Micheline Beauchemin Retrospective in Quebec City

3rd Gigue*, 1972. cotton and wool. Collection of MNBAQ,

Micheline Beauchemin: River of Light
July18 - October 11 2009
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
Parc des Champs-de-Bataille
Québec (Québec)

Light has always been Micheline Beauchemin’s primary material. “I like things that shimmer and shine,” she says. In tapestries embroidered with metallic threads, silk, aluminium and optic fibres, she has raised her craft to a grand art form. This retrospective of major pieces by Beauchemin comprises close to a dozen tapestries produced between 1960 and 1985. Each of them exemplifies the work of an artist who celebrates nature, air, the river’s flow and, always and ever, light.

Nordic Wings: Color of Time, 1981. Silk, cotton, rayon, aluminum, acrylic filaments and nylon, wood mirror finish. Collection: Canadian Museum of Civilization

Several of her large creations are integrated into architecture, among them a tapestry for Wilfrid-Pelletier Hall, at Place des Arts in Montréal, another for Toronto International Airport, and a sumptuous stage curtain for the National Arts Centre’s Opera Hall, in Ottawa. The exhibition includes projected images of these key works. Micheline Beauchemin has been honoured with the Paul-Émile-Borduas Award (2005) and the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts (2006).

The River, 1970. Monofilament nylon and acrylic filaments.
Collection of the artist

Museum website : Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
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White Mirage, 1983. Linen, wire (Lurex ®), aluminum, silk and polyester (Tetoron ®), acrylic filament. Coll. MNBAQ, gift of the artist in honour of John R. Porter, Director General of the Museum from 1993 to 2008

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* 3rd Gigue, The French gigue is "lively and spritely" dance music, numbered is indicative a section of a larger piece as in " 3rd movenment", Canon and Gigue - brass quintet by Pachelbel
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