Lot
4
Odalisque
Photograph, ink jet on rag paper, 2006
71 x 91,5 cm
1/3
Shot with a digital camera, the images in “Quelques sujets” propose a reflection that is everything but nostalgic, intentional and deeply refined, exempt of artifice as regards places, things and individuals, while exploring the formal and visual aspects of the current, popular digital photographic language. Referencing documentary photography, cinema, painting, sculpture and, of course, autobiography, it is above all the subject’s disarming (often ephemeral) presence that charms and seizes the spectator with interest. Captured in New York in 2004, Odalisque is one of the series’ highlights.
Biographical note
Raymonde April grew up in Rivière-du-Loup, in eastern Quebec. She lives and works in Montreal where she teaches photography at Concordia University. “Raymonde April is a pioneer in ‘auto-fiction'. It can be said that all her work pertains specifically to the vision of an ‘I’ if only because it nevertheless critically ‘frames’ the act of speaking, writing, and making images from the standpoint of the first person singular.” (Eduardo Ralickas)
Her work is often exhibited in Canada and abroad. Major solo exhibitions include “Voyage dans le monde des choses,” organized by the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1986, “Les Fleuves invisibles,” produced by the Musée d’art de Joliette in 1997, “Tout embrasser,” presented at the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery in 2001, and “Raymonde April: bifurcations,” a body of work produced in 2004 and circulated by the Manifestation internationale d’art de Québec.
Raymonde April’s works are in leading Canadian museums and many private collections. In 2003, Raymonde April received the Prix Paul-Émile Borduas, the highest distinction attributed by the Government of Quebec to an artist working in the visual arts. In 2005, she was the recipient of the Paul De Hoeck and Norman Walford Artistic achievement award for art photography.
Represented by Galerie Donald Browne, Montréal.