The Francine Savard mid career retrospective which opened at the Museum de Art Contemporary of Montreal this week is an intensive study of this artists work over the past fifteen years. Considered to be part of Quebec’s school of abstract painters this work references the artist’s interest in the making of objects, the history of painting, her interest in literature and the mapping of demographics. This show consists of over sixty works and is the product of two years of collaboration with curator Lesley Johnstone. The result is a wonderful exhibition with beautifully crafted objects that stimulate the eye and mind with its diverse subject matter and powerful colors.

  Although the majority of the work is created in the form of paintings, the word object has been chosen to describe these works as many of them cross the boundaries between two dimensional and three dimensional form, many of these works are displayed on the wall, yet they often have elements of sculptural form. An example of this is that many of the compositions are not displayed through standard painting forms such as rectangles or circles, rather their forms are cut to the appropriate shapes and sizes of the subject matter in which she wishes to describe. This can be are found in her works inspired from watching her computer defragment such as “D=10%” made in 2006 or her epigraphs series in which she quotes various historical figures then cuts out the form in which the quotation rest. She then leaves certain words or parts statements to be read by the viewer yet leaving the over all structure of the quote or statement to be seen as it might be written. This cross between the idea of sculpture and painting can be seen to a greater degree in other works, as many of these wall compositions are created with the use of multiple smaller pieces creating a whole much like giant jigsaw puzzles. Using the smaller pieces to create the whole of the composition gives a tactile sense to a lot of the works much like that of a sculpture engaging the viewer not only visually, also though stimulating the viewer to want to touch or manipulate the pieces.

Le Depot de Pienture 

Her work often gives reference to the history of painting through the use of its titles, historical quotes and its powerful color. The work “The Colors of Cezanne In the Words of Rilke 36/100” is a perfect example of such.  Thirty six brightly colored small canvases are displayed vertically beside a framed copy of Rainer Maria Rilkes’ book about the colors of Cezanne. The canvasses arranged in sentence like form are individually painted in bright flat colors with quotes or thoughts painted in tones about the color. As an example “…de gris doux et subtil”(of grey soft and subtle) painted softly and subtly in grey on grey .

  She further gives reference to the history of painting through her choice of colors, whose vibrancy often reference that of the Quebec Plasticiens, painting in flat monochromatic colors or simply in black and white. Like the Plasticiens often these colors glow off the wall they are mounted to giving the viewer an automatic emotional response. This is shown beautifully in the work called “X Rouge” (X Red),a polyptych where four triangles are utilized to create a larger rectangular composition that looks as though it has been quartered from corner to corner. The surface facing the viewer is painted black and the inner edges of the triangles are painted red, creating a red X that literally radiates off the wall and past the black, glowing in the viewer’s eye. This is one of her smaller compositions yet it has the same effect of her larger works.

Rouge X 

As seen in “Tu m’ Un Denier Tableau” a homage of Marcel Duchamp’s last work entitled “Tu m”. In this work she literally creates a 3-D version of Duchamp’s color study. In this study the transition from white through the grey scale into black, then the tertiary colors, then blues and oranges all the way to pastel yellow is looked at. For her work she has created a HUGE sculptural form which actual protrudes off the surface the wall, layering color swatch upon color swatch diagonally, changing in size from about the size of your hand for the first white piece and growing to about the size of a human torso for the final the yellow study which hangs freely from any surface. These colors literally vibrate off the work and give the illusion of illuminating the surrounding area with color. All her larger works painted in colors often amplify off the wall and radiate into the viewer’s eye, again often giving reference to literature with a word or statement written subtlety in a slightly different tone barely noticeable due power of the color over all. 

Tu m', un Dernier Tableau

Another common theme she visits in her work is the mapping of things and ideas or demographics. Madame Savard loves to map ideas, as suggested in her work influenced by computer defragmentation. “Tableau Chronologique” 2009 is literally a map of influential ideas dating as far back as Lao-Tseu (I used the French spelling as in the work) all the way to contemporary ideas of George Didi-Huberman (writer of  Invention of Hysteria). In this work she creates a time table of thinkers and ideas showing how one idea lead to another and influenced another and so on and so forth and how these idea cross pollinated across arts, sciences and philosophies. Cartography is also definitely the influence in the work humorously titled Moi/ toi/ Ici/ La Bas 2004 (Me/ You/ Here/ There) which is a mitered caving of a continent with an X on it. As in you are here.

 These works then turn in to Demographics as one looks at places and times on then looks at ideas on how places and time are affected. This thought is further represented in the work Sans Probleme, Sans Certain, Sans Emploi (No Problem, Not Certain, Unemployed) a 2-D work that looks like a demographic mapping one might see on the news , with little blips of color for the graphing of numbers in regions. Which then influence works that look like some sort of binary codes or numeration systems, which then look like a computer information screen.  So common is her mapping of things she even tricks her viewer with her piece entitled Le Depot de Peinture (Deposit of Paint) which is actually the view of the bottom of a dried up paint can, but looks like it’s a mapping of our world.  Very Smart, Mdme Savard Very Smart.

Sans Problem, Sans Certian,Sans Emploi (Duras) 

This mid career exhibition was extensive and well though out as not only did it give the viewer a look into the workings of the artist’s mind and how her ideas interplayed. It also allowed each work to stand alone, with no one piece over powering another. This was done with intention as curator Lesley Johnstone told me, part of the planning of this show involved miniatures of all the works, and a maquette of the space in which pieces were arranged until they found a final layout. Ironically, another Map! Francine Savard’s work is as in-depth as it diverse continually crisscrossing and interweaving the themes with which she works, leaving far more to the Eye and Mind than can be seen by looking at one work.