Genevieve Cadieux at the Musee de Joliette, Montreal

Consisting of less than dozen works, the Geneviève Cadieux retrospective at Musée de Joliette is like a visual haiku of her practice. Carefully honed and articulated by curator Vincent Bonin in collaboration with the artist, this concise exhibition of one of Quebec’s best-known contemporary artists also launches the newly renovated art gallery.



Geneviève Cadieux, Ravissement, 1985

The lengthily titled Here you may see the best portrait that, later, I was able to make of him. Passages into abstraction elegantly traces Cadieux’s practice over the last thirty years as it shifts between figuration and abstraction. The most interesting discovery in the exhibition for me was a two-room installation from 1985 entitled Ravissement. The work – including the size and shape of the rooms – is meticulously reconstructed based on its first presentation. One room is a black box where an early 20th Century image of two naked women, standing with linked arms, is projected onto the wall. The exterior room features a portrait of a young woman and an older woman, and a collage. The work is intimate, touching, beautiful, and strangely current, despite it being thirty years old with some of the imagery from over one hundred years ago. These descriptors, though, can be applied to the entire exhibition as the works chosen highlight the most compelling aspects of Cadieux’s practice.

This exhibition provides a strong lead-in for the new and improved Musée de Joliette. Also worth checking out is the re-hang of the Museum’s collection, which mixes contemporary art with the religious-based work that underpins their collection.


Musée de Joliette: http://www.museejoliette.org/en/expositions/passages-to-abstraction/
Geneviève Cadieux, Here you may see the best portrait that, later, I was able to make of him. Passages into abstraction. continues until January 3.


Susannah Wesley is an artist and curator living in Montreal. She has been a member of the collaborative duo Leisure since 2004 and from 1997-2000 was part of the notorious British art collective the Leeds13. Formerly Director at Battat Contemporary in Montreal, she holds an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and an MA in Art History from Concordia University. She is Akimblog's Montreal correspondent and can be followed @susannahwesley1 on Twitter.