Tuesday, November 27, 2012

The Samurai Arms & Armour Collection of Richard Beliveau - Pointe-à-Callière, Montreal


The Pointe-à-Callière Catalogue and Pamphlet for the Béliveau Samurai Exhibit.
As I've mentioned earlier, a few weeks ago we were in Montreal for a little vacation, and along with getting in a great game with John, Iannick and Nicolas I also managed to visit a couple excellent museums. One was the the Ben Weider Napoleonic Collection which is on permanent display at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the other was an exhibit at the Pointe-à-Callière of Richard Béliveau's collection of samurai arms and armour.

Please forgive these poor images taken of the book. The pages are quite glossy making it a little challenging to photograph properly.
Well-known in Québec for his work in the prevention and treatment of cancer, Richard Béliveau is a university professor, researcher, author, and speaker, as well as a devotee of Japanese culture and a great collector of Japanese objects and artwork. For the first time, Mr. Béliveau is exhibiting part of his vast collection. It is one of the most important collections of samurai artifacts in the world, both for its historical value and rarity, as well as in terms of the number and diversity of items it contains.


I'm a big junkie for museum exhibition catalogues. Whenever we visit an exhibit at a gallery or museum I always try to get the associated catalogue as typically the photography and descriptive text are top-notch. The 144-page book which was produced for this exhibition certainly does not disappoint, the photography is fantastic, the descriptions informative and the overall layout very nice.


I was struck that the price of the book was only $39.95, which I think is an absolute bargain, especially for these limited print-run specialist publications. It definitely holds its own with any similar books I've seen from other print houses. If you're interested in a copy it can be purchased from the gallery book store here.



So, if you find yourself in Montreal between now and March 31st I can't recommend this exhibit more - it's absolutely stunning and well worth the visit.


A final note: This post also provides a thematic clue to an upcoming Analogue Hobbies event. I know, I'm sure you're wriggling in your seats in anticipation! More on that soon...


23 comments:

  1. Looks like a great collection to have seen. Aslo reminds me i bough two 42mm Samuai figures at Salute - which i must root out!

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    1. Oooh, who makes 42mm samurai?

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    2. Steve Barber models ,

      http://stevebarbermodels.com/

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  2. Lovely looking figures no question! Samurai are a very challenging project so I'm very curious to see what you do with them and good luck!

    Christopher

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    1. Your samurai are brilliant and they would be a very hard bar to meet. (Though its always good to have a challenge, eh?)

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  3. Curt - I hope my recent foray into wargaming samurai (albeit in 6mm) isn't making you open up the wallet! I'll be watching this with interest.

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    1. Actually, I've been watching your 6mm stuff with great interest (I LOVE all the custom banners and sense of mass).

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  4. Come on, you know you want to start another project... Maybe even in time for another painting challenge????

    :)

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  5. Now then, Victorian era Samurai - now there is an idea! ;)

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    1. Yup! You know you need to do it Michael! (And you'd do a smash-up job of it)

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  6. Agreed.. love the exhibition booklets. Have a collection going at home with them as well that I can run through when inspiration is needed!

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    1. I know! They provide great colour reference and inspiration. (...and the Missus says they look very nice on the coffee table...)

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  7. It really is a great exhibition. The fact that it is a private collection makes it even more amazing in my view.

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    1. Absolutely! The depth, range and quality of the collection is just awe inspiring.

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  8. Really cool pics Curt. Every time I look at Samurai stuff, it reminds me why I can never manage to paint Samurai stuff. But it is totally awesome to see...

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    1. Yeah, its pretty intricate stuff. Like Napoleonics, you just have to pick what level of detail you're comfortable with and go with that otherwise you'll looks your mind trying to cram it all in (and often well-chosen sparse effects look better than hyper-detail).

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  9. You know I'm a samurai fan, really beautiful!

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    1. Sure I know it. You're collection is amazing, Fran.

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  10. I'd like to have seen that collection in the flesh, the pics in the book look excellent!

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  11. A new project, Curt?
    I like a lot the Samurai topic and have some of them waiting to be painted; I´m sure yours are going to be really nice.

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Thanks for your comment! As long as you're not a spam droid I'll have it up on the blog soon. :)