The Tea Party, huile sur lin / oil on linen, 183cmX123cm, 2011
15/06/2012
10/06/2012
Bosch
huile et pigments traditionnels sur lin, encadrement à gorge en chêne avec applique sculptée dorée à la feuille d'argent / oak shadow box with carved onlay gilded with silver leaf, 92cm X 73cm, 2012
Je ne pouvais pas dépeindre Bosch en complet-cravate, ou l’équivalent à son époque, n’est-ce pas? Alors je l’ai peint avec un entonnoir sur la tête, comme s’il venait de s’échapper de la Nef des fous, une lueur de folie dans les yeux. Ça me fascine toujours comment ce peintre, il y a si longtemps, a pu avoir le cran de peindre de si rocambolesques fantaisies à côté desquelles même nos récents surréalistes ont l’air apprivoisés!
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My portrait was painted using only pigments that were available to Bosch in his time. Below is how a few of those pigments are distributed in my work. Click here to read more on my research about traditional pigments.Mon portrait a été peint en utilisant seulement des pigments qui étaient disponibles pour Bosch à son époque. Ci-dessous, vous trouverez la répartition de quelques-uns de ces pigments. Cliquez ici pour plus de détails sur ma recherche à propos des pigments traditionnels (texte en anglais).
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Below is a detail of the frame. Just as the painting, the framing also refers to tradition. It quotes traditional woodcarving patterns with a silver leaf onlay at the bottom right corner of the otherwise very modern oak shadow box.
Ci-dessous, un détail du cadre. Comme la peinture, l'encadrement fait écho à la tradition. Il cite des motifs traditionnels de la sculpture décorative par l'ajout d'une applique dorée à la feuille d'argent dans le coin inférieur droit du pourtant très moderne encadrement à gorge en chêne.
Hieronymus Bosch, The Ship of Fools / La Nef des Fous, 1500
Hieronymus Bosch, The Temptation of St. Anthony (detail below) /La Tentation de Saint Antoine (detail ci-dessous), 1500
Interview With Mathieu Laca on Italian blog http://foggygrizzly.blogspot.com/
q) Please introduce yourself.
a) Hello, my name is Mathieu Laca and I’m a painter.
q) Where do you live and work?
a) I live and work in Laval, a suburb of Montreal, the largest city in Québec which is the French-speaking province of Canada.
q) How would you describe your work to someone who has never seen it?
a) First, I would say that my work is figurative but also daring, provocative, challenging. I would say that it’s not decorative.
q) How did you start in the arts? How/when did you realize you were an artist?
a) In 1999, when I was 17, I remember as well as if it was yesterday of one of the very large ink and graphite drawings I did for a special project. As I was sketching out a torso with curved lines, something happened. I had a strong and marvelous feeling. The muscles instinctively took shape under my fingers. It was as if my hand was guided. This imploring figure that I drew, emerging from a black sea, its ribcage offered in sacrifice, its weeping phallic shark-like head… it was me! That was what I was living at that precise moment and that no words could ever describe. I was trying to emerge from darkness. The excitement of that revelation and the sense of completion were almost unbearable. At that moment, I knew that I would dedicate my life to painting.
q) What are your favorite art materials and why?
a) Oil paint. Why? It was invented to represent human flesh and that’s what interests me.
q) What/who influences you most?
a) As you learn, you go through phases during which you’re inspired by different artists. I went through a lot of phases. Consequently, I was inspired by a lot of artists. But, when I found a style that suited me, that was my own and that really came from within, I stopped searching for “a way” to paint. I have to say though that the artist that fascinated me most and that continues to do so is Francis Bacon. His obsession for the human figure, his incredible confidence in painterly “mistakes”, the way he literally has put his guts onto canvas… His color combinations, the way he distorted bodies according to his feeling, how he was never satisfied with depicting the surface of things, how he wanted to reach the core… All that appeals to me. Although sometimes my work is very different in the mood or technique, I strive for his intensity.
q) Describe a typical day of art making for you.
