Iconic Montreal artist Françoise Sullivan celebrates one centesimal birthday

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Françoise Sullivan has all the time been a trailblazer. The long-lasting Quebec artist has made cutting-edge works in dance, images, sculpture and portray. Born in 1923, she’s nonetheless going robust. Her exhibition Pastels 1996-2004 is at Galerie Simon Blais via July 15; and an exhibition of latest work is arising on the Montreal Museum of Wonderful Arts (MMFA) from October to Feb. 18. However for the second, she has larger issues on her thoughts. On Saturday, Sullivan turns 100.

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“Sure, it’s fairly thrilling, truly,” she stated, sitting in her N.D.G. residence on Thursday afternoon, her ocean-blue eyes glowing within the gentle. “I awakened this morning pondering, ‘In two days, I’ll be 100.’”

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Sullivan punctuated the assertion with laughter, taking delight within the considered having lived a century on the planet. As an artist whose oeuvre has been marked by spontaneity, motion, irreverence and the enjoyment of being alive, she might have even been laughing at time itself, as if it might ever catch as much as her.

Later this yr, she is going to be part of the solid of immortals whose likenesses dot the Montreal cityscape when a mural is made in her honour on the southern-facing wall of Place Dupuis, residence to the Hyatt Place Resort. Mayor Valérie Plante helps the plan, which is the brainchild of Elizabeth-Ann Doyle, of Montreal mural group MU.

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“It higher be good,” Sullivan stated of the mural, breaking into extra laughter. “There’s one other one for (well-known Quebec painter Jean-Paul) Riopelle,” she famous, referring to the mural created in October on the nook of Milton St. and Lorne St. by Quebec artist Marc Séguin. “It’s a pleasant problem (to attempt to match it).”

Riopelle, who died in 2002, would even be turning 100 this yr.

He and Sullivan have been among the many 16 signatories of the Refus International, the controversial 1948 anti-religious/anti-establishment manifesto penned by Paul-Émile Borduas of dissident artist collective Les Automatistes, that was a precursor to the Quiet Revolution.

Sullivan defined the imaginative and prescient of Les Automatistes and the impetus behind the Refus International to McGill college students on Wednesday as she obtained an honorary doctorate.

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“I used to be pondering, they need to know that we have been pondering (broadly) and we created a revolution, in a means,” she stated. “We talked of revolution, and I feel we modified issues … although on the time, the federal government couldn’t take it.”

Additionally in 1948, Sullivan carried out Danse dans la neige, an improvised dance within the snow in Otterburn Park with no viewers, documented by Riopelle and Maurice Perron. A part of a sequence dedicated to the seasons, the piece would develop into a groundbreaking work of efficiency artwork.

“It was a good suggestion,” she stated of Danse dans la neige. “I do know that I had loved it so much.”

She branched out to sculpture, images and movie within the a long time that adopted — Une ligne imaginaire, a digital exhibition by the Galerie de l’UQAM dedicated to her different output within the Nineteen Seventies, is on-line at sullivan-uneligneimaginaire.ca via 2028 — earlier than returning to portray, which she practised early in her profession.

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Sullivan nonetheless walks down the road to her studio, most days, the place she is pumping out work for her upcoming present on the MMFA.

“In a means, it’s a defiance,” she stated of her continued prolific output. “I can do it, that’s what I say to myself.”

She is going to fête her birthday Saturday by attending a household reunion in her honour, and on Tuesday there’s an invite-only occasion for her at UQAM — “I feel there have been too many individuals who wished to return,” she stated — the place Montreal jazz pianist François Bourassa will carry out. (Sullivan requested for jazz, her favorite music.)

That will sound like lots of celebrations, however Sullivan wouldn’t have it another means.

“If anyone needs to take me to a celebration,” she stated, “I’ll go.”

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