MSVU Art Gallery presents
François Lacasse: Outpourings
Organized by Musée d’art de Joliette
Marie-Eve Beaupré, Curator
4 January through 6 March 2011
Opening reception and artist’s talk Meet the artist and hear him speak about his work during the opening of Outpurings on Saturday 15 January from 2 to 5pm. Artist’s Talk to begin at 3pm.
Organized by the Musée d’art de Joliette and curated by Marie-Eve
Beaupré, this exhibition of paintings from 1993 to 2008 demonstrates Lacasse’s gradual abandonment of figuration and quotation, and his growing interest in the process aspects of abstract painting. A major figure among Quebec painters, François Lacasse teaches art at the Université du Quèbec à Montréal.
In Lacasse’s paintings the idea of pouring the colour takes on multiple dimensions. Lacasse’s systematic act of painting consists of spreading the pigment on the canvas using utensils such as measuring cups and spoons. In the studio, each of his series is constructed according to precise rules and submitted to rigorous procedures of experiment and observation.
Although the predominance of gesture in his works links him to the history of abstract painting, particularly to the 1950s generation of American painters, his experiments with form and his research into application procedures involve physicality in a different way.
The challenges he tackles do not spring from the performative act, since the drying time required for the superimposition of the layers of paint imposes a degree of detachment from the composition. His works, which require careful planning, take the form of major series in which each painting has autonomy and at the same time its place within the group.
This exhibition received financial support from the Arts, Department of Canadian Heritage Museum Assistance Program, the Ministère de la Culture, des Communications et de la Condition féminine du Québec and the Canada Council for the Arts.
MSVU Art Gallery:
Mount Saint Vincent University, Seton Academic Centre, Ground Floor 166 Bedford Highway, Halifax, NS
www.msvuart.ca
902 457 6160
Free Admission
Tuesdays to Fridays 11am to 5pm; Saturdays, Sundays 1 to 5pm; closed Mondays.
For more information, contact Katie Belcher at 902-457-6291,
katie.belcher@msvu.ca
