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Art in the round >> Learning to paint like rotund Italians by KEITH MARCHAND
Well, you needn't. The practice of painting on round canvases has had a dignified past. In Renaissance Italy, it was fairly common for eminent artists--the likes of Botticelli, Raphael and Veneziano--to try their hand at the occasional round composition. In the 20th century, such notables as Jackson Pollack, Jean Arp, Robert Delaunay, Jasper Johns and Frank Stella have all, on occasion, abandoned the cast of the rectangular canvas to focus on the circular. Tondo Tondi (from the Italian rotondo ) features 10 Montrealers from various cultural and aesthetic backgrounds who have been invited to paint on round canvases: Judith Berry, Pierre Blanchette, Kittie Bruneau, Suzanne Dubuc, Marcelle Ferron, François Jeune, Harlan Johnson, Michel Madore, Fabrizio Perozzi and Eric Simon.
Berry's entry, titled "Burial," features a strange and arid landscape as seen through some sort of warped oculus. Bruneau's untitled piece utilizes bold colours and gestural strokes that are always aware of their naïve affectations. Her canvas is loaded with intimate images that form some sort of palimpsest, chronicling aspects of her personal life. Fabrizio Perozzi wades into the fray with a portrait of a man seated in front of a mirror, coolly surveying the gallery. Called "Croisées," this disquieting portrait references the school of realism. And Marcel Ferron works the abstract side of things with a very simple piece relying as much on empty space as on colour and form. A touch of glass In an adjoining gallery at the same venue is an exhibition called L'Or du feu. This show marks the 15th anniversary of the Montreal glassmakers' workshop called Espace Verre. Started in 1983 by Ronald Labelle and the late François Houdé, Espace Verre is the only workshop of its kind in the province--it's dedicated entirely to the art of glassmaking. The show features works by the teaching staff and graduates from the school. There are 19 pieces in all, showing the many facets of contemporary glass art. In L'Or du feu, there is nothing much groundbreaking going on, but the pieces are technically proficient and the show offers some insight into the infinite variety that is possible with glass. Tondo Tondi and L'Or du feu run until October 25. At La Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, 6052 Monk, 872-2044
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When you think of paintings on round canvases, do you conjure up images of some hairy hayseed on public television, making pastel nature scenes for the polyester set to mimic at home? Do you think of the ham-fisted bouquet of watercolour roses that hang just above the macramé toilet-paper cozy in your grandmother's lavatory?
A few months before the show, the artists were furnished with identical canvases to work on. The idea was to see how a group of dissimilar artists would interpret the same, unusual surface. The end product is an exhibition that is immediately notable for its sheer variety.