The show created by Les 7 Doigts, life-size Riopelle, will close the festivities for the centenary of Jean Paul Riopelle next February. A tribute staged by the co-founder of the collective, Samuel Tétreault, whose father, Michel, was one of the last gallery owners of the famous painter.
Michel Tétreault was a gallery owner in Montreal for around fifteen years. First on rue Saint-Denis in the early 1980s, then on rue Beaudry, in the Village, and finally on rue Prince, in Old Montreal. Over the years, he has organized exhibitions for Françoise Sullivan, Jacques Hurtubise, Serge Lemoyne, René Derouin, Michel Saulnier, Kittie Bruneau, among others.
It was in his gallery at 55, rue Prince that in 1993 he organized the opening of Jean Paul Riopelle’s immense fresco, L’hommage à Rosa Luxemburg, as part of the Œuvres vives exhibition, which also included a corpus of around a hundred of his works, including his famous ice canoe.
This exhibition, which coincided with Riopelle’s 70th birthday, was one of his last major artistic events.
Samuel Tétreault tells us this story in the studios of 7 Doigts, which will host the life-size immersive show Riopelle. At the time, he was 19 years old and studying at the National Circus School in Montreal. He remembers very well the commotion there was on the day of the opening and the charismatic presence of Riopelle. “The whole who’s who of Montreal was there! »
Just behind Samuel, two paintings by Riopelle hang on the wall, with, next to it, a text signed by Gilles Vigneault. No, we weren’t taken to this room by chance…
These two works are in fact interpretative engravings by Riopelle on the theme of the circus, for which he had a great passion. The painter then teamed up with master engraver Alain Piroir to produce 12 engravings in L’Isle-aux-Grues. It was in 1995. Gilles Vigneault wrote six texts to accompany these works. A request from the late Jan-Rock Achard, who led a campaign for the founding of the National Circus School of Montreal which he directed.
All this to tell you that Samuel Tétreault (Bosch Dreams, Vice
“It’s a way for me to come full circle,” he tells us. The visual arts have always inspired me, even if I chose the circus, I wanted to pay tribute to the creative enthusiasm of Riopelle, who created more than 7,000 works! Gouaches, watercolors, prints, sculptures, charcoals, pastels, stencils… He dabbled in everything! It’s also a nod to my father, because gallery owners play an important role, but they are quickly forgotten…”
Samuel Tétreault tells us about an “immersive foray” into Riopelle’s work and again about an “image box”. “It will not be a biographical show,” he warns us, “but much more a celebration of his passion, his free spirit, and his artistic curiosity as well. I want to bring people into his work and into the nature that inspired it. Nature which was its sole reference. »
Clearly, between 100 and 150 of Riopelle’s works will be projected 360 degrees around a central stage, while spectators will be seated all around. The artist’s daughter, Yseult Riopelle, is a consultant on life-size Riopelle, while the Riopelle Foundation, which co-produces the show, helped the creative team bring together the images, the rights to which are assumed by Les 7 Doigts.
How will the circus fit into all this, you ask? The director gives the example of an acrobatic dance number, performed with infrared movement sensors.
“The circus artist is inspired by the artistic gesture of the painter who creates one of these large mosaics, very popular in the 1950s, with the “all over” technique where each space on the canvas is covered with paint. It was a spontaneous, improvised gesture, which was part of the automatist movement. By dancing, the circus artist creates a digital work of art that will change from one evening to the next. »
And what will be the common thread of this life-size Riopelle? “We start from Riopelle’s introspective look on the eve of the death of his partner and muse Joan Mitchell, in 1992, since it was from that moment that he began working on the fresco L’hommage to Rosa Luxemburg. We revisit the images of the owl – which represents him – and that of the white geese – which symbolize his muses, but also the nature which inspired him so much. »
The tribute to Rosa Luxemburg, which is her true artistic testament, her last great work, will be magnified by a duo with aerial straps, a metaphor of the owl and the white goose, which line the large 45 meter fresco divided into three panels (now on display at the MNBAQ). Five circus artists participate in this show.
“There will be effervescent moments of creativity, like the life of Riopelle, who lived at full speed,” Samuel Tétreault tells us, “but also moments of contemplation and immersion in nature, because after having painted intensively , he could spend several months without touching his brushes, traveling or chasing nature with his eyes. »
The 7 Doigts collective hopes that the show will be able to tour, by setting up for at least three weeks, whether elsewhere in Montreal or Quebec, but also in Paris, New York or Tokyo, cities where Riopelle has admirers as much as collectors.
