Exhibition · summer 2020
Paradise
Café de la Grave · Îles-de-la-Madeleine · 27 July to 16 August 2020
Landscapes of the Magdalen Islands. Twenty-two canvases painted mostly between February and August 2020 — the year no one went out, and the island itself stood in for the horizon.
Exhibition closed
“This exhibition shows landscapes of the Islands. I live in Bassin year-round. Every day and every season, every bend in a road and every step of a walk gives me colours, atmospheres and horizons that are sublime.”
A path
Fred names the five things that stop him. Each one appears in the hanging.
- 01One dominant colour through the mist
- 02A startling contrast
- 03An unexpected patch of colour
- 04Two blue chairs on pale sand
- 05The colours in celebration at the Café
“The philosopher Immanuel Kant said: “The beautiful charms, but the sublime moves.” You will understand that in paradise, it is often the sublime that catches us.”
Beyond the picturesque
Gros Cap
acrylic on canvas · 76×102 cm
The postcard is not what interests him. He says so in his text: beyond what is worth painting, another source inspires him — music. He compares the depth of Entry Island to a sonata, and the silver reflections on the sea to passing notes.
“All in all, it is a mirror of the Paradise of a song from right here.”
The canvases recovered
Twenty-two of the twenty-four works listed on the exhibition book's labels. Titles, media and dimensions come from his own catalogue.
Gros Cap
76×102acrylic on canvas$1,800
La Traversée III
76×76acrylique on woodSold
La lune rose
76×51acrylique on wood$900
Le Phare I — Cap-Alright
74×49acrylique on woodSold
Palabres I
61×46acrylique on canvasSold
Où est la clef
25×25acrylique on wood$125
Rose bonbon
14×41acrylique on masoniteSold
L'Île d'or
14×41acrylic on masoniteSold
…aux reflets d'argent
14×41acrylic on woodSold
Île d'Entrée-2005
18×28acrylic on masoniteSold
Soirée inoubliable IV
25×20acrylique on masonite$100
NON on ne retourne pas en ville
20×25acrylique on masonite$100
Notre nuage
25×20acrylique on masonite$100
Un seul nuage gris
25×20acrylic on masonite$100
Ça va bien aller
25×20acrylique on masonite$100
La maison de Roland à Émile
20×25acrylique on masonite$100
La traversée II
25×20acrylique on masonite$100
La mansarde d'en face
20×25acrylique on masonite$100
De partout elle est là
20×25acrylic on wood$100
Île d'Entrée orange
18×25acrylic on masoniteSold
Soirée inoubliable II
8.5×30.5acrylique on masonite$50
Press
An article covered the exhibition under the title “Fred au Café”. It is not reproduced here: only its facts, and the credit due to it.
Adèle Arseneau, « Fred au Café », Le Radar, été 2020.