Salon des Refusés
Alternative Regional Selection of Canadian Portraiture
Sept. 29th - Oct. 29th
Opening Reception Friday, Sept. 29th 7 - 10pm during Art After Dark
Participating Artists
Najmidin Azezi ~ Valerie Camila ~ Olivia Coughtrey ~ Ann Decker ~ Rashida Eli ~ Marie-Anne Erki ~ Ian Franks ~ C.R. Gill ~ Sasha Hill ~ Natasha Jabre ~ Sarah Lacy ~ Brandon Liesen ~ Vivian Macdonald ~ Brittany Moore ~ Milan Rice ~ Michael Tran ~ Jan Traversy ~ Kerri Weller ~ Sarah Winn
Salon des Refusés
Salon des Refusés is used to denote any art exhibition devoted to the display of works rejected by a juried art show.
In a celebration of portraiture, Canadian Art and our greater community, the Tri-Art Gallery will be showing the works by Kingston and regional artists whose works were not included in the finalist group of the 2023 Kingston Prize. In full support and collaboration with the Kingston Prize, the Salon de Refusés will be taking place concurrently with the Kingston Prize exhibition at the Firehall Theatre in Gananoque from October 6-27.
About the Kingston Prize
The Kingston Prize is a Canada-wide competition and exhibition tour for Canadian portrait painting and drawing.
The competition is open to any Canadian artist who depicts a Canadian citizen or permanent resident in a portrait based on a real life encounter. The aim of The Kingston Prize is to encourage and reward the creation of contemporary portraits by Canadian artists, to promote Canadian artists through competition, and over time to develop an historical record of Canadians, by Canadians. Each exhibition becomes a fascinating snapshot of a cross-section of Canadian life. A distinguished panel of judges determines the 30 finalists, whose work then becomes part of the national touring exhibition. The exhibition gives much needed public exposure to talented Canadian artists, while at the same time sparking interest, conversation and inspiration in the visitors attending the exhibitions.
A Little History
The concept of a Salon de Refusé started in 1863, as a reaction from artists whose work was rejected from the annual Paris Salon, the showcase of the best academic art of the time, sponsored by the French government. Emperor Napoleon III, in an effort to retain public favour, allowed the works of art that were refused to be shown in an alternate location in the Palace of Industry. By letting rejected works be seen and judged by the public themselves, the Salon des Refusés opened up a new level of discourse between artist and spectator.
Notable paintings included works by Éduard Manet (Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe), James Whistler (Symphony in White no 1 - The White Girl), Gustave Courbet, Camille Pissaro, Antoine Chintreuil and Johan Jongkind, among others. The overwhelming critical attention gained from the exhibition legitimized the emerging avant-garde in painting, and sparked the birth of the Impressionist movement. Since that time, the concept of the Salon de Refusé, that since the late 1800's has been emerging globally, has come to represent an opportunity for artists whose works have been rejected from juried exhibitions to have their work seen by the public in an alternate venue.
“Despite the rather unfavourable reception by public and critics, the 1863 Salon des Refusés represented the first groundbreaking step for the development of contemporary art. First of all, it minimised the role of the jury in determining which artists and artworks were worthy of recognition, therefore encouraging free individual experimentation regardless of strict academic rules and stylistic classification. Artists acknowledged their own right to engage freely in personal artistic research and to display the results without fear of judgement: freedom of exhibition became synonymous with freedom of artistic expression. Once the Salon’s monopoly was broken, young artists began to set up new, independent, and jury-free exhibitions.” - Benedetta Ricci for Artland Magazine
