PAC Museum - From the Lands of Asia

From the Lands of Asia
Sam and Myrna Myers Collection

November 17, 2016 - March 19, 2017

Pointe-à-Callière, the Montréal Museum of Archaeology and History (PAC) opened a new exhibition that features some 450 exceptional objects that offer an uncommon perspective of the vast sweep of East Asian history. The objects come from a large private collection of Sam and Myrna Myers, an American couple living in Paris. Their collection has been amassed over a 50 years period and consists of some 5,000 works of Asian art, including one of the world’s most extensive private collections of ancient jade. The exhibition also includes a selection of pieces from classical antiquity, ivories, impressive Buddhist icons, porcelain, and silks. This is the world premier of the exhibition.

Chinese jade is a centrepiece of the collection. The objects on display, made of a rare material that is difficult to work with, primarily date back to early Antiquity. Emblematic of the power of an ancient civilization, they symbolize the great principles of the universe that highlighted in the exhibition - the sky, the Earth, and man.  

Visitors can also explore the world of medieval Buddhism, with its statuary and liturgical objects. This introductory itinerary takes visitors from Northern China to the high plains of Tibet, and from the Mongolian steppes to the shores of Korea and Japan.

Customs and clothing are also part of the presentation, inviting visitors to look through a prism of silks and lacquers to discover the ways of life of the sophisticated civilizations. Visitors get a glimpse of the daily life of a man of letters from the Ming dynasty, peek into an emperor’s wardrobe, and can marvel at samurai outfits, painted, woven, and embroidered kimonos, and Noh theatre costumes.

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For more information, visit the PAC Museum's website.

Salon du livre 2016 - René Derouin

René Derouin at Le Salon du livre de Montréal

Montreal Annual Book Show

November 16-21, 2016

This year, the very popular book faire at the Palce Bonaventure has a small gallery that showcases 10 books out of 12 written by the Quebec artist René Derouin, along with his three artistic creations and two more reproductions glued to the gallery's walls.

The books displayed also include two of Derouin's newest books which speak of Mexico. Derouin is a great lover of Mexico, of its culture and its people. His gallery is located right next to the Mexican pavilion. This year, Mexico is celebrated as a special guest of the Salon. 

The artistic corner dedicated to René Derouin is quite small and one could easily miss it if one plunges right into the centre of the exhibition hall filled to the brim with great quantities and varieties of books. Make sure you will not forget to visit it.

At the same time, the exhibition RAPACES - RAPTORS - RAPACES by René Derouin is presented at the Éric Devlin Gallery in Montreal from November 12 to November 27, 2016.

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For more information, visit the Salon's website.

MMFA 2016 - Pavilion for Peace Art Catalogue

Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace
International Art Collection CATALOGUE

FREE PUBLIC VISIT OF THE PAVILION:
November 19, 2016 - January 15, 2017

For the opening of the new pavilion, the Museum has produced a souvenir publication in memory of the Hornsteins, with an essay by Hilliard T. Goldfarb, a conversation with Michal Hornstein. The book features of 80 important or notable works and the catalogue of the Hornsteins' donations.

The publication includes Nathalie Bondil’s essay introducing the new pavilion, as well as the manifesto for a humanist museum, to mark the opening of the Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy.

The catalogue was published in French and English by MMFA’s Publishing Department, under the general editorship of the Museum's director Nathalie Bondil.

The book has 124 pages and 23 8 illustrations It isavailable at the Museum's
Boutique‐Bookstore.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

You can read more about the MMFA's new Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace in my previous two articles:

MMFA2016 - Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion

MMFA 2016: New Pavilion - International Art Collection

MMFA 2016: New Pavilion - International Art Collection

Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace
International Art Collection

FREE PUBLIC VISIT OF THE PAVILION:
November 19, 2016 - January 15, 2017

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' new Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace was built to house the major donation of Old Master paintings gifted to the MMFA by the late Michal and Renata Hornstein. To build the pavilion, the government of Quebec has given the Museum a special grant.

A COLLECTION OF INTERNATIONAL ART UNIQUE IN QUEBEC
The new pavilion has allowed the Museum to display its collections of international fine arts on a grand scale. A new continuous narrative explains logically the major periods of the history of art from the medieval period to the year 2000. Four floors of galleries, totalling an exhibition space of 2,350 square feet, made it possible to present some 750 works. In addition to works from the Museum's collection, among them recent acquisitions and restored works, there are on display 100 paintings donated to the Museum by the Hornsteins over the course of their life, as well as many pieces on loan to the MMFA for the Montreal's 375th anniversary.

It is suggested visitors take an elevator to the Level 4 and then descend by staircase to the subsequent lower levels. All together there are 4 levels with the works of art, in addition to the ground floor and the lower level dedicated to the educational workshops. All together their are 6 levels in this pavilion.

LEVEL 4: ART FROM THE MIDDLE AGES TO THE END OF THE RENAISSANCE
Displays about 100 works.

LEVEL 3: THE GOLDEN AGE IN HOLLAND AND FLANDERS AND THE
EVOCATION OF A CABINET OF CURIOSITIES
Displays about 150 works.

LEVEL 2: THE FRENCH, ITALIAN AND ENGLISH SCHOOLS OF THE 17TH AND 18TH CENTURIES - From the Baroque to Napoleon
Displays about 230 works.

LEVEL 1: FROM ROMANTICISM TO CONTEMPORARY ART - From the 19th century to the year 2000 
THE 1ST LEVEL IS THE LARGEST GALLERY
Displays about 260 works.

The new Pavilion's lowest Education and Art Therapy Level features on its walls stylized reproductions of works from the MMFA collection.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

You can also read about the new MMFA Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace and about the publication on art at the new pavillion in these two articles:

MMFA 2016 - Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion

MMFA 2016 - Pavilion for Peace Art Catalogue

MMFA 2016 - Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion

INAUGURATION OF THE MICHAL AND RENATA HORNSTEIN PAVILION FOR PEACE

DEDICATED TO INTERNATIONAL ART AND EDUCATION

November 4, 2016

The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts' new pavilion will be opening to the public on November 19, 2016.

FREE VISIT: November 19, 2016 - January 15, 2017

MICHAL AND RENATA HORNSTEIN’S GIFT
The pavilion is named for collectors and patrons Michal and Renata Hornstein, both of whom passed away earlier this year. In 2012, they donated seventy‐seven Old Masters paintings to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. Recognized as the largest private donation in the modern history of museums in Quebec, it is a unique legacy for the MMFA, Montreal, Quebec and Canada. Subsequent to this major donation, the museum received a $18.5‐million grant from the Quebec government to build a new pavilion for Montreal’s 375th anniversary. Along with their previous gifts to MMFA, this couple, who survived the Holocaust and immigrated to Montreal in 1951, donated some 100 paintings, in addition to their other major financial contributions to the Museum, and to education, and also to healthcare in their adopted city.

With the addition of close to 5,000 square metres on six floors, for a total area of 53,000 square metres, the Museum, which is experiencing rapid growth with two expansions in five years, has doubled its visitors and expanded its size by 30%. The Montreal architectural firm TAG, in consortium with Jodoin Lamarre Pratte, was chosen in a competition which took place in 2013 to design the pavilion. Its architectural quality upholds the Montreal’s position and commitment as a UNESCO Design City. The artistic direction and exhibition design was supervised by Nathalie Bondil in collaboration with Sandra Gagné, and with the support of Hilliard T. Goldfarb and Sylvain Cordier.

STRINGENT MANAGEMENT: ON TIME AND ON BUDGET
Work was on time and on budget. The total cost of this project was $25 million. The construction costs for the Museum’s two most recent pavilions were significantly lower than those of other Canadian museums: $505/sq.ft² for the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace and $577 sq.ft² for the Claire and Marc Bourgie Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art. Like the Pavilion of Quebec and Canadian Art, the building’s design respects sustainable development and energy efficiency standards.

The Museum also established a self‐financing fund with the contributions from the private sector, and notably from Michal Hornstein. With this new method, the investment earnings from the fund will cover all operating costs. The MMFA ranks first among Canadian museums for its percentage of self‐generated revenues (55%).

The photos show fine examples of classic perspective used in designing architectural elements of the new pavilion.

Thanks to a new major gift from a patron (Michel de la Chenelière), two floors of the new pavilion will house, in addition to the existing workshops in the Desmarais Pavilion, the new Michel de la Chenelière International Atelier for Education and Art Therapy, bringing the number of the MMFA  educational workshops from 7 to 12. Several new logistical spaces will also embrace educational activities, whose numbers are growing and are now the highest in Canada. This is the largest education dedicated space of its kind in any art museum in North America.

