Collection Loto-Québec, 1979-2009

Selected Works

Close to fifty works from this collection are presented in an exhibition running from November 10, 2009, to February 7, 2010. The works selected demonstrate both the breadth of the collection and a willingness to take risks. Visitors can find established reputations, the young and the less young, in the Quebec art world: figures such as Irene Whittome, Stephen Schofield and David Altmejd. And a new talent, Karine Côté, who renders the Montreal cityscape at night in Braille.

Four major groupings, each representing the strengths of the visual arts in Quebec, are presented on the walls of the large square gallery: photography in its various manifestations – documentary (Bertrand Carrière), narrative (Holly King) and conceptual (Nicolas Baier); abstraction, polarized between gesture (Francine Simonin) and geometry (Denis Juneau), as it used to be between the approaches of the Automatistes and the Plasticiens; figuration, whether traditional (Albert Dumouchel) or reduced to the simplest traces (Elmyna Bouchard); and finally, works in series, multiple artworks stemming from one and the same formal framework (Fernande Forest, Hélène Rochette and Monique Mongeau). In short, a freeze-frame of an ever-changing scene.

With its rich collection of over four thousand works by close to a thousand Quebec artists, Loto-Québec has proven to be a driving force in the visual arts scene in Quebec. The collection is characterized by its eclecticism: it contains examples of many if not all the trends found in today’s art milieu, from abstract art to art objects, from landscape photographs to conceptual prints. Equally characteristic of the collection is its openness to young artists. For example, thanks to the Repérage programme, set up in 1994 to promote exhibitions outside the province’s major population centres, the work of young artists from these regions, little known in Montreal, is well represented in the collection.

 

Free Free Admission
Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion
Level S2

 

Sylvain Bouthillette. Born in Montreal in 1963. Untitled. 2004. Oil, chalk and spray paint on wood. Collection Loto-Québec. 4010