A major artist of our time, Nicolas Party is known for his meticulously composed paintings, his painted sculptures and his installations drenched in saturated colours. Through over 100 works and a series of large-scale murals realized in situ, he unveils a dreamlike exhibition themed on nature at the MMFA.

L’heure mauve (Mauve Twilight) brings together watercolours, pastels and sculptures by Party, including about 20 recent works yet to be exhibited. The landscapes, portraits and still lifes, at once fantastical and subtle, illustrate the complex and often inextricable ties that bind humans to nature. The whole is integrated with temporary murals created in oil pastels, such that the Museum’s galleries become the canvas onto which this visual artist and muralist – cum curator and exhibition designer – expresses his poetic imagination. In all, it is a celebratory as well as solemn meditation on nature, its representation in art and its future.

The artist’s creations are set against some 50 works from the Museum’s wide-ranging collection. Painstakingly chosen by the artist, they include paintings by Gustave Courbet, Ferdinand Hodler, Henri Fantin-Latour, Nicolas Poussin, Otto Dix and Lawren S. Harris. Incidentally, the title of the exhibition references an iconic painting by Canadian Symbolist painter Ozias Leduc. “Mauve twilight” – that fleeting moment when the fading light casts purple hues over the landscape – resonates powerfully with Party, who sees in it an aura of mystery and beauty. Together, the works and the setting of this large-scale exhibition thus weave a touching and hopeful story about the fate of the natural world.

Read more HERE