The exhibition highlights nine artists well known on the international, Canadian and Québec scenes.
The first part opens with an outstanding painting by German artist Anselm Kiefer,Die Fraüen der Antike (Women of Antiquity), 1999, from the series of the same name.This will be another opportunity for the Montréal public to view the work by Kiefer, who was the subject of an acclaimed exhibition seen here this winter by more than 71,000 museum-goers. Shown alongside this piece are the video installation TV Buddha III: McLuhan’s Grave, 1984, by Nam June Paik, the video art pioneer who passed away earlier this year, and the photographs Lessing, 1992, by Angela Grauerholz, and Citizen, 1996, by Jeff Wall.
The second part presents The Forgotten Gesture No. 6, 1976, by Ron Martin, Black Plank, 1965-1968, by John McCracken, Le Corps du ciel, 1992, byGeneviève Cadieux, Coaxial Planck Density, 1999, by Marc Quinn and In Extenso, 2006, by Roland Poulin.
All of the works featured draw on the very sources of history and human existence. The exhibition The Collection was organized by Josée Bélisle, curator in charge of the museum’s permanent collection. To describe the selected pieces, she writes: “Alternately spare and spectacular, terse and lyrical, these highly substantial works take us right to the heart of things.” Like the SculptureGarden outside, they form a space of contemplation, through their philosophical and aesthetic approach.