Peter Gnass
Cheminement topographique d'une boîte pour tartes aux bleuets
2001
Presentation of the artwork
The artwork is on the second storey of the Bibliothèque de Pointe-aux-Trembles and covers both wall and floor. The installation is composed of three parts: a photograph, a sculpture, and a series of two-dimensional forms.The colour photograph portrays an old, small wood armoire, seen from a low angle and slightly obliquely. It is affixed to the wall above the sculpture, which is made from the armoire that was photographed, but it has been deconstructed, cut out, then reconstructed. The sculpture is placed on a low stand made of light-coloured wood. Finally, the series of three two-dimensional shapes illustrates the anamorphic possibilities of the sculpture. They are presented on the wall to the right of the photograph. As in a game, the viewer is engaged in finding the precise point of view that makes the shapes inscribed on the wall visible. Peter Gnass has been interested in anamorphoses for more than thirty years. He sees them as a means of combining the intellectual and the aesthetic.
“The adventure of discovery is found in curiosity and the desire to develop thoughts, sometimes irrational and inexplicable.”
– Peter Gnass
Peter Gnass
German-born Peter Gnass attended the Hamburg Academy of Fine Arts and the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, then studied etching under Dumouchel. In 1970, he presented the solo exhibition Topolog at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. He has exhibited in Canada and abroad and has produced many works of public art. In 1967, he created a bronze mural for the lobby of Théâtre Maisonneuve; in 1978, a stainless-steel mural for the LaSalle métro station. His solo exhibition Couper/Coller (2004) toured the Galerie de l’UQAM and the Musée régional de Rimouski. In 2010, his exhibition Progression et projections was at galerie [sas].
Awards and honours
- 3e prix de gravure, concours artistique de la Province de Québec, 1965
- Membre de l'Académie Royale du Canada, 1976