TRIBUTE TO GODIN Works of painter Alexandre Chartrand
TRIBUTE TO GODIN
Works of painter Alexandre Chartrand at Point Rouge Gallery.
Just as Godin, the film, takes the screen at Cinéma Beaubien on March 18, Tribute to Godin, a series of painted portraits by Alexandre Chartrand, take on the walls of Point Rouge gallery from March 23 to April 10.
Chartrand, a young painter and filmmaker, was editor on the documentary about Gérald Godin when he got the hook for the poet who became politician.
« Normally, when I work as an editor, that I watch moving images all day, I can't come home at night and watch television. I paint because I want a direct contact with the matter, to free my mind, and to move something more then the tip of my fingers on a keyboard. What happened with Godin is contrary to what I do, because I brought the subject of the film I was editing back to my workshop. His personality, his character, really got to me and I wanted to pay him tribute in my own way. »
That way was through his cans. The pop-expressionist painter combines graphite and spray paint to spread his glaring colours with spatulas. A personal technic that distinguishes his style from the usual graffiti, the art generally associated with spray paint. Runs, bleeds and spatula strokes articulate the frank colour oppositions to shape every canvas.
But Chartrand refuses to limit his work to aesthetic considerations. As with his previous series (Economic totalitarianism – presented at Point Rouge in 2010), the subjects have to arouse consciousness and reflection. In Godin's case, it's all about celebrating this outstanding freethinker, prolific poet, rigorous journalist, committed book editor and honest politician. A human being who, through all his crafts, remained true to his principles until his untimely death in 1994.
To learn more about Godin, there's the movie.
www.godin-lefilm.com
Alexandre Chartrand, painter and filmmaker
Originally from Ottawa, Alexandre Chartrand came to Montreal to study art and film at Université de Montréal. He gets a first photography exhibit at the Belgo in 1998 and a second at Artus gallery in May 2001.
In parallel, Chartrand works at a first feature film. Denied by funding institutions, La Planque (K-Films Amérique) opens in Quebec theatres during the summer of 2004. It is later presented at the opening of Toronto’s RebelFest (in fringe of TIFF) where it receives a directing award from the hands of Harvey Keitel.
The first film is not yet completed when Chartrand begins production of feature documentary Lemoyne (Videographe distribution). This biography of Montreal painter Serge Lemoyne premiers at Montreal’s Festival des films sur l’art and takes the screen at Cinéma Beaubien in Montreal and in all of Quebec’s major art galleries before being acquired by Bravo!
Chartrand has just completed writing a second fiction feature, this time with the help of Telefilm Canada and Sodec. L'Immersion d'Étienne Dersonne, a Quebec-Catalonia coproduction, enters pre-production phase shortly.
from 23 March to 10 April 2011
Opening wednesday March 23 at 5PM
Point Rouge Gallery
2471 Notre-Dame West
Montreal Qc H3J 1N6
galeriepointrouge.com
514-586-0554
-30-
Source :
Véronique Cossette
514-586-0554
expo@galeriepointrouge.com
Alexandre Chartrand
514-575-6452
alexchartrand@yahoo.com
Chartrand links :
http://galeriepointrouge.com/fr/node/30
www.saatchionline.com/alexchartrand
