Guy Boutin Commentary

The Drawers - Guy Boutin Commentary written by Daniel Erban

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Inde-Picks (Independent Curator's Selection)

For the past twenty years Guy Boutin has been intensely involve in drawings as a primary visual investigation. His method of working is to use a brush with acrylic paint directly and spontaneously on paper. The size of his work spans from small to huge mural .As a result Mr Boutin has developed a unique and recognizable style that has been consciously and deliberately appropriated by many artists in Quebec.

Every time Guy Boutin works he draws faces and these faces are the vehicles of his narratives. One of his narratives is based on relationships like the post-modern narrative of the artist and his model.

Guy Boutin does not decorate he tells stories. He narrates the tragedy and excitements that he sees around himself in the present tense. In the body of work that I chose for this show the artist is always present and the other person is always represented as the model.

This approach produces a strong, personal and convincing body of work that helps us come to terms with relationship, both consensual and none consensual. A relationship between violent, distressing or difficult situations that we constantly witness everyday.

Mr Boutin has studied art in the early 80`s at UQAM, Université du Quebec à Montreal. Right from the beginning of his career, he developed a unique approach to drawings that has been very influential in the graphical narratives in Quebec visual culture, and that has swept the province since the demise of the Hard Edge base Art of the sixty and early seventies.

The best way to understand his art is to notice the presence of the random marks and stains as a dominating visual vocabulary. The sense of spontaneity and control that we feel keeps everything urgent and new.

Since the weakening of art reporting, art criticism and art documentation in Canada that has occurred from the seventies to the present times, it is difficult to understand what is happening in contemporary Quebec art. For this reason I wanted to know more about his art. When visiting Guy's studio I was confronted with thousands of artwork. Works on paper and works on canvas. I was excited to see an artist as intense as can possible be imagined and for this reason I am convinced more than ever that this artist is an influential figure in the Quebec art scene.