COZIC. Over to You and Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism
Two new exhibitions at the MNBAQ will celebrate artistic duos!
QUÉBEC, May 6, 2019 /CNW Telbec/ - Artistic duos! Art history abounds with the love stories and exciting creation of artists. Romantic sagas will be at the forefront of forthcoming major exhibitions presented at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (MNBAQ) in the fall of 2019 and the winter of 2020: COZIC. Over to You and Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism. The Gelman Collection. The MNBAQ takes pleasure in highlighting outstanding artistic duos from at home and abroad, revealing the individuals behind the creative act and evoking their shared lives through their art.
An initial major museum retrospective, devoted to the work of COZIC, a duo comprising Québec artists Monic Brassard and Yvon Cozic, recipients in 2019 of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, will launch the MNBAQ's fall season from October 10, 2019 to January 5, 2020. An unusual experience awaits visitors through an interactive, entertaining circuit. Mexican art will warm Québec next winter since from February 13 to May 18, 2020 the MNBAQ will honour Frida Kahlo, one of the world's best known women artists, and Diego Rivera, a leading Mexican muralist painter, a celebrated couple. The varied selection of works in the exhibition will also reveal the work of another couple, photographers in their entourage, who participated in the effervescence of their creativity and helped broaden their influence. The MNBAQ is proposing two appealing new exhibitions.
Fall 2019
COZIC. Over to You
From October 10, 2019 to January 5, 2020
In love in life, Monic Brassard (born in Québec in 1944) and Yvon Cozic (born in France in 1942) met at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in the early 1960s. Their artistic association under the emblematic name COZIC enabled them to develop a body of work conceived in tandem and elaborated by four hands, thus rejecting the myth of individual artistic genius.
The exhibition COZIC. Over to You will propose a unique glimpse of the duo's artistic output, which spans more than five decades. COZIC belongs to a generation of artists that emerged during the Quiet Revolution and participated actively in the decompartmentalization of the visual arts in Québec. In particular, they freed themselves from painting and sculpture, traditional media, by upsetting the very notion of the work of art by engendering a new relationship between the visitor and their works in which the visitor becomes an active, committed participant in the museum experience. The public will have the pleasure of discovering 50 of the avant-garde duo's works and archival documents, in a colourful, highly revealing exhibition that highlights the key moments and seminal works in the output.
A surprising sensorial experience
In keeping with the boldness of COZIC, the exhibition circuit will be entertaining and experiential. It will echo the playful spirit of the artists, who have flouted the dictates of art. Over time, their reflections have led them to pose questions such as: When does a work end? Why does our relationship to the art work change when it enters a museum? Among the new rules suggested: an invitation to touch, handle and try certain works. From the sensuous cuddling of an installation made of plush to the brilliant interactive experience with certain works, all of the senses will be stimulated. The exhibition's design and signage will guide visitors by indicating spaces devoted to interaction and exploration. The exhibition affords an outstanding opportunity to discover the works of COZIC, a leading figure in the history of Québec contemporary art.
Winter 2020
Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican Modernism.
The Gelman Collection
From February 13 to May 18, 2020
Among art history's mythic couples, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera reign supreme and continue to leave their mark on human imagination with their extraordinary destiny, more than 50 years after their death. The Mexican artists are recognized the world over both for their history of passion and their outstanding contribution to modern art.
The exhibition, which will be presented at the MNBAQ, designed and organized by Mondo Mostre in collaboration with the Vergel Foundation and a contribution from Throckmorton Fine Art, will comprise not only works by the artistic duo but also paintings by other modern Mexican artists and numerous photographs that situate the latter in the period during which they lived.
The masterpieces presented include 20 works by Frida Kahlo, including 10 paintings and 10 works on paper, among them the famous Self-Portrait with Necklace (1933), Self-Portrait with Braid (1941) and Diego On My Mind (1943), and Rivera's celebrated Arum Vendor (1943).
This fascinating exhibition will assemble more than 150 items, including 20 paintings by other Mexican painters such as David Alfaro Siqueiros, Carlos Orozco Romero and María Izquierdo, and 85 photographs produced by several photographers of the period, including a superb selection of works by Manuel and Lola Álvarez Bravo, a couple who rank among the foremost Latin American photographers of the 20th century.
The MNBAQ is proud to be part of the prestigious network of institutions presenting the exhibition, which has enjoyed enormous success everywhere, in particular in Bologna, Italy, Istanbul, Turkey, Sydney, Australia, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, in recent years.
The remarkable destinies of Kahlo and Rivera
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) was seriously injured in her youth in a bus accident and learned to paint during her convalescence. A feminist, socialist and fundamentally a nonconformist, the artist, who only produced 143 paintings during her entire career, was also keenly interested in popular and aboriginal culture. Kahlo often made her own life the subject of her paintings and produced self-portraits of great emotional intensity that reflect her physical and psychological suffering.
Diego Rivera (1886-1957) lived in Europe from 1907 to 1921, where he developed a style inspired by the avant-gardists. He returned to Mexico in 1921 after the revolution and sought to create paintings that spoke to the masses. He is regarded as a major figure of Mexican muralism. He received numerous official commissions and created art that is at once original and universal combining modernist influences with Mexican cultural heritage.
Frida Kahlo married Diego Rivera in 1929. A tumultuous, passionate relationship ensued that lasted a quarter of a century. The MNBAQ is delighted to highlight this relationship.
SOURCE Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
News published on and distributed by:
