artist Michael
Snow spans over fifty years, including a decade in New York during which
he expanded his practice from painting and sculpture to experimental film
and photography. Impossible to categorize, Michael Snow has worked at the
leading edge of virtually all media, including sound and holography, in
parallel with his performances and recordings as an improvisational
musician.

There are, in the history of film, a very few artists whose work, in its
radical purity and incisiveness strikes one as paradigmatic ... Among them
is Michael Snow, whose Wavelength, some four years old, is now a
celebrated film, a turning point for many in the history of the medium as
in the maker's own development.

Annette Michelson, "Toward Snow," 1971

An Evening with Michael Snow has been organized by the Department of Art
History, with the generous support of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky
Institute for Studies in Canadian Art, the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema
of Concordia University, and the Château Versailles Hotel.

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The Department of Art History Presents:
Speaking of Photography: a Public lecture by William A. Ewing

October 21, 2008. 6:30 pm
Concordia Auditorium: Ste-Catherine Street West, EV-1.605 Concordia University.

Judging from the number of influential magazines which have published his portrait full-page, along with admiring commentaries, Jack Whitten is arguably the most famous photographer alive. Jack found 'his true calling', photography, late in life, and having thrown himself into his new love, is now reaping the benefits. Yet few people have ever met or talked with Jack. A single photograph of the artist at work reveals the secrets of this astonishing success story.
William Ewing is an internationally recognized curator and writer on photography. Founder of the Optica Center for Contemporary Art in Montreal (1972), he went on to the International Center of Photography in New York (1977-1984), then continued his career in Europe, becoming director of the Musée de l'Elysée in 1996. His exhibitions have toured worldwide. His landmark publications include: The Body: Photographs of the Human Form (1994); reGeneration: 50 photographers of Tomorrow (2005); The Face: The New Photographic Portrait (2006); Edward Steichen; Lives in Photography (2007); Ray K. Metzker: Light Lines (2008); and Edward Steichen: In High Fashion, 1923—1937 (2008-9).

Speaking of Photography is organized by the Department of Art History and made possible by the generosity of an anonymous donor. The 2008-9 series is also supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art; the Special Individualized Programs, School of Graduate Studies, Concordia University; Ciel Variable magazine; and Château Versailles Hotel.

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2007

May 9, 2007
Conference series by François-Marc Gagnon at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, in 2007. At the Maxwell-Cummings Auditorium, Michal and Renata Hornstein pavilion, 1379 Sherbrooke Street West, on Wednesday at 3:30 PM.

The Beautiful, the Sublime and the Strange in Canadian Art
This year's lecture series on Canadian Art coincides with the Emily Carr retrospective exhibition organized jointly by the National Gallery of Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery. The series will benefit from the exhibition in that nearly all the lectures will discuss the themes of the beautiful, the sublime and the strange in Canadian art in relation to Emily Carr. The French series scheduled to begin on Wednesday March 28 has been cancelled, the English series begins on Wednesday May 9.

BEAUTY
Wednesday May 9 at 3:30 pm, in English
It has long been thought that the imitation of nature was the best way for us to understand beauty. This notion will be explored through an examination of the work of Canadian landscape painters, including Clarence Gagnon, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Emily Carr and David Milne.

THE SUBLIME
Wednesday May 16 at 3:30 pm, in English
Several nineteenth-century painters and photographers tried to express the sublime by depicting waterfalls, raging rivers, forests and towering mountains. Closer to our own time, Lawren Harris and Emily Carr sought another way to express the sublime.

PROPORTIONS
Wednesday May 23 at 3:30 pm, in English
Traditionally, painters have sought beauty in the proportions of the human body through the study of nudes. Marc-Aurèle de Foy Suzor-Coté, Ozias Leduc, Stanley Cosgrove, Louis Muhlstock and Alfred Pellan all rendered nudes to various degrees, although not Emily Carr, who was far too prudish!

THE UNCANNY
Wednesday May 30 at 3:30 pm, in English
The concept of the uncanny was developed by Freud to describe our reaction to some less familiar forms of art. Art of the First Nations, especially those of the West Coast, seemed “strange” to the artists, like Paul Kane, who discovered it. Emily Carr on the other hand, had a mission to render it familiar, while Jack Shadbolt and Brian Jungen strove to preserve its character of strangeness.

CONVULSIVE BEAUTY
Wednesday June 6 at 3:30 pm, in English
André Breton said, “Beauty will be convulsive or will not be at all,” thereby defining the new approach to beauty advocated by Surrealism. We will examine the Surrealist view of  beauty in the work of Alfred Pellan, Léon Bellefleur, Paul-Émile Borduas and Jock MacDonald, all of whom identified with Surrealism.

