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Operated by the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society June 15 to August 26, 2006 |
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Explosion of Forms and Textures:
The Surrealists grouped together under the name Prisme d’Yeux, led by Alfred Pellan, were still painting; the Automatists were creating rich impastos under the leadership of women artists such as Marcelle Ferron, Rita Letendre and Marcella Maltais; the Plasticians, including Fernand Leduc, were at last gaining recognition for their geometric creations, symbolizing the strength of reason and willpower. As if this was not enough to impart new energy to the visual arts world, a new generation of creative artists with an ongoing interest in social concerns emerged in the second half of the decade. They began to focus on integrating everyday o This exhibition shows more than just a break with the past; it also stresses the overlapping trends so characteristic of the 1960s. Against the background of ongoing modernist formalism, new contemporary strategies became established and the range of visual approaches introduced was so great that they cannot really be brought together under a single heading. A far more natural approach is the present separately each of the key mediums in which the artists of the period worked. Painting in the 1960s
This was also the period, however, when figurative content was introduced. Scenes from daily life, an exploration of the mundane and a focus on industrial icons provided an antidote to the over-riding presence of abstract painting, the impasto technique of the Automatists and the relative monotony of the Plasticians. Engraving in the 1960s
The key figure in the rebirth of engraving in Québec, Albert Dumouchel, trained two generations of artists. The first Sculpture in the 1960s
The explosion of new interests generated an especially rich search for new textures. Jean Noël polished his wood less to retain a raw appearance; Suzanne Guité worked with granular stone and emphasized its roughness; Armand Vaillancourt cast bronze and captured the impression of fusing metal; and Jacques Huet used steel and aluminium and highlighted their industrial origin.
The effervescence and explosion of new approaches in the arts world mirrored the changes that were shaking Québec society to its foundations. The path had been well prepared during the 1950s: the wealth and diversity of culture in the 1960s demonstrated how deeply the newly acquired ideological freedom reflected a fundamental aspiration. At the dawn of the new decade, however, all the work still lay ahead. The young artists of the period were ready to take their rightful place and propose a far-reaching renewal of artistic techniques, with repercussions that are still felt to this day. Clearly, the 1960s constituted a springboard for the definition of contemporary Québec society. Charles Bourget List of Images (top to bottom):
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The 1960s, a key transitional period in Québec culture, built on the artistic values of the 1950s to introduce a new artistic vision that was resolutely contemporary. Overall, the period saw a wide range of approaches used to create artworks, and a multiplication of techniques, leading to an explosion of shapes and textures that reached its highpoint in the following decade. 
bjects, the icons of consumer society, and representing the technological upheavals that were affecting Western society. 
The far-reaching changes in Québec society during the Quiet Revolution offered an ideal setting for the fragmentation of pictorial styles in an atmosphere of exploration and change. Acrylic paint was used for the first time, the new water-based, quick drying paint simplifying the work of artists everywhere. At the same time, a new range of what could be described as “non-natural” colours was developed. These electric or acid hues were well suited to the “techno” atmosphere of the period and led to the emergence of a form of painting that relied heavily on optical illusions and colour contrasts. Painters such as Claude Tousignant also experimented with the actual shape of the medium, using canvases in round, triangular and other more 
complex shapes, transcending he dynamics of the traditional triangle. 
The reproducibility of engravings made them a technique well suited to the technological context of the 1960s – like photographs, they were connected to the idea of mass production. These artistic approaches enjoyed a new consecration in Québec, where previously they had been used mainly in art publishing. At the beginning of the decade, for example, one use of engravings was as illustrations in surrealist publications. 
generation continued along a traditional path, but the second, including artists such as Richard Lacroix, addressed all the issues of texture and form that lay behind the artistic concerns of the period. The geometric shapes of the Plasticians, expressive automatist writing and, later, graphic games, effects of light and shade and light-filled vibrations were all technical manipulations used, beginning in the middle years of the decade, to achieve the desired result.
Artists have carved wood and stone and cast metal since the beginning of time. During the 1960s, though, the traditional approach to each medium inherited from the past was transformed. 
More surprisingly, there was an increasing trend to select materials that, in theory, had no artistic value. Plastics and other petroleum derivatives became commonplace, and a mechanical dimension was added by the inclusion of motors, lights and other inventions that had transformed everyday life. The expanding egg by Jean Noël came to symbolize these new concerns.