Sea Horse nº 909

After the tragic death of his daughter, Nathalie, Jacques Hurtubise took refuge in his work, embarking on a period of frenzied production that lasted from 1980 to 1993. During that time, the artist created a series of symmetrical paintings reminiscent of Rorschach inkblots, which gave free reign to the imagination and interpretation of the viewer. Already distinct from his peers stylistically, Hurtubise intensified his pictorial approach, applying the formal principles of the Plasticiens and the Automatists via a controlled gestural language. Here, he drew upon the techniques of previous decades, and on his mastery of printmaking processes, such as monotype, decal, and screenprinting. Hurtubise built up his works in successive layers, applying medium to half the canvas and folding it against its opposite, using a folding armature of stretched canvases mounted in pairs. Mechanically, Hurtubise repeated this gesture dozens, even hundreds of times before achieving the desired effect. “[T]he cultural and stylistic otherness to which the motifs allude—a bestial, oriental, heterogeneous morphology—test the visual and intellectual concept. These constructions are dramatic, astonishing and, ultimately, oustandingly unique,” writes Jocelyne Connolly (“Turbulence and organization. A model of singularity,” in Hurtubise sans réserve, Fondation J. Armand Bombardier, 2001).