ABSTRACT BEAUTY
Wednesday June 13 at 3:30 pm, in English
Guido Molinari and David Sorensen each in their own way defined themselves in relation to geometric abstraction. Emily Carr did not paint any abstract work as such, but her sense of rhythm and movement in painting can be qualified as “abstract”.

 

ALTERNATIVE ENDINGS:
Narration and Contemporary Canadian Art
Lectures are presented free of charge at Concordia University’s Integrated Engineering, Computer Science and Visual Arts Complex, at 1515 Ste. Catherine Street West, room EV-1.605.

THURSDAY, JANUARY 25, 2007, AT 6:00 PM
The Holocaust in Contemporary Canadian Art:The Discontinuities of Memory and Narrative Discourse
Loren Lerner, Professor, Department of Art History, Concordia University

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2007, AT 6:00 PM
Mobile Cinema and the Fictionalization of Space
Olivier Asselin, Professor, Département d’histoire de l’art et d’études cinématographiques, Université de Montréal

THURSDAY, MARCH 8, 2007, AT 6:00 PM
Never Let the Truth Stand in the Way of a Good Story
Kelly Mark, artist, Toronto, Ontario

THURSDAY, MARCH 22, 2007, AT 6:00 PM
The Narrativity of the Image
Marie Fraser, Art historian and independant curator

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2006

December 5, 2006
Public lecture by François-Marc Gagnon, Borduas’ Refus global and Automatist Painting, for the alumni of the department of Art History, Concordia University, 7:30 PM (in English) EV1-605.

November 30, 2006
Symposium, Antoine Plamondon: De face et de profil. McCord Museum, Montreal, in collaboration with the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute of Studies in Canadian Art, Concordia University (in French).
Download complete program (PDF)

Plamondon and His Times : Portraying the Winners.
Ramsay Cook, Université de Toronto

Le peintre, le tableau et le spectateur compétent.
Didier Prioul, Université Laval

Signé A.P : la question du dessin chez Plamondon.
Mario Béland, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Download Presentation (PDF)

Les stations d’un chemin de croix : une correspondance éclairante.
Jacques Des Rochers, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

Plamondon's self-portrait and its relationship to Venetian self-portraiture.
Sandra Paikowsky, Université Concordia

Antoine Plamondon, physionomiste
François-Marc Gagnon, chaire Jarilowsky, Université Concordia

Antoine Plamondon et la presse : de la chronique à la polémique.
Laurier Lacroix, Université du Québec à Montréal

November 26, 2006 
Symposium on Borduas’ legacy presented by the Art History graduate students of Concordia University as part of the exhibition, Metro Borduas. FOFA Gallery, Concordia University, Montréal. EV 1-605. (in English and French).
Download complete program (PDF)

November 24 and 25, 2006
Symposium, Re-Crafting Tradition.  Musée des maîtres et artisans du Québec, Montréal (in English and French).
Download complete program (PDF)

November 23, 2006: presentation by François-Marc Gagnon entitled, Pourquoi faut-il sauver le patrimoine religieux du Québec? as part of the symposium, Le patrimoine religieux du Québec : Éducation et transmission du sens. Le Gésu – Centre de créativité, 1200, rue Bleury, Montréal, 11.00 AM – 12 :30 PM (in French).
For the complete program: www.colloquepatrimoinereligieux.qc.ca 

November 18, 2006
Presentation by François-Marc Gagnon entitled, L’immense blague de l’art moderniste au Pen & Pencil Club, le 28 avril 1939, as part of the symposium, Clarence A. Gagnon and Edwin Holgate.
The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (in French and English).
Download complete program (PDF)

November 8, 2006
Public lecture by François-Marc Gagnon entitled, Le manifeste Refus global de Borduas arrivait-il trop tôt? Commission de la Capitale nationale, as part of the series,  Tribunal de l’histoire 2006-2007 at Chapelle du Séminaire de Québec, 5:30 and 7:30 PM (in French).

March 29th – May 17th, 2006
The subject of François-Marc Gagnon’s 2006 lecture series at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is the Portrait in Canadian Art.  The French series will debut March 29th, followed by the English series May 17th.

May 26, 2006
THE ABSTRACT EDGE
Robert Davidson and Contemporary Aboriginal Arts Practice

Friday, May 26, 2006 from 12:30 to 4:30 pm - in English and French
Key note speaker: Robert Davidson

Organized in conjunction with the Department of Art History, Faculty of Fine Arts,
Concordia University and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in
Canadian Art, the symposium will bring together artists, curators and
academics from across Canada to discuss Aboriginal contemporary art.

