The Lena Ghio Paradox/Le Paradoxe Lena Ghio: A Trip Through Time and Space at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Wednesday, January 22, 2020

A Trip Through Time and Space at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts

Ornamental Plaque: Courtier
16th - 17th c Nigeria
Brass

FRANÇAIS app de traduction à gauche

November 8, 2019 the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA) unveiled the Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery Wing for the Arts of One World on the 4th floor of the Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion. Last Wednesday I visited this exquisite site. I felt as though I was traveling through time and space, reliving human evolution through the millenniums in the wing’s 10 fully refurbished galleries.

There is a rapturous exchange between "works of ancient cultures and those by local and international contemporary artists from a renewed intercultural and transhistorical perspective." The result is astonishing as you view treasures like crafted ivory miniatures from Egypt, China, Japan, and India juxtaposed with contemporary expressions of similar concerns. What I saw is both the survival of original archetypes expressed in the historical language of art from many human civilizations, and the similar concerns of modern artists tainted by the relentless erosion of these same archetypes at both the material and spiritual realm. The schism in our psyche and living conditions and the mark it leaves on art is growing day to day as reality confronts all of us with the imminent dangers our lifestyles impose on nature. If ancient humans bowed to the creative forces to sustain life, the humans of our times prefer to deny the existence of this force and buy more cars, use more fossil fuel, destroy our precious forests to make more goods to be consumed.

Credits and curatorial team

The Stephan Crétier and Stéphany Maillery wing is curated by Nathalie Bondil, Director General and Chief Curator, MMFA, in collaboration with Iris Amizlev, Exhibition Concept Consultant – Arts of One World, Erell Hubert, Curator of Pre-Columbian Art, MMFA, and Laura Vigo, Curator of Asian Art, MMFA.

The MMFA also partnered with researchers Danielle Aimée Miles, MA Art History, Specializing in Critical Museology and the presentation of Greco-Roman archeology; Valerie Behiery, Middle East Contemporary Art Specialist, Art Historian and Independent Scholar; Professor John M. Fossey, FRSC, Specialist in Classical Archaeology and Emeritus Curator of Mediterranean Archaeology, MMFA; Céline Gillot, Pre-Columbian Art Specialist and Doctor of Anthropology; Rafah Jwejati, PhD, Middle East Antique Mosaics Specialist; Perrine Poiron, Egyptologist and PhD student in Egyptology and History (UQAM and Université Paris-Sorbonne); Andilib Sajid, Specialist of Islamic Art and Curator; and Akiko Takesue, PhD, Japanese art specialist.

The scenography was designed by Sandra Gagné, Head of Exhibitions Production, MMFA.

W. Bruce C. Bailey

Richard Avedon
Rudolf Nureyev
1961
© The Richard Avedon Foundation

“For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” is an exhibition of the remarkable eclectic art collection of businessman art collector W. Bruce C. Bailey.

" One of the things that I find remarkable about the Bruce Bailey collection is its tremendous expanse - with artists as diverse as Marina Abramović, Francisco de Goya and Albrecht Dürer - which, however, doubles as great consistency of tone and remarkable depth, " explains Mary ‑ Dailey Desmarais, curator of modern and contemporary international art at the MMFA and curator of the exhibition. " It allows people who watch it to make interesting connections, in time and space. "

I was very surprised by the artists present like a nude of ballet dancer Rudolf Nureyev by Richard Avedon all the way to a lovely Rembrandt print. M. Bailey began collecting art in 1975 at a time when young people were strongly protesting the establishment to create a new world more attuned to what it means to be human for everyone and not just the elite.

Huge mural by famous New York artist Kerry James Marshall

Finally the Museum presents another exhibition curated by Mary - Daly Desmarais About Face.

Three major American artists whose practice is focused on the representation of women: Cindy Sherman, Laurie Simmons and Rachel Harrison: are exhibited here. The works are again on display thanks to the Collection of Carol and David Appel underlying the important role of collectors for the survival of art.