From religious art to secular painting
In the 17th and 18th centuries, religion being the foundation of Quebec society, art was essentially sacred. Each village had its own church, which was the object of great decorative efforts (sculptures, gilding, altars, altarpieces, canopies, silverware, etc.) in the Baroque style. The Baillairgé family acquired its reputation in Quebec City and in the entire region by embellishing many churches in the 18th century, such as the famous Notre-Dame de Québec Cathedral Basilica
, the city's emblem. It was not until the 19th century, when the province's economy was flourishing, that secular art emerged. Artists, most of whom had been trained in Europe, painted portraits and landscapes commissioned by the new French-Canadian bourgeoisie. The best known was undoubtedly Antoine Plamondon (1804-1895), followed by Théophile Hamel (1817-1870) and Joseph Légaré (1795-1855), who was the first to start painting events. Throughout the 19th century, the European influence remained dominant due to the arrival in Quebec of artists from across the Atlantic, such as the Irishman Paul Kane (1810-1871), famous for the ethnological interest of his paintings of Amerindians, or the Dutchman Cornelius Krieghoff (1815-1872), painter of the daily life of the new inhabitants of the continent. Like many of the works of these artists, Krieghoff's painting Quebec City from the Point of Levi can be admired at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, which provides a beautiful glimpse of what the city was like in the 19th century.Modern art
In the twentieth century, Montreal finally established itself as the artistic heart of Quebec, but the Quebec capital also benefited from its influence. The influence of the École de Paris continued to be felt by Impressionist-inspired Quebec painters such as Suzor-Côté (1869-1937), who produced beautiful still lifes, the fauvist James Wilson Morrice (1865-1924) and the pointillist Ozias Leduc (1864-1955), a native of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. To counter the Group of Seven, composed of Toronto landscape painters (Harris, Jackson, MacDonald, Carmichael, Lismer, Varley, Johnston, Thompson) who were the only representatives of a truly Canadian art, Montreal artists gathered around Marc-Aurèle Fortin (1888-1970) to create a school of purely Quebec landscape art, completely free of European influence. Fortin painted pictures of his native Quebec, in particular the St. Lawrence River and the province's flora and fauna, in a personal style influenced by Art Deco. His landscapes often include the Île d'Orléans, a neighbour of Quebec City, which you may have the opportunity to visit.
After the Second World War, painting was dominated by the Automatistes, a movement of dissident artists, active between 1945 and 1954, composed notably of painters Marcel Barbeau, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Pierre Gauvreau, Fernand Leduc, Jean-Paul Mousseau and Marcelle Ferron. Then, in the 1950s and 1960s, it was the turn of the Plasticians, a movement that reacted to the current created by the Automatists and the spontaneous gestures that had come to the fore in the late 1940s, by advocating geometric abstraction. The four most important artists of the time who made a name for themselves locally and internationally were Guido Molinari, Claude Tousignant, Yves Gaucher and Charles Gagnon. Again, the works of most of these artists can be seen at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.The arrival of photography
Photography arrived very quickly in Quebec, only one year after its invention in 1839. It is introduced by two American photographers passing through Quebec City. But the first Quebec photographer, Joly de Lotbinière, began his career as early as 1839, thus becoming one of the pioneers of the genre. He documents his many trips to Greece, Syria, Palestine, Egypt and Turkey. He would thus be the first to have photographed the Parthenon. Unfortunately, these pictures have now disappeared. In parallel to documentary photography, often associated with travel photography, a more sedentary form of photography is developing: studio photography. In Quebec City, the Livernois family has dominated this art for several generations. But in addition to their work in the studio, they also skillfully document the city and local landscapes, so much so that even before the postcard craze, passers-by would stop to buy pictures of Québec City and its region. At the turn of the century, with the development of more powerful and easy-to-use cameras, the genre became more popular and the number of professional and amateur photographers increased considerably. Quebec was home to many talented modern photographers, such as Conrad Poirier (1912-1968), a pioneer of photojournalism in Quebec, Gabriel Desmarais (1926-1991), known under the pseudonym Gaby, a renowned portrait painter, and Antoine Désilets (1927), a great photo-reporter.
