“The Physical world around
me interests me only because it allows me to picture my inner self.”
Greek myth has it that when Pandora opened her box all the
troubles that beset the world flew out except for hope; the optimistic state of mind based on the expectation of
positive outcome. It is said to be the underlying attribute of the somber
and austere paintings of Canadian artist Jean Paul Lemieux’s almost minimalist rendered
landscapes with their often solitary figures that endears them to their
audience. And even when he painted groups of people they seem to be apart lost in
their own reverie.
Credited with the revitalization of Canadian landscape painting,
the softly spoken, gentle artist creates the quiet beauty of being human. In
1967 he said of his work “I have on theories. In my landscapes and my
characters I try to express the solitude we all have to live with, and each
painting, the inner world of my memories.”
Describing his working methods, his daughter, Anne Sophie, wrote “He liked to work alone,
steeped in a silence that allowed him to hear his inner voice and to construct
with brush and paint his inner world. This silence passed into his painting.”
Working during the
latter half of the 20th Century when abstraction had engulfed expressionism
Lemieux expression was one sympathetic to the relationship of an often harsh environment
with the people who inhabit it. Like the European expeditions into a new world
where the hope of a successful journey was the prerequisite of survival.
Lemieux’s works are
one of the highlights of the Eyes on Quebec
exhibition at Ontario’s McMichael
Canadian Art Collection which is on show until the 1st of
February.
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