Jacques Hurtubise

by Fillmore, Sarah; Lamarche, Bernard; Spalding, Jeffrey; Viau, Rene; Miglioli, Nathalie

• ISBN13: 9780864926623
• ISBN10: 0864926626
• Edition: Bilingual
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-12-16
• Publisher: Utp Distribution

Summary

Showcasing the major career highlights and some of the most recent work of abstract painter Jacques Hurtubise, this lavishly illustrated bilingual volume captures the key works of Hurtubisers"s formidable fifty-plus year career, many of which have never been brought together in a major exhibition or publication. This exceptional collection offers new insight into the development of Hurtubisers"s paintings - from the early graphic abstract paintings in the 1960s and 1970s to the mask to the brushy and stencil work of his blackout paintings. His latest map-based work, which brings together the passion of his "sun" series and the exotic and hypnotic lines of his "masks" and "splash" paintings, brings his mastery of the medium to the fore. An abstract painter who followed a generation of plasticiens, Hurtubisers"s bright, geometric patterning have often prompted comparisons to peers Claude Tousignant, Guido Moinari, and Yves Gaucher. His unique sensitivity as a printmaker, his masterful brushwork, and repeated imagery sets his work apart as uniquely his own. Hurtubise operates in the territory established between 1950s abstract expressionism and the lineage of grand-format American 1960s hard-edged painting; his current work circles back to enclose his beginnings: a hybrid and synthesis that confirms Hurtubise as the inheritor of the mantle of Montreal modernism. Designed to accompany a major national touring exhibition that opened at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in May 2011 and will open at the Musee drs"art de Joliette in May 2012, this book includes five major, groundbreaking essays on his work. Quebec curator Bernard Lamarche examines the roots of Hurtubisers"s paintings as a result of a struggle for dominance. Artist, writer, and critic Jeffrey Spalding examines the influence of the New York school on Hurtubise, addressing the evolution of abstraction in Quebec, Canada, and the United States. Art critic Rene Viau places Hurtubisers"s work within the complex history of Quebec modernism and its major practitioners. Sarah Fillmore, the editor of the book and curator of the exhibition that accompanies this major publication, will examine Hurtubisers"s newest works, placing the artist in the contemporary context of painting in Canada. And rounding out the book is an essay by art historian Nathalie Miglioni, whose introduction to the book deals with Hurtubisers"s residency in Nova Scotia, his relationship with Nova Scotia, and the influence of Cape Breton on his work.