A I wake up at 7am, walk my dogs and feed them. Then, I go to my studio where I paint until noon. I eat. I go back to the studio until 5pm when my working day is over. 7 days a week, 365 days a year or almost. As simple as that.
q) Do you have goals, specific things you want to achieve with your art or in your career as an artist?
a) I want to upstage Picasso. The problem is that I’m Canadian and that Canadians don’t support their artists as larger countries do. The art market is just not big enough here.
q) What contemporary artists or developments in art interest you?
a) I’m interested in seeing more contemporary painters in museums. I’m really bored with all those postmodern installations and videos. I think it’s time we see painting as a relevant medium to express contemporary issues and not just a relic of the past.
q) How long does it typically take you to finish a piece?
a) In average, I spend 3-5 days on a piece.
q) Do you enjoy selling your pieces, or are you emotionally attached to them?
a) I’m not attached to most of them. Some of them I particularly love but then I know I’ll make other good ones. Selling a piece just encourages me to make more. It also makes space for others to come.
q) Is music important to you? If so, what are some things you're listening to now?
a) Music is very important in the studio. It sets the mood. Right now I’m listening to the French singer Barbara. Very tragic and sensitive.
q) Books?
a) Books are very important too. My all-time favorite books are Rimbaud’s Illuminations and Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Right now, I’m reading a biography of Francis Bacon.
q) What theories or beliefs do you have regarding creativity or the creative process?
a) I believe art is deeply spiritual. More than religion, which is essentially political.
q) What do you do (or what do you enjoy doing) when you're not creating?
a) Having sex. And playing with my dogs.
q) Do you have any projects or shows coming up that you are particularly excited about?
a) I’ll have a solo show called “Balls to the Wall” at the Patrick John Mills Gallery in Ottawa in November 2012.
q) Do you follow contemporary art scenes? If so, how? What websites, magazines, galleries do you prefer?
a) I don’t really “follow” it. I just get a glimpse of it here and there and that’s enough.
q) Ask yourself a question you'd like to answer, and answer it: What are you working on right now?
a) I’m working on a series of portraits of old masters (such as Rembrandt, Goya, Velasquez) using only pigments those painters were using in their time. I had to do a lot of research first to find what pigments the old masters I had in mind were using and then to get the costly and rare Vermilion, Lapis Lazuli, Orpiment, Malachite and other precious tubes. Most of these colors are mainly used by restorers nowadays and only sold in very small quantities.
q) Any advice for aspiring artists?
a) Be patient. Follow your desire without making compromise.
q) Where can we see more of your work online?
Van Gogh (after Vincent)
Mathieu Laca, Vincent Van Gogh II, oil on linen / huile sur toile, oak shadow box with carved onlay gilded with gold leaf / encadrement à gorge en chêne avec applique sculptée dorée à la feuille, 86cmX72cm, 2012For this portrait of Van Gogh, I used in the highlights one of Vincent's favorite color (if not his favorite), the one he used to paint his famous sunflowers with: Chrome Yellow. It's a very beautiful lemon yellow, bright and powerful when mixed. I've put it in contrast with an orangey yellow ocher and vermilion, all of which are against a cobalt turquoise background.
I spent a lot of time painting his skull over and over again. In my portraits, the top of the head often represent the inner turmoil of the subject. In this case, the turmoil was so intense that it almost abstracted all of Vincent's forehead. But I was pleased with the result: a subtly irradiating head, as if Vincent's mind had just been embodied, right before he left to paint at his last location.
Detail of the frame:
Here's another portrait of Van Gogh I did a few months ago:
I spent a lot of time painting his skull over and over again. In my portraits, the top of the head often represent the inner turmoil of the subject. In this case, the turmoil was so intense that it almost abstracted all of Vincent's forehead. But I was pleased with the result: a subtly irradiating head, as if Vincent's mind had just been embodied, right before he left to paint at his last location.