Invited speakers:
Guy Sioui Durand
Mattiusi Iyaituk
Sylvie Poirier
Sherry Farrell Racette
Carmen Robertson

For more information or to register:
(514) 398-7100 ext. 305
info@mccord.mcgill.ca
www.mccord-museum.qc.ca

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2005

December 1, 2005
The Institute was proud to be a co-sponsor of the symposium organized in conjunction with the exhibition Picturing Her: Images of Girlhood at the McCord Museum.
http://www.mccord-museum.qc.ca/en/exhibitions/

October 2, 2005 to January 29, 2006
Dr. Gagnon was a co-organizer of the exhibition Leduc, Borduas et le paysage de Saint-Hilaire at the Musée d’art de Mont-Saint-Hilaire.
http://www.mamsh.qc.ca/

Dr. Gagnon and two of the Institute’s research associates, Denis Longchamps  and Louise Dupont-Tanguay, wrote essays for the accompanying publication Le sage et le rebelle.

September 30, 2005 and October 1, 2005:
The Institute was pleased to be a co-sponsor of the symposium Collecting and Exhibiting Art at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
http://www.mmfa.qc.ca/en/activites/etudiants/activites_36.html

September 23, 2005
The Institute co-hosted the launch of Martha Langford’s book Image & Imagination (McGill-Queen’s University Press) at the Canadian Centre for Architecture.
http://www.moisdelaphoto.com/index_2005.html

SUMMER 2005

The Institute was a co-sponsor of the Sam Borenstein and His Milieu lecture series at Concordia University.
http://www.samborenstein.com/lecture.html

Talks by François-Marc Gagnon 

December 7, 2005            
L’art canadien commence-t-il avec Krieghoff? Au tribunal de                                           l’histoire, Musée de l’Amérique française, Québec.
http://www.capitale.gouv.qc.ca/souvenir/memoire/default.html

November 22, 2005     
Fernand Leduc et la problématique de la matière  University of                                     Western Ontario, London
http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/html/events_calendar.html#nov

November 21, 2005
Quebec Identity and Painting University of Western Ontario,                                               London.                                                                                                                       http://www.uwo.ca/visarts/html/events_calendar.html#nov

October 20, 2005                 
Les jésuites et les monstres : La contribution du père Louis                                     Nicolas   Conference organized by the Canadian Society for                                          Eighteenth-Century Studies, Trois-Rivières.
http://www.uqtr.ca/dfra/congres2005/programme.html#v

October 19, 2005
Keynote Speaker for the international symposium, What Future for which Churches, Université du Québec à Montréal.
http://www.avenireglises.ca./

October 9, 2005 
André Breton, Percé et la guerre
Musée Le Chaffaud, Percé.

September 24, 2005
Invited speaker at the symposium Hot Mush and the Cold North: The Group of Seven, Ottawa Art Gallery.
http://www.ottawaartgallery.ca/exhibits/2005/hot_mush/panel-en.php

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PRESS & PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL

The following is a sample of the press and promotional material from past events and activities that the Institute was involved in:

August 4 to Sept. 4, 2000           
18e Symposium International de la Nouvelle Peinture au Canada, Baie-St-Paul
:page 1: :page 2:

September 8, 2000
Le Devoir, Endowment announcement
:more:

September 30, 2000
François-Marc Gagnon: Professeur épormyable, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
:page 1: :page 2:

October 4 to 7, 2000
Textiles d’Amérique et de France, Musée de la civilization, Hull
:page 1: :page 2:

October 26, 2000
Marian Dale Scott 1906-1993: Pionnière de l’art moderne, Galerie de l’UQAM
:more:

March 6, 2001
La Presse, Endowment announcement
:more:

April 6, 2001
The Province, Interview with François-Marc Gagnon
:more:

October 19, 2001
Images of the First Peoples of Canada,  UAAC Annual Conference, Montreal
:page 1: :page 2:

November 8, 2001               
Thursday Report, Announcement of publication of Joan Acland, First Nations Artists in Canada
:more:

January 24, 2002
Thursday Report, Announcement of interview with Joan Acland and François-Marc Gagnon on CBC Radio
:more:

March 11, 2005
Who Are We? Otherness in Canadian Studies, McGill Institute for the Study of Canada
:page 1: :page 2:

April 2005
Paul-Émile Borduas, Société d’histoire de Beloeil – Mont-St-Hilaire
:more:

June 11, 2005
Le Journal de Montréal, Announcement of Leduc- Borduas Exhibition, Mont-St-Hilaire
:more:

June 14, 2005
La Presse, Announcement of Leduc-Borduas Exhibition, Mont-St-Hilaire
:more: