Clément de Gaulejac : Petites différences Les anciennes, les modernes et toutes les autres

The captioned drawings shown in this book were created as a tribute to the many hands that have shaped the histories of art. The training of artists, their historical filiations, the multiple collaborations, the work of research, creation, and conservation, and the various institutions that support them are all brought to light in Clément de Gaulejac’s work.

Creating art, as solitary an activity as it may seem, always involves a collective aspect. How is the necessary solidarity among artists built despite rivalries and asymmetrical, sometimes prickly relationships? How can the individualism of creation and the construction of interpretive communities be reconciled? What happens when such mind-cloud formations make rules that can be applied only by individuals?

Composed of thirty-eight captioned drawings from the collection of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, this work, created by the artist Clément de Gaulejac, continues a series begun in 2011 with Livre noir de l’art conceptuel, followed by Grande École in 2012, then Les artistes in 2017. This new book extends his reflection on “standard practices,” a set of laws that are constantly being updated and are therefore impossible to enunciate, although they do govern the art world.

Bilingual, the publication includes a complete documentation of the work, accompanied by a text by the curator of the museum’s collection, Marie-Eve Beaupré.

Artist

Artist, author, and illustrator Clément de Gaulejac has lived and worked in Montréal since the early 2000s. His work has been shown, among others, at Galerie UQO (Les maitres du monde sont des gens, 2019; touring 2021–23 at Écart in Rouyn-Noranda, Plein Sud in Longueuil, and the Musée régional de Rimouski); at VOX, centre de l’image contemporaine (Les naufrageurs, 2015); and at AXENÉO7 (Monuments aux morts de la Liberté, 2015). He created the fountain titled Bottes de pluie, an artwork integrated with architecture at the Bibliothèque Maisonneuve in Montréal (Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, 2022). In 2021, he was the winner of the research grant from the Grantham Foundation for the Arts and the Environment. His residency gave rise to the publication of an essay in Les cahiers de la Fondation titled “Ligne claire et contours flous” (2022). Also in 2022, he published Tu vois ce que je veux dire ? Illustrations, métaphores et autres images qui parlent, a theoretical essay drawn from his PhD dissertation in art studies and practices, with the Terrains vagues collection of the PUM. As an illustrator, he regularly contributes to newspapers, magazines, and publishing houses and, since the 2012 student strike, he has been producing posters supporting social and political movements.

Writer

Marie-Eve Beaupré is the curator of the collection at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal since 2016. She contributes to the development of acquisitions and exhibitions of the permanent collection. Over the past fifteen years, she has collaborated with various institutions, museums, galleries and artist-run centers as a curator, writer, administrator and jury member. She has held the position of Curator of Contemporary Quebec and Canadian Art and was the recipient of the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Chair at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (2014-2016), collaborated with the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec on exhibition and research projects (2010-2014) and worked as curator and researcher at the Galerie de l’UQAM (2004-2012). As an art historian and field practitioner, she has been involved in several inventories, including the studios of Guido Molinari, Edmund Alleyn, Sylvia Safdie, John Heward and Betty Goodwin.

Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

As the first institution in Canada devoted exclusively to contemporary art, the MAC is committed to demonstrating the fundamental role of contemporary art in our society. To this end, it offers visitors a range of artistic and educational activities that introduce the general public to contemporary art. With the strength of its half-century of existence, the Museum defends its mission with ever greater conviction: to make contemporary Quebec art known, promoted and preserved, and to ensure a presence for international contemporary art through acquisitions, exhibitions and other activities.