encan esse – 24 novembre, Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal

to bid and for more information click on link : http://encan.esse.ca/fr/spencer-karen-elaine

Numéro de lot : 6
stars around the beautiful (extract of “If Not, Winter, Fragments of Sappho“, by Anne Carson)

Cette peinture transcrit la traduction par Anne Carson d’un fragment de poème écrit par Sappho – un fragment où il est question de la lune, des étoiles et, de manière peut-être plus évocatrice, de la position des étoiles qui acceptent de « dissimuler leur forme lumineuse ». La peinture, qui se présente comme un texte blanc sur fond noir et recourt à dessein à l’humilité du carton, rejoue la performance du fragment, la « dissimulation ». La peinture nous demande de prendre le temps de déchiffrer le texte, de lever nos yeux et de remarquer non seulement la brillance de la lune pleine, mais aussi la luminosité des étoiles.

This painting transcribes an Anne Carson translation of a fragment from a poem written by Sappho – a fragment which speaks of the moon and the stars, but perhaps most evocatively, the position the stars assume of “hiding back their luminous form” while in the presence of the full moon. Presented as white text on a black ground, deliberately employing the humble status of cardboard, the painting repeats the performance of the fragment, the “hiding back.” The painting asks us to take the time to decipher the text, to lift up our eyes and notice not only the brightness of the full moon, but also the quiet luminosity of the stars.

Gesso et encre de chine sur carton
2015
33,5 x 36 cm
Valeur estimée : 2 100 $

bio
karen elaine spencer (b. 1960) maintains a studio practice, performs, curates and writes. Oscillating between work in the street, exhibitions in galleries, and projects via the web, spencer questions hierarchies and investigates how we, as transient beings, occupy the world we live in. Since obtaining her MFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 2001 spencer has been awarded numerous international residency programs, including the Symposium international d’art contemporain in Baie-Saint-Paul (2015), the International Studio and Curatorial program in Brooklyn (2012), the Cité Internationale des arts de Paris (2005), and the John Snow House artist in residence in Calgary (2011). 
Recent exhibitions include One Day at ELLEPHANT in Toronto (2016), letters home/lettres à ma mère, at Galerie B-312 and ELLEPHANT in Montréal and Toronto (2015), Coming to Terms at Little Berlin in Philadelphia (2015), New York Stories: Twenty Years of ISCP in Brooklyn (2014), and La moitié du monde est une femme at the Grande Bibliothèque in Montréal (2013). 
spencer’s work is held in the collections of Air Canada, the Richmond Art Gallery, the Canada Council Art Bank, the Bibliotheque nationale du Québec, the Musée d’art contemporain de Baie-Saint-Paul, la Collection Prêt d’œuvres d’art Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Richmond Women’s Resource Centre Association, the Art Gallery of Mount Saint Vincent University, as well as corporate and private collections in Canada and the United States. In 2012 spencer was awarded the La Centrale Powerhouse Prize and in 2016 spencer was a finalist for the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec’s prix en art actuel.

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