Inauguration of the new Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion took place on November 4, 2016, in the large open area on the pavilion's ground floor. The photo below shows the white ribbon cutting ceremony.

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For more information about the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts exhibitions, visit the museum's website.

You can also read about the art at the new MMFA Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion for Peace and the publication about it in these two articles:

MMFA 2016: New Pavilion - International Art Collection

MMFA 2016 - Pavilion for Peace Art Catalogue

Centaur Theatre - The Watershed

Centaur Theatre /48th Season

November 8 - December 4, 2016

Play written by Annabel Soutar

Directed by Chris Abraham

The main theme of the play is, "There’s a lot of things we can do without, BUT water’s not one of them."

If you have been following the news and are especially concerned with the environmental issues, than this play will remind you of issues surrounding the Ontario Experimental Lake Area where the government conducted an in-depth research into water tables, watersheds, pollution, aqua organisms, etc. The play chronicles the reaction by the government's representatives, researchers and activists to the announcement by the Steven Harper's government in 2012 that the project will be discontinued.

The play brings forth the complexity of the environmental and economic concerns and problems. And although at first it might appear this would be a rather dry play about the government's policies, the playwright Annabel Soutar, (a documentary playwright), manages to make it entertaining by seeing the issues from a perspective of a single family. The play is autobiographical, based on real events and exact conversation recordings made by her and also by her daughters.

There are only 8 actors in The Watershead and they play a myriad of characters in a kaleidoscopic succession. The members of the cast have a great skill not only to change their appearances extremely quickly, but also to become instantly different personages, which is a great skill in itself. Yet it was hard at first to accept that the two little girls 8 and 10 years old are played by grown up women in the range of mid 20 - 30 years old. And I did not get it until some time later into the play that a much older woman, whom I at first mistook to be the girls' eccentric grandmother, was actually also just a small kid, only 7 year old. Also, the children were a bit overplayed: too much shrieking and shouting from them to the point it was hurting my ears and detracting from issues discussed in the play. But I guess this technique was used to make it appear more credible for adults to represent small prepubescent girls. Nevertheless, it added an element of a caricature to the way the children were portrayed.

Official Synopsis:

"Join Seeds playwright, Annabel Soutar, and her family (including the dog) on a comical, cross-country trek to Fort McMurray to get the inside scoop on another probing Canadian story ripped from the headlines. See the complex environmental and economic issues surrounding Alberta’s oil sands and Ontario’s Experimental Lakes Area, first through the playwright’s investigative journalism, then through the optimistic eyes of the next generation. What kid wouldn’t jump at the chance to turn their summer holiday into an educational expedition? Last one in the RV has to name all 58 lakes!"

CAST: DANIEL BROCHU, LAURA CONDLLN, BRUCE DINSMORE, TANJA JACOBS, NGOZI PAUL, ERIC PETERSON, LIISA REPO-MARTELL, AMELIA SARGISSON

PRODUCTION TEAM:

ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR: ANDREW KUSHNIR

SET AND COSTUME DESIGNER: JULIE FOX

LIGHTING DESIGNER: KIMBERLY PURTELL

SOUND DESIGNER: THOMAS RYDER PAYNE

PROJECTIONS DESIGNER: DENYSE KARN

ASSOCIATE LIGHTING DESIGNER & TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: OZ WEAVER

TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: NORMAND VINCENT

STAGE MANAGER: MERISSA TORDJMAN

ASSISTANT STAGE MANAGER: SARAH-MARIE LANGLOIS

APPRENTICE STAGE MANAGER AND VIDEO ASSISTANT: ANGELINE ST. AMOUR

For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

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For more information, visit the Centaur Theatre website.

Chat Up

Sunday, November 13, 2016,  12:30 PM 

FREE ADMISSION

Join Montreal Gazette’s Editor in Chief, Lucinda Chodan, in conversation with Playwright Annabel Soutar and Beatrix Beisner, PhD and Director Groupe de recherche interuniversitaire en limnologie et en environnement aquatique, and Professor at the Département des sciences biologiques at UQAM. Audience will be able to learn more about fresh water science and the ELA (Experimental Lake Area).

Free coffee and biscotti, generously provided by Season Sponsor Bonaparte Restaurant.