The Jean Berger Project

Presented by the Department of Art History, the Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art and the FOFA Gallery

In 1704, painter Jean Berger was tried and convicted of forgery, assault and robbery. The legal documents from the trial paint a picture of an accomplished artist with a shady past of drunken nights and debauchery. Over three hundred years later, Art History faculty member François-Marc Gagnon wrote Jean Berger, peintre et complice? a book that attempts to re-create Berger's life and art while offering a unique look at life in Montreal in the 18th century.

But even Gagnon's book cannot replicate the absent works of this artist. The graduate students in the Department of Art History have called on artists in all media to imagine the kinds of works that Berger might have produced, and to conjure up the experience of living in Montreal in the 18th century: a city of bored soldiers, secret affairs, crime and robbery... nothing like the ecclesiastical images of Montreal.

When:
April 30 to May 25, 2012 | Monday to Friday, 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Where:
FOFA Gallery (EV Building, SGW Campus, Concordia University)
1515 Ste. Catherine St. W.
Montreal (Metro Guy-Concordia)

Cost:
Free admission. Everyone welcome.
 
Related links:

• Jean Berger Project
• Department of Art History
• The Gail & Stephen A. Jarislowsky Institute for Studies in Canadian Art
• FOFA Gallery