VIBRATIONS ON FIBRES 23. A RETROSPECTIVE OF THE WORK OF PAULETTE-MARIE SAUVÉ
MAY 11 TO SEPTEMBER 3, 2023
CURATOR: FRANÇOISE CLOUTIER
MUMAQ-MUSÉE DES MÉTIERS D’ART DU QUÉBEC
241 Dufferin Street
Sherbrooke (Quebec)
The Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts is hosting this major retrospective exhibition produced by the Musée des métiers d’art du Québec. The exhibition covers 45 years of Paulette-Marie Sauvé’s artistic production. The artist-licière mainly presents tapestries representative of the different periods of her career. According to exhibition curator Françoise Cloutier, as early as 1978 Paulette-Marie Sauvé established herself as one of the leaders of the new tapestry in Quebec, mastering ancient warp techniques with remarkable contemporaneity.
Madame Sauvé’s works are strongly inspired by nature and the rural life of her adopted village, Calixa-Lavallée . This same village inspires the Calixa-Lavallée tapestry that is part of the permanent collection of the MUMAQ-Musée des métiers d’art du Québec. More recent productions highlight the architectural heritage of old Montreal and downtown Toronto in smaller, more intimate works.
Both lovers of traditional crafts and lovers of contemporary art will be delighted by this exhibition. The Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts is providing a major bilingual catalog, produced by MUMAQ-Musée des métiers d’art du Québec, producer of the first retrospective in 2020. The richly illustrated publication traces key events in the artist’s life. artist, contains two interviews with Paulette-Marie Sauvé and a text by the exhibition curator.
Paulette-Marie Sauvé acquired her solid training at the Institut des arts appliqués. This institute perpetuated the teachings of a very important school for the development of interior design and fine crafts in Quebec, the former École du meuble. Through this training, Paulette-Marie Sauvé developed a marked taste for the authenticity of noble materials and ancient craft techniques. She publishes works on wool spinning and dyeing, and teaches the techniques involved. She also opened a museum in Calixa-Lavallée, becoming an important link in the chain of promotion of Quebec’s arts and crafts.
Her work is widely represented through the program for integrating art into architecture in public buildings. She has taken part in the 1% program with several productions, some of which reach colossal dimensions. She is also one of the instigators of the Biennales de la nouvelle tapisserie du Québec.
In parallel with her commitment to traditional crafts, she pursues her textile art research in a highly contemporary spirit, developing knotting techniques for acrylic fibers. This has led her to create ballet sets and three-dimensional works for performance. She works with optical fibers and vinyl, and even uses transformer-equipped electrical mechanisms to create kinetic pieces that were very much in vogue in the ’70s. While she mastered the Gobelins technique and worked with it for several years, she executed the productions of the last decade using the jacquard technique. Her research continued in tapestry workshops in France and the United States.
Lecture, Saturday, August 26 at 2 p.m.
Attend the lecture given by artist licière Paulette-Marie Sauvé on Saturday, August 26 at 2 p.m. in the heart of the Vibrations sur fiber 2023 exhibition. You will thus learn more about the universe of creation and the approach of this artist who masters old list techniques with a remarkable contemporaneity.
Reservation: 819 821.2115 or accueil@mbas.qc.ca
