Louise Robert
N° 665
1995

About the Item

Robert’s work incorporates small poetic texts, often in a childlike manner. She did not utilize conventual tools, such as a paintbrush, but moved the paint with her hands. Though right-handed, she preferred to use her left hand to tap into a fragile creative energy akin to the mark-making of an untrained child’s first gestures. Her work, therefore, has a sense of discovery that is both assertive and tentative. Her poetic texts are evocative and sometimes nonsensical, functioning more compositionally than literally. Her works on paper are often composed of variegated scribbles, and her paintings are rich painterly statements that move between abstraction and fantastical landscapes. Louise Robert’s first professional exhibition was held in Montreal at the Georges Curzi gallery in 1975. Numerous solo shows followed in Montreal, Quebec City, Toronto, Vancouver and Paris, in particular at the following galleries: Curzi (1975, 1977, 1978), Jolliet (1980, 1981), Yajima (1982, 1983, 1984), Graff (1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995, 1996), Christiane Chassay (1998, 1999, 2001, 2003) and, in Toronto, Christopher Cutts Gallery (1991, 1993, 1995, 1998, 2001, 2003, 2012, 2016). Her first solo show at the Simon Blais gallery was held in 2005 followed by shows in 2006, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016 and winter 2018. Louise Robert has also exhibited her work in major institutions such as the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal (1980); the Quebec House gallery in New York (1983); the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris (1983) and in Brussels (1984). She was the guest artist at the Festival international de la poésie in Trois-Rivières in 2001. A retrospective exhibition, accompanied by an important catalogue edited by the show’s curator, Gilles Daigneault, was held at the Musée d’art de Joliette in 2003 and at the Centre d’exposition de Baie-Saint-Paul in 2004. A major exhibition was presented at the Maison des arts in Laval in collaboration with the curator Jean-Émile Verdier (spring 2007). Louise Robert has participated in a large number of group exhibitions, including Cent onze dessins du Québec (Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, 1976); Montreal Painting Now/Peinture montréalaise actuelle (Concordia University, 1982); Vingt ans du Musée à travers sa collection (MACM, 1985); Anarchie resplendissante de la peinture (UQAM, 1992); Art actuel. Présences québécoises (France, 1992); Seeing in Tongues/Le bout de la langue (Vancouver and UQAM, 1995-96); Peinture peinture (Montreal, 1997); Temps composés (Musée d’art de Joliette, 1998); Actualité de la peinture abstraite au Québec (Lyon, 1999); Porter le mur comme le masque (participation in this work by Michel Goulet at Occurrence in Montreal and the Canadian Cultural Centre in Paris, 2000); Femmes artistes. L’éclatement des frontières, 1965-2000 (Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 2010). She has also participated in two editions of FIAC (Paris, 1998 and 1999), at the Salon du printemps in Montréal (2003 and 2004) at the Toronto Art Fair (2001, 2004, 2005, 2006) and at Papier (Cutts Gallery) in Montreal (2013, 2015 and 2018). Over the years, Louise Robert has been awarded numerous grants from the Quebec and Canadian governments. Her work can be found in several private collections and museums, including the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, The National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), the Musée d’art de Joliette and the Collection d’art de l’Université de Sherbrooke. Art historians, poets, writers and artists have written about or collaborated with Louise Robert in a variety of texts and exhibition catalogues over the years.

Creator:

Louise Robert (1941 - 2022, Canadian)

Creation Year:

1995

Dimensions:

Height: 53.5 in (135.89 cm)Width: 41 in (104.14 cm)

Medium:

Paper,Mixed Media

Movement & Style:

Abstract

Period:

2010-