Michael Smith - Leroux, John

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Résumé :

Montreal-based painter Michael Smith is known for his fluid and impasto surfaces as well as his ability to strike a poetic balance between representation and abstraction. Inspired by art history as well as historic and current events, Smith pulls from various sources to create his energetic landscapes and seascapes. J.M.W. Turner's The Fountain of Indolence, George Chambers's depictions of 19th-century Arctic expeditions, and Jean Paul Riopelle's palette knife abstractions continually shape Smith's understanding of landscape painting, while historically focused projects push the boundaries of his subject matter.

This major retrospective of Michael Smith's paintings demonstrates his ability to mix landscape with abstraction, creating fictional spaces that show how experience impacts the way we view the world. Layering landscapes and seascapes, the familiar with the unfamiliar, Smith's paintings convey (as Smith writes), a mix of excitement and anxiety of a land, [that] although at times bucolic, is riddled with shadows.

Accompanying a major exhibition organized by the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Michael Smith: Sea of Change features 50 large-scale reproductions, an essay on Smith's trajectory as an artist by critic-curator Nancy Tousley, and an interview with the artist by John Leroux.

Michael Smith's work is included in numerous public collections, including those of le Mus? e d' art contemporain de Montr? al, le Mus? e des beaux-arts de Montr? al, the Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Rideau Hall, and la Citadelle de Qu? bec.

Le peintre montr? alais Michael Smith est renomm? pour sa touche fluide et ses emp? tements, ainsi que pour sa capacit? ? atteindre un ? quilibre riche en po? sie entre la repr? sentation et l' abstraction. Puisant son inspiration tant dans l' histoire de l' art que dans les ? v? nements du pass? ou d' aujourd' hui, il utilise une multitude de sources pour cr? er ses marines et ses paysages agit? s. The Fountain of Indolence de J.M.W. Turner, les repr? sentations d' exp? ditions de George Chambers dans l' Arctique au XIXe si? cle ou encore les abstractions ? la spatule de Jean Paul Riopelle sont autant d' oe uvres qui fa? onnent continuellement sa compr? hension de la peinture de paysage, alors que les projets ancr? s dans l' histoire repoussent les limites des th? mes qu' il aborde.

Cette grande r? trospective t? moigne de la capacit? de Michael Smith ? marier paysage et abstraction pour cr? er des espaces fictifs qui d? montrent l' incidence d' une exp? rience sur notre fa? on d' appr? hender le monde. En superposant la marine et le paysage, le familier et l' inconnu, Smith exprime (comme il l' explique lui-m? me) ' la f? brilit? m? l? e d' anxi? t? que l' on ? prouve devant un paysage qui, bien que parfois bucolique, est cribl? d' ombres ' .

Le catalogue Michael Smith: mer mouvante est publi? ? l' occasion d' une exposition d' envergure organis? e par le Mus? e des beaux-arts Beaverbrook. Il comporte cinquante reproductions grand format, un texte sur le parcours artistique de Smith sign? par la critique et commissaire d' exposition Nancy Tousley ainsi qu' une entrevue de John Leroux avec l' artiste.

Des oe uvres de Michael Smith font partie de nombreuses collections publiques, notamment celles du Mus? e d' art contemporain et du Mus? e des beaux-arts de Montr? al, du Mus? e des beaux-arts Beaverbrook (Fredericton), de Rideau Hall (Ottawa) et de la Citadelle de Qu? bec.