En ecoutant Scarlatti red

About En ecoutant Scarlatti red

Vertical composition on paper with a saturated wine red ground over which bristle brushed lines are cross hatched in black and royal blue. Layered over these central marks is a structure of stacked, collaged geometric strips of paper painted with intersecting lines and shapes of marine blue, red and white.

Titled "Listening to Scarlatti" the piece may certainly be a response to the structured sonatas for harpsicord and pianoforte by Domenico Scarlatti, an Italian composer and contemporary of Bach and Handel. Scarlatti spent much of his life in the service of the Portugese and Spanish royalty. He taught music to the Princess Maria Barbara who became Queen of Spain. Unique to the work of this famous musician was the influence of Iberian (Portuguese and Spanish) folk music.

Francine Simonin has worked extensively on paper -- printmaking and collage -- but also canvas during her long, successful career that began in the 1950s.

Simonin has won numerous awards and distinctions, including the Prix de la première Biennale Suisse Engraving in Geneva (1968), the Prix Loto-Québec in Montréal (1981), the Prix Irène Reymond (1986), the Prize of the Print at the Biennale of Drawing, Printmaking and Paper in Alma (1993), as well as the first prize of the 16th International of the Miniature Print of Cadaques in Spain (1996). In October 2004, the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec and the Fondation Monique and Robert Parizeau presented her with an award recognizing her exceptional contribution to the history of printmaking in Quèbec. The works of Francine Simonin are to be found in the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec, the Geneva Museum, the National Library of Canada (Ottawa), the Council of Europe Art Bank Arts of Canada (Ottawa) as well as several private collections around the world.

This work on paper is unframed.