Detail of the frame:
Here's another portrait of Van Gogh I did a few months ago:
Mathieu Laca, Vincent Van Gogh I, huile sur lin/oil on linen, 77cmX62cm, 2011
Vincent Van Gogh, Tournesols dans un vase, 1888Titian on the Loose
Titian lived to be 86 years old. His artistic inheritance was enormous. He was the head figure of the Venetian School, known for its legendary use of color (as opposed to the Florentine School [Michelangelo] for which drawing was pre-eminent) and the Netherlandish technique of oil painting. What I find most interesting about Titian is not that role in art history but rather this particular phenomenon we encounter with painters who live quite old (we see it with Goya too). Their style changes radically. Their colors are darker and they become wonderfully sketchy. Their brushwork becomes so alive! They don’t bother polishing anymore. They have nothing to prove. No one to please. That’s what happened to Titian at the end of his life. He painted as if he was on fire! His Flaying of Marsyas is one the greatest examples of that late ecstatic freedom.
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My portrait was painted using only pigments that were available to Titian in his time. Below is how a few of those pigments are distributed in my work. Click here to read more on my research about traditional pigments.Mon portrait a été peint en utilisant seulement des pigments qui étaient disponibles pour Le Titien à son époque. Ci-dessous, vous trouverez la répartition de quelques-uns de ces pigments. Cliquez ici pour plus de détails sur ma recherche à propos des pigments traditionnels (texte en anglais).
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Below is a detail of the frame. Just as the painting, the framing also refers to tradition. It quotes traditional woodcarving patterns with a copper leaf onlay at the bottom left corner of the otherwise very modern oak shadow box.
Ci-dessous, un détail du cadre. Comme la peinture, l'encadrement fait écho à la tradition. Il cite des motifs traditionnels de la sculpture décorative par l'ajout d'une applique dorée à la feuille de cuivre dans le coin inférieur gauche du pourtant très moderne encadrement à gorge en chêne.
Below is a detail of the frame. Just as the painting, the framing also refers to tradition. It quotes traditional woodcarving patterns with a copper leaf onlay at the bottom left corner of the otherwise very modern oak shadow box.
Ci-dessous, un détail du cadre. Comme la peinture, l'encadrement fait écho à la tradition. Il cite des motifs traditionnels de la sculpture décorative par l'ajout d'une applique dorée à la feuille de cuivre dans le coin inférieur gauche du pourtant très moderne encadrement à gorge en chêne.
Titian, The Flaying of Marsyas / Le Supplice de Marsyas, 1575Sexy Ingres
huile et pigments traditionnels sur lin, encadrement à gorge en chêne avec appliques sculptées dorées
à la feuille bigarrée / oak shadow box with carved onlays gilded with red variegated gold leaf, 83cm X 71cm, 2012
à la feuille bigarrée / oak shadow box with carved onlays gilded with red variegated gold leaf, 83cm X 71cm, 2012
One of the things I learned about Ingres’ technique is that he painted on an intense red ground. Using to a maximum the natural transparency of oil paint, this had the effect of giving incredible life to his figures. By seeing red piercing through the fine subsequent layers of flesh, it’s as if we could see blood pumping through the skin. Life beating from under the paint. My portrait gives tribute to that technical device he used. That intense bright red erupts on the right side of the portrait in a lyrical abstraction that echoes the painter’s sensuous gaze.
Une des choses que j’ai apprises sur la technique d’Ingres est qu’il peignait sur un fond d’un rouge très intense. Utilisant au maximum la transparence naturelle de la peinture à l’huile, cela avait pour effet de donner une incroyable vie à ses personnages. Voyant le rouge poindre à travers les fines couches d’huile subséquentes composant la chair, c’est comme si on voyait le sang sourdre sous la peau. La vie palpite sous la peinture. Mon portrait rend hommage à cette technique qu’il utilisait. Un rouge vif fait irruption à la droite du portrait dans une abstraction lyrique qui fait écho au regard sensuel du peintre.
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Below is a detail of the frame. Just as the painting, the framing also refers to tradition. It quotes traditional woodcarving patterns with red variegated gold leaf onlays on the right side of the otherwise very modern oak shadow box.
