Martin Bourdeau in Toronto
Martin Bourdeau in Toronto
Martin Bourdeau Off the Wall – Hush 2006
In his second “Smart Art Projects” exhibition, art collector and independent curator Stephen Smart reintroduces Toronto to the work of the minimalist painter Martin Bourdeau. Based in Montreal, Bourdeau first became known for images that mimicked the composition of famous history paintings but replaced their human figures with ovals, playing on the viewer’s ability to recognize iconic works of art while referencing the automatist tradition of painters such as Borduas. As Smart observes, “these works are aging quite well.” But after being absent from the Toronto art world for the past seven years, Bourdeau is returning with a new series of paintings that turn a critical eye on the vocabulary we use to discuss contemporary art. Selecting some of the hyperbolic and clichéd names used for paint colours (such as “Artifact” and “Cool Morning”), the artist develops minimalist panels that combine these titles with their accompanying colours to examine the often ambiguous relationship between language and art. A recent six-panel series employs colours named after Ontario’s lakes; the resulting abstract landscapes offer a tongue-in-cheek interpretation of the province using colours that range from “Lake Simcoe” to “Lake Superior.” These images not only draw attention to the complexities of representing a physical landscape in paint but also critique what Smart calls “the complicit conspiracy by paint companies to interpret geographies.” (962 Queen St. W., Toronto ON.)
Martin Bourdeau Cosmos – Moonscape 2006
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