{"id":42492,"date":"2019-04-02T20:07:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-03T00:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artoronto.ca\/?p=42492"},"modified":"2019-06-03T19:21:34","modified_gmt":"2019-06-03T23:21:34","slug":"patrice-charbonneau-at-lonsdale-gallery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/v2.artoronto.ca\/?p=42492","title":{"rendered":"Patrice Charbonneau at Lonsdale Gallery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This exhibition is titled In Medias Res<\/em>, which translates from latin as in the middle of\nthings. As with a novel, therefore, we are encouraged to see Charbonneau\u2019s\npaintings as part of a narrative not at its inception but already in full\nswing. As such the viewer is dropped into the middle of the action with no\nintroduction. This also aptly describes the viewer\u2019s experience on first encountering\nthese complex acrylic paintings, with hints of spray paint, on canvas and\nmylar. At first glance the paintings are difficult to work out. I struggled to\nsee beyond the richly coloured variegated surfaces ranging from patches of\nstained bare canvas to passages of thick impasto paint. Yes, I thought, they\nare gorgeous to look at, but how, I asked myself, does one enter<\/em> these paintings? Slowly it turns out. It takes work, but it\nis very much worth it.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Installation view of Patrice Charbonneau, In Medias Res<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is immediately clear is that these paintings are depictions of spaces from a personal perspective. There are sketchily drawn architectural elements, pieces of furniture and snatches of landscapes. The sketchiness is best characterised as the economical rendering of space, in the same way as Francis Bacon often rendered space by putting down just a few thin lines of paint over a flat area of colour. Such rendering is on full display in Charbonneau\u2019s study on mylar titled Vertical Stress I<\/em>, for example. The way he renders space more generally gives his paintings a psychological dimension. They are psychological maps one might say. Places are represented from a multiplicity of angles \u2013 in a way that is faithful to his experiences of them over time.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrice Charbonneau, Vertical Stress I, 2017, acrylic and aerosol on mylar, 70 x 36 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

What is the motivation for Charbonneau\u2019s subject matter? He depicts, in his quasi-abstract style, schoolyards, baseball fields (as in his painting Camp de Base<\/em>), stores and offices. He is influenced by his training and a proclivity to reflect on his own experiences of living in the city of Montreal. He trained as an architect, though from the beginning of his studies he took art classes. The program he was enrolled in was based on the Bauhaus approach, that is, a comprehensive training in the arts and design. While this helps to explain the urban themes in his work it is not the whole story. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrice Charbonneau, Camp de base<\/em>, 2017, acrylic and aerosol on mylar, 36 x 47 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

In addition, Charbonneau cites as a major influence the ideas of the Situationist International<\/em>. This diverse collecton of politically motivated artists and writers were active mainly in the 1950s and 60s and centred on Paris. The situationists maintained that modern capitalist society aims to substitute genuine human interaction with ersatz social relations that promote uninhibited consumption. Autonomous human action is thus replaced by passive consumption. The urban environment, accordingly, is shaped to facilitate this consumerism. The free spirit \u2013 the artist, writer, poet and so on \u2013 is urged to resist this encroachment on the possibility of true lived experiences by creating what the situationists called situations<\/em>. These are spontaneously created events that express freedom of action and genuine social interaction. One type of event or action that the situationists practised, in the urban centre of Paris especially, was to go for extended walks without having any predetermined destination. This process they called d\u00e9rive<\/em>. These were acts aimed at taking back control of their city \u2013 to redraw its map rather than blindly adhering to the predictable routes laid out by the consumer way of life. The urban environment, therefore, is reimagined as an arena of free play. This is one of the key ideas, I hazard, that guides Charbonneau\u2019s creative acts as a painter. He aims to take possession of his own environment by recreating it in paint.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrice Charbonneau, Strip-Mall<\/em>, 2018, acrylic and aerosol on canvas, 47 x 67 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

By way of illustration, consider the account he offered me of how he came to produce the pair of paintings titled Silencia I <\/em>and Silencia<\/em> II<\/em>. One day, while staying in Paris, he was watching a television news report about an earthquake in Mexico City. On the screen he saw the scene of a flattened building through which rescue workers were searching for survivors. There appeared on the site at that moment a man who held aloft a hand written sign that read \u2018Silencia\u2019. Immediately, Charbonneau observed, the noise around subsided leading to a poignant silence. At this same moment Charbonneau picked up the sounds, outside his own apartment, of children playing in a schoolyard. This spontaneous juxtaposition struck him deeply and inspired the two images of these paintings, namely of a flattened building and of a schoolyard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Patrice Charbonneau, Silencia I<\/em>, diptych, 2018, acrylic and aerosol on canvas, 35 x 47 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Patrice Charbonneau, Silencia II<\/em>, diptych, 2018, acrylic and aerosol on canvas, 35 x 47 inches<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There is a depth to Charbonneau\u2019s work that is perhaps at first easy to overlook. It is a depth both in the thinking behind it and in the painting techniques he has assiduously developed over many years. But once you have found your way into these paintings you will appreciate just how rich and rewarding they are. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hugh Alcock<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Images are courtesy of Lonsdale Gallery<\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Exhibition information: Patrice Charbonneau, In Medias Res, <\/em>March 23 \u2013 April 28, 2019, Lonsdale Gallery, 410 Spadina Rd. Toronto. Gallery hours: Gallery hours: Wed\u2013Sun 11 am \u2013 5 pm.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Hugh Alcock<\/strong><\/p>\n

once you have found your way into these paintings you will appreciate just how rich and rewarding they are<\/p>\n

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