Sign of the (Impressionist) times Neglected City Centre billboard gets new look, new life By: Kevin Rollason Posted: 7:00 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 27, 2018 Last Modified: 10:09 PM CDT Friday, Jul. 27, 2018 Updates

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 26/07/2018 (2247 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Impressionist painter Eugène Louis Boudin’s creation The Beach at Trouville would have made even more of an impression in the late 1800s had his canvas been 14 metres by four metres.

Fast forward more than 120 years, and Boudin’s small 36.5 centimetre by 58.4 cm oil painting has been reproduced in that size — making it too big to fit an art gallery but the perfect size to fill the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s new billboard exhibit atop the Casa Loma apartments at Portage Avenue and Sherbrook Street.

“What would he have said?” WAG director and chief executive officer Stephen Borys said with a laugh, shortly before the painting, copied onto a single vinyl sheet, was erected onto the billboard.

“This is what you’ll see if you are driving east on Portage — the largest Impressionist landscape you’ll ever see. And, because it is a two-sided billboard, on the other side, you’ll soon Inuit pieces.

“This now gives us a chance to play back and forth with imagery and text.”

The first billboard on the east side of the billboard, showcasing the WAG’s Inuit collection, will be a photograph of Inuit artist Isabella Weetaluktuk, who is known as Asinnajaq.

The billboard serves two purposes: it advertises the two special exhibits the WAG is currently hosting — French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, and The Impressionists on Paper — and it covers what for years has been an eyesore.

It’s the first of several billboard exhibits the WAG is planning during the next two years. The rusting metal structure was erected sometime before the 1950s, and hasn’t had a billboard on it since 2013.

City hall battle over eyesore billboard

Last year, the owner of the apartment building applied to the City of Winnipeg for a conditional use permit, to allow the WAG to use the structure to promote its exhibits. It was rejected in January because the structure is three times larger than the maximum allowable size for the area, is in view of residential apartments, is on a rooftop, and on a historic building.

But a month later, an appeals committee reversed the decision after it was told the billboard had the support of the Lions Housing Centres, which operates two nearby, large residential buildings. The WAG had until Sept. 1, to put something on the billboard structure.

Sussex Realty has a 20-year agreement with the gallery, and is providing the billboard space as a gift in kind.

A sign company was putting the billboard in place for most of Friday, and it was expected to be fully installed in time for the afternoon rush hour.

Boudin (1824-98) heavily influenced Claude Monet and other Impressionists, with his goal of capturing outdoor light while painting.

According to the WAG’s website, Boudin once said, “Everything that is painted directly and on the spot always has strength, a power, and a vivacity of touch one cannot recover in the studio.”

kevin.rollason@freepress.mb.ca

Kevin Rollason
Reporter

Kevin Rollason is one of the more versatile reporters at the Winnipeg Free Press. Whether it is covering city hall, the law courts, or general reporting, Rollason can be counted on to not only answer the 5 Ws — Who, What, When, Where and Why — but to do it in an interesting and accessible way for readers.

   Read full biography