I love visiting Saskatoon's world-class art gallery. With a membership I can wander in, check out whatever catches my eye, take time to read the panels. No need to feel compelled to rush around and see everything.
The exhibitions change regularly and if I lived in Saskatoon I'd go even more often.
As you know, this contemporary stuff is sometimes a mystery. It calls for an open mind, curiosity, a willingness to accept unknown perspectives, a sense of humour, a mood that's receptive to non-verbal communication. I don't try too hard to "get it", sometimes you just have to experience it.
As the sign says, Don't touch the artwork, let it touch you.
An Apology, A Pill, A Ritual, A Resistance was an engaging exhibition this summer that explored pain, remedies, medicines that can cure and harm, acts that lead to healing and well-being. A powerful and beautiful way to communicate realities that have been in the news recently.
I saw grey blankets tied with red ribbons on the floor. Each blanket had a colourful little patch of bead work, and I remembered the story of blankets that were intentionally embedded with smallpox before they were traded to indigenous people.
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Did you know the Remai Modern holds the most comprehensive collection of Picasso linocuts in the world? That happened thanks to a connection with the prairie town of Eston, Saskatchewan.
Fred Mulder, a UK art dealer who is one of the world's leading specialists in Picasso's printmaking, just happened to grow up in Eston. He sold the collection to the Remai family of Saskatoon in 2012, who then donated it to the gallery.
(I remember seeing a Picasso print in the museum at Eston and had no idea it was probably an authentic linocut.)
In 2014, Mulder made a gift of 23 Picasso ceramics to the Remai Modern, as well as additional linocuts which brought the linocut collection of the cubist master to a total of 406 works.
An impressive addition to the Remai's total collection of over 8,000 works.
Sometimes I just don't feel like being bombarded with invitations to buy stuff at the mall. I'll go to the Remai instead, an art museum with large spaces, high-ceilings and calmness, a cathedral for our times. And relatively Covid proof too.
