The search for abstraction plainly influenced developments in contemporary artistic expression in Québec and Canada. With this new exhibition titled A Matter of Abstraction, which brings together a hundred or so works produced between 1939 and the present, the Musée continues its reassessment of the quest led, since the early 1940s, by the artists of the Montréal School in a thoroughly original way yet in synchrony with the major international movements.
A distinctive feature of this exhibition, which is both historical and thematic, is its ability to offer a multidisciplinary body of works (paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, videos) illustrating the wide-ranging visual ramifications of the expression of abstraction. The broad overview defined, which spans seven decades (1940–2010), places particular emphasis on Québec works in the Collection, while also pointing out specific relevant connections with the Canadian and international scenes. The thematic presentation, divided into chronological segments, gives an immediate sense of the diversity and complexity of the works.