Founded 40 years ago by Sonia Denault and Robert Tremblay, the Michel-Ange Gallery has announced that it will be closing its showroom at 430 Bonsecours Street in Old Montreal on July 31.
Posted at 12:54 am. Updated at 09:00.
The art gallery opened in 1984 on the ground floor of the building that once housed Stanley Cosgrove’s studio, with an exhibition dedicated to Marc-Aurèle Fortin – a retrospective that brings together around forty of his works.
In the early years, Sonia Denault and Robert Tremblay specialized in figurative art – René Richard, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Jean Dallaire, the Group of Seven etc. – before turning to abstract art.
PHOTO PROVIDED BY SONIA DENAULT
Sonia Denault
“When we started, there weren’t any other galleries in Old Montreal,” Sonia Denault tells us. We were discouraged, we were told: you will close your doors, there is no gallery to survive here, you will not survive…”
And yet. Not only has the gallery survived, but it has also acquired an enviable reputation on the art scene, thanks in particular to the exhibition of works by artists of the Automatiste movement and the signatories of Refus Global.
Jean Paul Riopelle, Paul-Émile Borduas, Fernand Leduc, Pierre Gauvreau, Marcelle Ferron, Marcel Barbeau and Françoise Sullivan have all been exhibited at the Michel-Ange Gallery over the years.
In recent years, the Old Montreal Gallery’s portfolio has expanded to include contemporary artists.
beautiful memories
If the owner couple decided to sell, it is because they have reached that age… “My husband Robert is 82 years old, Sonia Denault tells us, he no longer runs the gallery. And I’m 75 years old… We have two sons, but they have no interest in taking over the business and working six days a week. »
The premises have been sold to Encan Champagne – an auction house run by Claude Champagne – but Sonia Denault intends to continue her representational work with two or three artists and plans to collaborate with Ninon Gauthier – Marcel Barbeau’s widow – at the Artist’s Foundation.
Ms. Denault, who has fond memories of Michelangelo, remembers the 2011 exhibition of the trio Gauvreau, Leduc and Barbeau.
“Charles Biname [le cinéaste], a friend of Pierre Gauvreau, asked me to open the gallery before the opening because he feared for his health… After all, Gauvreau was there at the opening and every weekend after that. And three weeks later he passed away. It was touching because he knew he was going and saying goodbye to his friends…”
Sonia Denault admits life was good for Michelangelo. The gallery has done well with many corporate customers such as Power Corporation, Bombardier or the Royal Bank – to name just a few. However, what has hurt her, she points out, is the many works that have been carried out on rue Bonsecours…
“No road, no sidewalk, there was absolutely nothing and it took a very long time,” she told us. When it was finished there were broken pipes, then work on the Papineau house which is in the process of being turned into a museum and soon there will be the work of Phi Contemporain… So that wasn’t always an easy side. »
The Michel Ange Gallery has attracted many high profile artists to Old Montreal, which is now packed with commercial galleries. “There were also a lot of starts. Back then, Claude Gauvreau, Pierre’s brother, had his coins issued here. More recently, Anaïs Barbeau-Lavalette has also published her novels. »
The gallery’s sales will take place from July 20th to 23rd. Unsold paintings will be auctioned. Michel-Ange will close its doors permanently on July 31 before the keys are handed over to Claude Champagne.