Ci-dessous, un détail du cadre. Comme la peinture, l'encadrement fait écho à la tradition. Il cite des motifs traditionnels de la sculpture décorative par l'ajout d'appliques dorées à la feuille bigarrée sur le côté droit du pourtant très moderne encadrement à gorge en chêne.
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My portrait was painted using only pigments that were available to Ingres in his time. Below is how a few of those pigments are distributed in my work. Click here to read more on my research about traditional pigments.Mon portrait a été peint en utilisant seulement des pigments qui étaient disponibles pour Ingres à son époque. Ci-dessous, vous trouverez la répartition de quelques-uns de ces pigments. Cliquez ici pour plus de détails sur ma recherche à propos des pigments traditionnels (texte en anglais).
Courbet censored on Facebook
Mathieu Laca, Gustave Courbet, huile et pigments traditionnels sur lin /oil and traditional pigments on linen, 77cm X 62cm, 2012
I think Courbet was the first artist to fully understand the importance of self-promotion. Since he did not have the support of the conventional Académie and the Salon, he had to take the matters into his own hands and invent new means of publicity for his work. He was very politically engaged and maintained a good relationship with left-wing journalists and art critics that often published articles on his work. He was very aware that scandals were the best way to make himself known so he constantly hammered the Salon with large provocative pieces. He even submitted works he knew would be refused in order to broadcast that refusal and comfort his modern hero attitude. He became such a star that we find caricatures of him in the popular press. No doubt that this guy, has he been living today, would have used Facebook like crazy. I'm sure he would have jumped with excitement seeing his work The Origin of the World beeing censored as it quite noisily has been recently by this very puritanical social media.
Je crois que Courbet a été le premier artiste à saisir toute l’importance de l’auto-promotion. Puisqu’il n’avait pas l’appui des institutions traditionnelles qu’étaient l’Académie et le Salon, il a dû prendre en charge sa promotion et inventer de nouveaux moyens de la faire. Il était très engagé politiquement et a entretenu d’excellentes relations avec des journalistes et des critiques d’art de gauche qui publiaient régulièrement des articles sur son travail. Il était très conscient de la valeur immense du scandale pour se faire connaître et a ainsi assommé le Salon de grandes toiles provocantes à tous les ans. Il a même soumis des œuvres en sachant qu’elles seraient refusées pour enfin diffuser ce refus et conforter son attitude de héros moderne. Il est devenu une telle vedette qu’on retrouvait des caricatures le représentant dans la presse populaire. Aucun doute que, s’il eût vécu aujourd’hui, il aurait fait un usage effréné de Facebook. Je suis certain qu'il aurait sauté de joie de voir son Origine du monde censurée dans les émois comme ça a été le cas récemment par ce très puritain réseau social.
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My portrait was painted using only pigments that were available to Courbet in his time. Below is how a few of those pigments are distributed in my work. Click here to read more on my research about traditional pigments.Mon portrait a été peint en utilisant seulement des pigments qui étaient disponibles pour Courbet à son époque. Ci-dessous, vous trouverez la répartition de quelques-uns de ces pigments. Cliquez ici pour plus de détails sur ma recherche à propos des pigments traditionnels (texte en anglais).
Gustave Courbet, The Origin of the World / L'Origine du monde, 1866
Gustave Courbet, The Burial at Ornans / L'enterrement à Ornans, 1849About Flowers and Butts
A wise man once said: “He who can paint nice flowers with the matching pot, can paint an ugly face with the matching butt”. It’s generally the case of every great saying; we never know exactly what it means, so we try to imagine.
What wouldn’t we do to be loved? I, for one, tired or not, wake up every morning at seven to take the dogs out. Why? Of course, it’s partly because I don’t want to get poop all over the place, but mainly because I want my dogs to love me. When the mailman brings, day after day, my neighbor’s bills in my mailbox, do I flush the stack? No! I put on a nice big smile on my face, knock at my neighbor’s door and kindly give him the crap. Why? Love! And, the other day, when that stupid young brat on roller blades yelled at me to shove off because he wasn’t able to stop and I was in his way, I could have stretched a leg sending the kid flying in the bush. No! I gently pushed away repressing my will to kill, or, at least, to hurt him like hell. Why? Love! We, humans, are like that. We’ll do anything to be loved; that’s what makes mankind so lovable and so many human beings a pain in the ass.
