Exhibition
La Mi-Carême
Café de la Grave, Îles-de-la-Madeleine · 5–25 August 2024
A gallery of costumed figures in vivid colour. Toucans, pigs, D'Artagnan, a queen, penguins — and you will never know who is behind the mask.
“One of the first paintings I made was the penguins, because that is the signature costume of the Café de la Grave crowd.”
The Mi-Carême falls in the middle of Lent, forty days before Easter. The tradition goes back to the Middle Ages: a thumbing of the nose at religious obligation, slipped into the heart of the fast. In the Îles-de-la-Madeleine it is the district of Fatima that kept it alive — three days of costumes, music and open houses, where you walk into people's homes masked and the game is not to be recognised.
Fred was invited in 2022, to the Aucoin household. What he saw that night — whole families in costume, musicians pulling out their instruments, the riddle of every face — became 25 canvases.
They are painted as pop art: flat planes, colour pushed hard, the figure framed tight. Many exist in two versions — a small study on masonite, then a large one on canvas. It was Fred's fifth exhibition at Café de la Grave.
The 25 canvases
Largest formats first. Six subjects exist in two versions — a small study on masonite, then a large one on canvas.
In the press
At the opening, many guests arrived costumed and masked — and a mask was handed to those who had none. Laure Lapierre came as the Mona Lisa; Selim Bichara sang Mi-Carême songs. Marie-Claude Vigneault, who owns the Café, is from Fatima herself. Fred worked from photographs Micheline Cyr had taken of the festivities, with her permission.
Dominique Jutras, « La Mi-Carême au Café », Le Radar, vol. 55 nº 31, semaine du 16 au 22 août 2024, p. 39.