Another look, for another vision: this is the rare and precious legacy of art historian Esther Trépanier, who died on Monday. Throughout her long career, at university and in museums, she devoted herself to illuminating the forgotten and little-known corners of the history of Quebec art. His work on Jewish painters, women artists and urban subjects have particularly enriched the understanding of the complex transition to modernity in his society.
She had prepared for her entry into teaching by studying philosophy, sociology and art history in Paris. His thesis in this discipline, defended at the Sorbonne, was reworked and republished under the title Painting and modernity in Quebec 1919-1939 (Nota bene, 1998). She is interested in the pictorial representation of the city, in the criticism and review of works of art in the first decades of the century, in a vision that is both historical and sociocultural. This pioneering and original base occupied his research for the following decades.
Her teaching career took place at UQAM, where she joined the Department of Art History in 1981. “She was an extraordinary professor,” comments Jocelyne Lupien, who took her courses as a student before to become his fellow professor. Mme Trépanier had just retired from UQAM. “Esther was passionate and exciting, erudite, a truly great teacher who gave herself entirely to the transmission of knowledge. »
Mme Trépanier even had the habit of dressing in the manner of the periods she was dealing with, those of the 19the or XXe century. “She was also passionate about fashion,” continues Professor Lupien. She was flamboyant, with crazy energy. She loved fashion and she honored Quebec creation. »
Esther Trépanier fully embraced this other passion by directing the UQAM École supérieure de mode from 2000 to 2007. His latest work is entitled Will fashion save Cinderella? ? The essay focuses on three novels set in Montreal in the 1930s, where heroines dream of escaping their poverty by finding Prince Charming. The art historian follows in the footsteps of fashion accessories to offer a new reading.
His research work also contributed to numerous exhibitions on painting in Montreal in the first half of the 20th century.e century. The researcher notably offered summaries on Jewish painters from Montreal, urban worlds in art, women artists and even on pioneers of abstraction other than the automatists in Montreal in the 1940s.
His work has led to a more nuanced reading of the transformations in Quebec society. A certain legend, a tenacious cliché, makes Paul-Émile Borduas and his group the manifesto of Global refusal harbingers of the Quiet Revolution, liberator of the Great Darkness. Professor Trépanier’s patient and in-depth research modified this simplification by showing, for example, how modernity fitted into the treatment of urbanity by the painter Adrien Hébert. His work also made it possible to compose a much more comprehensive history of art by focusing on the artistic communities of the cosmopolitan city, again to move away from the hagiographic reading of the sole genius of abstraction, martyr of the arts.
Esther Trépanier moved from the curatorship to director of the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in 2008, replacing John Porter. The establishment was embarking on a major expansion as part of the 400e anniversary of the city. She had no experience in museum management at the time, but had established her reputation as an exhibition curator and editor of high-quality catalogs.
We already owed him exhibitions devoted to Adrien Hébert (1992), to the landscape in Quebec from 1910-1939, to the Group of Seven (1997). She had also been a member of the museum’s ancient and modern art acquisition committee. Finally, Mme Trépanier only remained as director for a little over two years, after organizing exhibitions on fashion and Barbie.
The research historian then returned to teaching, while continuing to work as a curator. One of his recent exhibitions, produced for the Joliette Art Museum in 2022 and subsequently presented at the Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts in 2023, focused on the bodies of Fritz Brandtner (1896-1969), Marian Dale Scott (1906-1993), Henry Rowland Eveleigh (1909-1999) and Gordon Webber (1909-1965), four avant-garde modernists also crushed in the collective artistic memory by the automatist steamroller.
Esther Trépanier was already suffering from a serious illness at the time of the preparation and presentation of this last exhibition. She had been living in Quebec for several years. She is survived by Jacques Tremblay, her partner of recent decades.