Showcasing the major career highlights and some of the most recent work of abstract painter Jacques Hurtubise, this lavishly illustrated bilingual volume captures the key works of Hurtubise's formidable fifty-plus year career, many of which have never been brought together in a major exhibition or publication.

This exceptional collection offers new insight into the development of Hurtubise's paintings -- from the early graphic abstract paintings in the 1960s and 1970s to the mask to the brushy and stencil work of his blackout paintings. His latest map-based work, which brings together the passion of his "sun" series and the exotic and hypnotic lines of his "masks" and "splash" paintings, brings his mastery of the medium to the fore.

An abstract painter who followed a generation of plasticiens, Hurtubise's bright, geometric patterning have often prompted comparisons to peers Claude Tousignant, Guido Moinari, and Yves Gaucher. His unique sensitivity as a printmaker, his masterful brushwork, and repeated imagery sets his work apart as uniquely his own. Hurtubise operates in the territory established between 1950s abstract expressionism and the lineage of grand-format American 1960s hard-edged painting; his current work circles back to enclose his beginnings: a hybrid and synthesis that confirms Hurtubise as the inheritor of the mantle of Montreal modernism.

Designed to accompany a major national touring exhibition that opened at the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia in May 2011 and will open at the Musee d'art de Joliette in May 2012, this book includes five major, groundbreaking essays on his work. Quebec curator Bernard Lamarche examines the roots of Hurtubise's paintings as a result of a struggle for dominance. Artist, writer, and critic Jeffrey Spalding examines the influence of the New York school on Hurtubise, addressing the evolution of abstraction in Quebec, Canada, and the United States. Art critic Rene Viau places Hurtubise's work within the complex history of Quebec modernism and its major practitioners. Sarah Fillmore, the editor of the book and curator of the exhibition that accompanies this major publication, will examine Hurtubise's newest works, placing the artist in the contemporary context of painting in Canada. And rounding out the book is an essay by art historian Nathalie Miglioni, whose introduction to the book deals with Hurtubise's residency in Nova Scotia, his relationship with Nova Scotia, and the influence of Cape Breton on his work.

Cette monographie abondamment illustree presente les principaux jalons de plus de cinquante ans de carriere de l'artiste Jacques Hurtubise. On y recense sa production actuelle ainsi que ses oeuvres phares, dont un grand nombre n'avaient jamais ete reunies auparavant.

La compilation exceptionnelle permet de mieux comprendre l'evolution d'Hurtubise, depuis ses premiers travaux graphiques des annees 1960 et 1970 jusqu'a ses masques, ses tableaux aux traits ardents et le recours au stencil dans sa serie Blackout. Ses oeuvres plus recentes realisees a partir de cartes routieres -- qui allient la passion qui habite ses soleils et les lignes exotiques et hypnotiques de ses masques et de ses eclaboussures -- temoignent de sa pleine maitrise des techniques les plus variees.

Les formes geometriques abstraites aux couleurs vives de cet artiste qui a succede a la generation des plasticiens ont souvent suscite des comparaisons avec Claude Tousignant, Guido Molinari et Yves Gaucher. Toutefois, la sensibilite particulierement manifeste d'Hurtubise dans ses gravures, sa technique maitrisee de la peinture et la repetition des motifs le distinguent de ses contemporains.

Concu pour accompagner une retrospective organisee par le Musee des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Ecosse et presentee en tournee nationale, l'ouvrage Jacques Hurtubise propose des textes des conservateurs d'exposition Sarah Fillmore et Bernard Lamarche, des auteurs et critiques Jeffrey Spalding et Rene Viau, et de l'historienne de l'art Nathalie Miglioni. Sarah Fillmore est conservatrice en chef du Musee des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Ecosse.

A man in a darkened workshop, surrounded and obscured by dust clouds. A pair of larger-than-life hands, holding a mallet, ready to strike. Spectacles that play with the idea of turning lies into truth and cynics into believers. A cinder block, precariously suspended above a fragile glass, held in place by a single line of tension. Welcome to John Greer: retroActive.Sculptor, conceptual artist, and unconventional art maker John Greer has been telling stories through his work for more than fifty years. Drawing on his present and past experiences, his travels and exploits, and his anxieties and fears, his work offers poignant meditations on the human environment, all the while challenging the viewer's perspective with humour, intelligence, and a trail of narrative.RetroActive offers a comprehensive view of Greer's work and his commitment to the discourse of sculpture. Stunningly designed by Susanne Schaal and featuring the photographs of Raoul Manuel Schnell, the book contains more than three hundred representations of Greer and his work - in situ, in galleries, in process - bringing into focus Greer's significant contributions to the world of art and ideas. Also included in the book are essays by Ray Cronin, Andria Minicucci, Dennis Reid, Ron Shuebrook, David Diviney, Sarah Fillmore, and Vanessa Paschakarnis.John Greer taught at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design for almost three decades, where his thinking and teaching helped shape contemporary sculpture in Canada. His work has been included in more than fifty solo and sixty group exhibitions and is held in public and private collections around the globe. In 2009 Greer was the recipient of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts, Canada's highest distinction in the field of art and culture.

The world in bold; Newfoundland in abstract."It is the landscape that endures, it is the landscape that remains in control." -- Ned PrattWith Ned Pratt, there is no nostalgia, no romance, no theatre. His interest in the Newfoundland landscape forms the foundation for his photography.Pratt's approach to the act of looking transcends place. He distills the landscape into abstractions of form and colour. Disrupting depth with close architectural details and incisions of poles and wires, he undermines the traditional, romantic notion of "looking out" to sublime geometry.Ned Pratt: One Wave charts a decade of Pratt's breathtaking photography. Echoing Pratt's aesthetic, this beautifully designed book presents Pratt's works in formal conversation with each other. Stark imagery of buildings is juxtaposed with forays into abstraction and celebrations of the inherent geometry of natural forms -- whether a single wave crashing over a wall or stones cracked by freezing and thawing.

Des tableaux luminescents forment le focus visuel de "Mary Pratt," une retrospective de sa carriere qui examine chaque aspect du parcours creatif de Pratt. Les peintures de Mary Pratt -- "y compris OEufs dans un casier, Saumon sur Saran, Poulets evisceres, Filets de morue sur papier d'aluminium, Je vous presente Donna" -- ont atteint un statut d'icone. Capturant ce qu'elle decrit comme les choses de la vie, l' oeuvre de Mary Pratt eleve le mondain au monumental, creant des moments silencieux qui sont infuses de signification.

Ce volume majeur, le premier sur le travail de Mary Pratt depuis presque vingt ans, presente soixante-quinze reproductions de ses oeuvres les plus celebres ainsi que des essais de cinq des ecrivains canadiens les plus talentueux: la journaliste et critique de l'art Sarah Milroy; Catharine Mastin de la Galerie d'art de Windsor; Mireille Eagan et Caroline Stone du Musee provincial de beaux-arts The Rooms et Ray Cronin et Sarah Fillmore du Musee des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Ecosse. Ensemble ils creent un dialogue autour de la technique et des influences de Pratt, examinant les themes qui tissent son art en long et en large: le role du lieu et de la biographie personnelle, le passage du temps, l'acte simple de regarder et, bien sur, les choses de la vie.

Le livre "Mary Pratt" est concu pour accompagner une exposition organisee par le Musee provincial des beaux-arts The Rooms et le Musee des beaux-arts de la Nouvelle-Ecosse et presentee en tournee nationale.