However, we must be careful not to over-do it. What about your dentist? Does he have any choice? He must pull that aching tooth out, love or not. And what about the policeman, when you miss a stop sign? Can he be lovable? And your doctor, and the mailman with your stack of bills, and the teacher when your kid just broke the dean’s office window with a golf ball (What the hell was he doing with a golf ball at school?), and the guy writing to you about that income tax you “forgot” to pay. What about those who can’t be lovable just because it’s their job to be obnoxious? Somebody has to do the dirty jobs!
What about the artists? Almost all of them are normal human beings (Here, I could put a few names but I want so much to be lovable!). This morning, I saw on Facebook photos of an opening at a nearby gallery. The guy wanted so much to be loved; or, maybe he needed desperately to eat. Frankly, it was sickening! Huge portraits of Marilyn Monroe (Yes! Some artists are that desperate!); huge portraits of Einstein (Albert; not Franck); huge portraits of Elizabeth Taylor before she started to droop; huge portraits of what I presume to be a local female singer with surgically enhanced and probably sexy lips. I am sure the guy must sell. Just the kind of paintings people buy to decorate a living room and try to sell at a garage sale when they change decoration.
This is what I find profoundly fair about art. It is not that hard to sell like a whore. Whores can be lovable. As a matter of fact, isn’t it what they sell, love, or some kind of love? At least they try their best to be lovable even if they think the client looks like a stinking beast.
Everybody has a role to play in society. The preacher preaches, the teacher teaches, the manager manages and the secretary secretes. But, what about the visual artist? They, too, have a role to play in society. But their role is certainly not to please at any price or to produce pieces that would inevitably find some jerk to buy it just because “it looks so much like art”!
What exactly is the role of the visual artist? It is not for me to answer. I wouldn’t even try to answer such a question (Remember, I want so much to be lovable).
All I know is that there is an unrelenting justice in Art. If an artist doesn’t fairly play the role he was born to play, sooner or later, he ends up in a garage sale.
What wouldn’t we do to be loved? I, for one, tired or not, wake up every morning at seven to take the dogs out. Why? Of course, it’s partly because I don’t want to get poop all over the place, but mainly because I want my dogs to love me. When the mailman brings, day after day, my neighbor’s bills in my mailbox, do I flush the stack? No! I put on a nice big smile on my face, knock at my neighbor’s door and kindly give him the crap. Why? Love! And, the other day, when that stupid young brat on roller blades yelled at me to shove off because he wasn’t able to stop and I was in his way, I could have stretched a leg sending the kid flying in the bush. No! I gently pushed away repressing my will to kill, or, at least, to hurt him like hell. Why? Love! We, humans, are like that. We’ll do anything to be loved; that’s what makes mankind so lovable and so many human beings a pain in the ass.
However, we must be careful not to over-do it. What about your dentist? Does he have any choice? He must pull that aching tooth out, love or not. And what about the policeman, when you miss a stop sign? Can he be lovable? And your doctor, and the mailman with your stack of bills, and the teacher when your kid just broke the dean’s office window with a golf ball (What the hell was he doing with a golf ball at school?), and the guy writing to you about that income tax you “forgot” to pay. What about those who can’t be lovable just because it’s their job to be obnoxious? Somebody has to do the dirty jobs!
What about the artists? Almost all of them are normal human beings (Here, I could put a few names but I want so much to be lovable!). This morning, I saw on Facebook photos of an opening at a nearby gallery. The guy wanted so much to be loved; or, maybe he needed desperately to eat. Frankly, it was sickening! Huge portraits of Marilyn Monroe (Yes! Some artists are that desperate!); huge portraits of Einstein (Albert; not Franck); huge portraits of Elizabeth Taylor before she started to droop; huge portraits of what I presume to be a local female singer with surgically enhanced and probably sexy lips. I am sure the guy must sell. Just the kind of paintings people buy to decorate a living room and try to sell at a garage sale when they change decoration.
