Sweep Me Off My Feet: In the Mood for Art Love
François-Xavier Courrèges Another Paradise 2005 Video still Courtesy of the artist, Galerie Baumet Sultana and Nogueras Blanchard Gallery
In creative circles, it’s sometimes whispered that a romantic breakup (or related agony) is the most reliable fuel for sparking new work. But looking at the premise and promised works for the show “Sweep Me Off My Feet,” opening this week at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, one might be tempted to revise, nay even toss out, that dull old saw. After all, “Sweep Me…” intends to be a major exhibition of contemporary art that riffs on (rather than rips into) real-life love. And it includes works international and domestic in scope, from Pierre et Gilles to Michel de Broin and Eve K. Tremblay. Alright, there’s sure to be nods to love’s more ambiguous and destructive potentials as well as its to its higher-endorphin, oxytocin-charged chapters—one pole can’t seem to exist without the other, it seems. But in a society (and an art world) that leans more heavily on cynical savvy than it does on romantic innocence, the idea of focusing on love’s pleasures just as much as on its pains feels downright revolutionary. The newly re-released Beatles sing “all you need is love”—perhaps, in the art world, all we need is a touch more of it. (1 ave Wolfe-Montcalm, Quebec City QC)
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Pierre et Gilles Le mystère de l’amour 1992 |
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Michel de Broin and Ève K. Tremblay Honeymoons SF8 (vertigo) 2002 Detail Courtesy of the artists and Galerie Donald Browne |
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