As the 20th century progressed, photography gradually lost its purely decorative or documentary role and became more complex, taking on a more artistic dimension. To admire the work of contemporary photographers, there is an artist-run centre in Quebec City called VU, which regularly offers high-quality exhibitions.Contemporary art
Currently, Quebec contemporary art enjoys a good reputation and several artists stand out both in Quebec and on the international scene. This is notably the case of Rafael Lozano-Hemmer who is renowned for his multimedia work, described as the "architect of light". To discover the names of contemporary art, current or past, there are several galleries and contemporary art centers, such as Engramme, La Chambre Blanche, Lacerte Art Contemporain, Regart or the Visual Arts Gallery of Laval University. One can also admire the numerous installations and sculptures that dot the streets of downtown, such as Jules Lasalle's L'Envol in the Jardins de l'Hôtel de Ville, Maurice Savoie'sInvitation au voyage at the corner of Saint-Paul and John-Goudie streets, or Joseph Fafard's Do Ré Mi Fa Sol La Si Do , in the Parc de Notre-Dame-de-la-Garde.
Street art more popular than ever
It can be found in many cities in Quebec, including the capital. The must-see work of Quebec urban art is undoubtedly the great fresco of the Québécois in the Petit Champlain district, which illustrates the life of the first arrivals at the beginning of the colony. To make it easier to discover the murals, some have been grouped together in tourist routes, such as the "Circuits des fresques de la ville de Québec" (Quebec City Mural Routes), which allow you to discover the history of the development of the capital and its various neighbourhoods on foot, by bicycle or by car, from Cap-Rouge to Beaupré, by way of Lévis. You can find the brochure "Notre histoire racontée murs à murs" on the city's official website (capitale.gouv.qc.ca/decouvrez-la-capitale/circuits-des-fresques). It's ideal for those who want to discover the art and history of the site without being confined within four walls!
Aboriginal Art
The various Aboriginal communities in Quebec have made an effort to promote their cultural heritage. This is above all a living heritage, held by the elders, a spiritual heritage based on respect for ancestral customs and sacred or secular places. These communities have created museums, craft shops, art galleries, interpretation centres and reconstructions of traditional villages. In Quebec City, the Amerindians live mainly in the community of Wendake, which includes various cultural sites accessible to visitors, such as the Carrefour artistique de Wendake, the Musée Huron-Wendat and the Site Traditionnel Huron. The Amerindian communities also organize a large summer cultural celebration (open to the public) called "pow wow" and consisting of folkloric celebrations, drumming, dances, rites and ceremonies, arts and crafts exhibitions and various other activities. The Wendake Pow Wow usually takes place in late June or early July, an event not to be missed!
Amerindian artists have been able to renew traditional art by using other materials and new artistic processes, while continuing to draw inspiration from their cultural heritage, inventing a new language in the tradition of the shamans. Today, we are witnessing the emergence of an avant-garde Amerindian art form that is exploding in the fields of music, performance, sculpture and painting. In the Quebec City area, the First Nations Book Fair "Kwahiatonhk!" promotes more than twenty local artists each year in the fall.
And we cannot overlook the sublime Inuit art. The oldest evidence of this art are the petroglyphs engraved on the rock of the soapstone hills found at Kangiqsujuaq, in the Hudson Strait. Already, the Thule people, ancestors of the Inuit, who came from Greenland, were making combs and statuettes as a means of expressing their beliefs and religious practices. At the beginning of the 19th century, the Inuit carved numerous miniature objects in soapstone, but also in walrus ivory and whale bone, in exchange for basic products such as salt and weapons supplied by Europeans. Today, contemporary Inuit art is mainly represented by sculptures made of soapstone, a soft rock that is easy to work and very abundant in the northern regions of Canada. But other, harder rocks, such as green serpentine, dolomite or quartz, are also honoured. Modern carvings, which can reach impressive sizes, almost always depict the wildlife and people of the Far North. Inuit also practise carving caribou antlers, stone carving and embroidery. In order to protect artists from dealers, local cooperatives were created in the 1960s, and since 1967 they have been grouped into the Fédération des coopératives du Nouveau-Québec. While the most renowned art centres are the villages of Povungnituk and Inukjuak on Hudson Bay, the Brousseau Inuit Art Gallery in Old Quebec plays an important role in the quality of marketing of Inuit art in Quebec.