This is what I find profoundly fair about art. It is not that hard to sell like a whore. Whores can be lovable. As a matter of fact, isn’t it what they sell, love, or some kind of love? At least they try their best to be lovable even if they think the client looks like a stinking beast.
Everybody has a role to play in society. The preacher preaches, the teacher teaches, the manager manages and the secretary secretes. But, what about the visual artist? They, too, have a role to play in society. But their role is certainly not to please at any price or to produce pieces that would inevitably find some jerk to buy it just because “it looks so much like art”!
What exactly is the role of the visual artist? It is not for me to answer. I wouldn’t even try to answer such a question (Remember, I want so much to be lovable).
All I know is that there is an unrelenting justice in Art. If an artist doesn’t fairly play the role he was born to play, sooner or later, he ends up in a garage sale.
Comeau
The Happy Beaver, the Jolly Lovers and a Barrel of Powder
Mathieu Laca, Ride, 2009How I would like to show you one of Mathieu’s (Laca) latest paintings. To be exact, he finished it a couple of months ago; long before it was really finished, I fell in love with it and decided to frame it. For me, it was such a precious piece that I took more than five months to build the frame. But, sadly, I can’t show it right now on the blog because it is part of the next show, I Killed the Group of Seven. Sometimes, it’s really cruel to have to play by the rules; rules are rules, and I intend to respect every one of them; but nobody said I couldn’t talk about it so, here it is!
First, I must say that I was never a great fan of Canadian History. Even if I know that those things are important, I always thought that the past was boring. “We must learn History if we don’t want to make the same mistakes again and again”. Crap! We constantly make the same mistakes anyway. “We must know where we come from to know where we’re going to”. Crap! Look at politics, look at the economy, look at the environment, look at the way Religions are behaving, look at hate growing like weed everywhere; I’ll tell you where we’re heading: head first in a brick wall! I don’t need to read any big book to know that! And, let’s be honest: the way History is taught is not always credible: read a chapter of Canadian History in a French book and read the same chapter in an English book and you feel like you’re reading two different collections of lies.
When I first saw Mathieu’s painting called Ottawa, I understood so many things. In that single painting you can see our past, all of King Harper’s reign, and where all this mess is taking us. You almost can feel the huge blast that will probably put an end to all the stupidities we can see daily in the newscast. The wick can’t burn forever! The scene is tragic, it’s funny, it’s sad, it’s gross, it’s inevitable, it’s unbelievable, it’s obscene, it’s the cruel reality and, most of all, it’s totally stupid, just like politics, past, present and future, just like our PM licking Queen Elizabeth’s ass hoping she’ll hit him with her magic wand to make him look more and more like the gruesome sticky stinking frog he is in reality. All that in a single painting!
Sometimes I worry. What’s going on inside Mathieu’s head? I live with him; we spend all our time together; we work together, we eat together, we relax together, we sleep together. I should know what’s going on inside his head! But, frankly, I don’t have a single clue. Sometimes, he reminds me of Hieronymus Bosch: those guys with flutes up their ass, these couples making love inside huge glass bubbles, those figures with human bodies and bird heads eating people, those self propelled knives cutting ears and balls… Isn’t it just like the real world? When you see those politicians on TV trying to convince people that Art and Culture is not important and even dangerous, don’t they remind you of that guy with a flute up his ass?
That’s what I love about great artists: we can’t imagine what’s going on inside their head. I don’t believe I would be able to live my everyday life without those visions they so generously give us.
At the same time, it makes me sad to realize that being an artist must be a terrible solitude. I always do my best to share Mathieu’s world but I know it’s useless. Great artists are modern hermits: they live in a world we can’t understand but they generously give us ways of living in ours without becoming too crazy.
You must see this painting: it’s Ottawa as you never saw it!
Comeau
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