Eric Lamontagne
Peinture à numéro 7
2015

Name: Peinture à numéro 7
Brand: Eric Lamontagne
Price: 6600 USD
Availability: InStock

About the Item

Eric Lamontagne: To Paint a Canvas Isabelle Lynch What does it mean to paint a canvas? Taking a cue from this common expression, Éric Lamontagne’s exhibition To paint a canvas playfully takes as subject matter the textured fabric of raw canvas. While Lamontagne’s warm grey and sombre beige monochromes might seem instantly recognizable as unpainted canvases, painterly brushstrokes uncover their illusory nature. Seeing as the works are created on wood, the rigid surfaces of the canvases are created by brushstrokes. Rather than exposing raw canvas to break the illusion of the pictorial space, Lamontagne embraces illusionism and recreates the textures and patterns of surfaces usually hidden beneath layers of paint. The works do not reveal or uncover what is usually beneath an image according to the representational model of traditional painting, but reproduce an illusion of the absence of representation. Lamontagne’s painted canvas, however, are still representations. The textured folds recreated with paint recall the textural details and enveloping folds of clothing or drapery often found in the history of painting. Highlighting questions of representation, the fold here creates ambiguity between the presupposed boundaries separating reality from representation, content from form, and surface from depth. Here, they become folded into one another; that which is traditionally used to support the image becomes the image. Lamontagne works by digitizing various folded pieces of canvas. These digital images are then vectorized and transformed into digital code, which magnifies or distorts the surface of the canvas. The artist meticulously reproduces the digital interpretations of canvas surfaces on pieces of wood. Despite this highly scientific process, visible brushstrokes and the materiality of paint invite a reconsideration of the highly realistic surfaces of trompe-l’oeil painting. Threading the line between hyperrealism and abstraction, Lamontagne’s works reveal the unexpected through magnification. The digital images are also used to create a series of silkscreen prints, which destabilize notions of authenticity and the singularity traditionally associated with painting. Slight imperfections and Lamontagne’s manual retouching of the silkscreens are traces of difference. The works in the exhibition playfully embrace traditional representational techniques: the flatness of the support and the use of paint to create the illusion of three-dimensional space, or in this case, canvas. Lamontagne’s choice of subject matter, perhaps ironic or absurd, invites a reconsideration of representational painting. Despite their illusionism, the trompe-l’oeil paintings poetically push up against the limits of painting. Lamontagne’s works confront viewers with a playful optical illusion by inviting us to reconsider what it means to paint a canvas.

Creator:

Eric Lamontagne (1966, Canadian)

Creation Year:

2015

Dimensions:

Height: 48 in (121.92 cm)Width: 39.75 in (100.97 cm)

Medium:

Ink,Acrylic

Movement & Style:

Contemporary

Period:

21st Century

Condition:

Gallery Location:

Montreal, CA

Reference Number:

1stDibs: LU476656682

View Invoice

Shop All Eric Lamontagne

Eric Lamontagne

Interaction with one of Lamontagne’s works is, simply put, a surreal experience. By using one of several points of entrance, viewers are permitted to experience multiple views of combinations of two and 3-dimensional aspects of his work that redefine the rules of space. Whether looking through peep-holes, or in experiencing the final effects of his mise-en-scène, Lamontagne’s work courts the viewer’s curiosity and imagination, inviting them to let go of traditional ways of seeing and to enter into a playful relationship of what is possible. The piecemeal nature of his mise-en scène with the steam locomotive engine, paired with the accompanying audio recalls time gone by. It remains unclear, however whether this is a memory work, or from a parallel, past, or future time. The space itself appears somewhat liquid in that the various elements are capable of pulling even further away from one another, increasing their dissolving aspect. The upper portions of the canvases succeed at further confusing our understanding of this space with their contradictory gravity work. The streaked nude canvas left exposed would have us believe that there is an upward force on the painted image, while the subjects of the images are reacting only to the usual gravitational pulls. To further confound an understanding of the space, it is not clear as to whether the painted images are in the process of dissolving or being created. Like in dreams or memories there is a sense of something being slightly amiss, or askance. Suspended just short of being fully realized or separated from a state of wholeness, the scene is both static and yet there is a heightened awareness of the potentially impending series of motions that would play out. Other glimpses into parallel and alien scenarios are found throughout the exhibit, offering impossible views and playfully prodding the mind to accept or consider other possibilities. In keeping with past works, there is a focus on an interdisciplinary approach that merges and creates new realities as well as allows for a wide range of perspectives- while maintaining a playfulness. The everyday nature of the visual subject is inclusive, cemeteries, studios, countryside, fireplaces, a sunset, their simplicity is instrumental in allowing viewers to focus of the mechanics of navigating and understanding how the artworks inhabit their space, and the relationships that exist between the viewer and any of the given works.