Contemporary Art. Being a lover of ancient Mediterranean art (mainly the ancient Egyptians and of the ancient Greeks), my visit to the Musee d’art contemporain in Montreal, Quebec can be boiled down to one word: bizarre. And then perhaps throw in imaginative and abstract afterwards to be less biased.
I entered into the musee d’art contemporain expecting the expected – extremely thought provoking (leaning more on the side of disturbing) and odd bits and pieces, photos and paintings, that were put together that really shouldn’t have been. Like the orange peels attached to the end of string and made to resemble a wind chime- fan and everything, like the two pages in a dictionary with random words randomly sliced out, and-my favourite- like the piece of scrap paper completely shaded over by red crayon scribbles. My mind obviously didn’t comprehend the fantastically and worldly thoughts of these artists.
However, there were several pieces in the musee d’art contemporain that did impress me quite a bit, beyond my meager understanding of what three straight red brush strokes on a creamy white canvas represented. It was a sculpture of a yeti that held me most in awe. It was a larger that life figure that looked like Bigfoot, creamy white and fleecy hair covering its incomplete and open torso and lower body. A staircase of reflective (mirrors?) shingles encircled the yeti, but yet, the structure was almost very realistic.
They also had a beautiful carved piano, crafted out of pepper and salt wood, with abstract keys above the regular piano keys, (I assume only appearing on older models), that humorously displayed, “Take off your pants,” “Bored” and other silly thoughts one might ponder playing at the piano. Did I get you at salt and pepper wood? At first glance , the upright piano appeared to be genuinely carved out of wood, painted with utter mastery, and it wasn’t until a walk around the back of the piano that the whole piano was constructed out of paper. Every key and every pedal. What a masterpiece ( I cannot really say that same about the row of Bach’s head bust lined up and each individually rotated to imitate the turning of his head).
Overall, the musee d’art contemporain did raise my level of respect for contemporary art (my other friends may not agree with this statement- one commented on how, in fact, contemporary art gave her faith that one did not need talent to be an artist). Some of the pieces of contemporary art were truly wonder pieces of art that were quite creative and expressive. If you do ever happen to visit the musee d’art contemporain, I recommend dropping any preconceived notions of contemporary art you may have, letting it fall at the entrance, until having it catch up and run you down when you notice that the Government of Canada probably paid over three grand for a huge canvas that is completely covered in black acrylic paint. Or three bright red brush stokes across a giant white canvas.