Benita Baker, OTTAWA CITIZEN
January 15, 2011

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff

Why it’s worth the drive: This gallery is almost as iconic as the artists it represents. In business since 1950, it sells masterpieces from Group of Seven artists as well as Cornelius Krieghoff, Jean Paul Lemieux and Jean-Paul Riopelle. Also on exhibit are Canadian contemporary artists. If you are lucky, Alan Klinkhoff will entertain you with stories about his father’s friendship with Arthur Lismer, Edwin Holgate and A.Y. Jackson.

Cost: From $55,000 for a small A.Y. Jackson to $2 million for an extra-large Lawren Harris.

Where: 1200 Sherbrooke St. West.

Tip: Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, only two blocks away.

How to get there: Take the Decarie Expressway south. Exit at Rue Sherbrooke; turn left (east).

Hours: Monday to Friday 9:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.; Saturdays to 5 p.m.

Contact: 1-514-288-7306 or www.klinkhoff.com

To read the entire article, visit the Ottawa Citizen.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

The Globe and Mail recently interviewed Alan Klinkhoff on the subject of one auction house’s controversial new practice of ink-stamping works of art with their commercial details. The following is an excerpt from the article Heffel to stop ink-stamping artworks by James Adams.

Alan Klinkhoff agrees. President of Montreal’s venerable Galerie Walter Klinkhoff, he too purchased “a few things” at Heffel’s Nov. 25 sale, including, for $29,250, a 1924 oil on board by A.Y. Jackson. The painting, Jackfish Lake, has two Heffel ink stamps on its back, and Klinkhoff has consulted with a conservator to pay to have them removed as well as those on his other purchases. However, in some instances, he predicts “there will be some residue left in the grain [of the wood panel] or weave of the canvas.”

“Tattooing directly on a work of art is a violation … serving no purpose beyond publicity for the vendor,” Klinkhoff added. “The quality of a fine work of art is often the sum of many considerations, including the materials the artist used [and] the back of the support, be it canvas, paper, wood, plastic, metal or whatever.”

Click here to read the complete article.

Click here to see the interview

Chair of Concordia’s Painting Department, Montreal artist John Fox, RCA, (1927-2008) is honoured with retrospective at Klinkhoff Gallery.

I love to visit a certain graceful brownstone building on Montreal’s Golden Mile. The Klinkhoff Gallery is an elegantly quiet space. Therein lies Canadian art from the 19, 20 and 21st centuries. Here you will find no art hanging from the walls or blaring videos. For almost 60 years this prestigious gallery has advised private and corporate collectors in amassing fine art. Celebrating a long tradition of hosting retrospectives, this fall the gallery will honour the legacy of John Fox, the renowned Montreal artist and much-loved teacher. The exhibition will feature works from private collections, as well as paintings owned by Fox’s widow, art historian Sandra Paikowsky….

Read the full article by Veronica Redgrave at Tourisme-Montreal.org.
View the John Fox Retrospective Exhibition

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John Little's "Epicerie Theriault, rue Mentana at rue Bienville", 2010

BERNARD MENDELMAN
THE SUBURBAN
March 17, 2010

I recently received the following email from Eric Klinkhoff, a director of Galerie Walter Kinkhoff:

“I am attaching a photograph of a painting John Little just completed. John turned 82 on February 20 and in my opinion this is the best work that he has done in several years. Are you and I also getting better as we get older?”

In most local corporate offices and elegant homes there’s usually a John Little painting hanging on a wall. Little’s legacy of nearly 60 years of painting is that he has revived a sense of longing for times and places that no longer exist. His art captures the essence of what Montreal once was.

Destroyed by demolition and urban renewal, most of the city that Little captures no longer exists, but turn of the century architecture, dignified pillars, and old gracious homes are all still preserved in his paintings.

Since the mid-1980’s, Galerie Walter Klinkhoff has represented Little exclusively, where there is a waiting list anxious to buy the couple of canvases he still produces each month.
…

Copyright © The Suburban

Klinkhoff Gallery retrospective

Paul Vanier Beaulieu's "Femme Lisant", 1947.

BERNARD MENDELMAN
THE SUBURBAN
September, 2009

The work of Paul Vanier Beaulieu is on exhibit until Sept. 26 at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff on Sherbrooke Street W.

With the show, the gallery continues its long tradition of holding an annual after-Labour Day retrospective for a major Canadian artist. None of the works in these museum-quality shows -— on loan from private collectors, corporations and other art institutions -— are offered for sale.

Local art aficionados always look forward to the Klinkhoff family’s way of giving something back to the art community. The presentations also serve as an educational tool, as schools and senior groups are invited to the gallery for a personal tour and a briefing on the artist.

“Beaulieu was chosen this year because, after three decades of showing historical artists, we figured it was time to examine the works of an artist whose best output began in the 1950s,” explained Alan Klinkhoff, one of the gallery’s directors and son of the late Walter Klinkhoff. “Personally, I love his art and have some in my own collection.”

Beaulieu was born 1910 in Montreal’s Saint Louis Square. The eldest of seven children, his father was a barrister who enjoyed painting as a hobby. Beaulieu studied at the École des Beaux Arts where he befriended the likes of Jean-Paul Lemieux and Stanley Cosgrove.

After saving enough money he traveled to Paris in 1938 and decided to stay. While in France for most of the next 35 years, he missed the signing in 1948 of the Refus global, the beginning of Quebec’s modern art movement.

In 1939, Beaulieu had an atelier in the Montparnasse quarter, which at that time was the centre of the city’s art life. When the Nazis invaded Paris, he was placed in an internment camp from 1940 to 1944 along with fellow artist Jean Dallaire.

It was during this period of confinement that the artist started painting his most popular subjects — acrobats, jugglers, clowns, mimes and marionettes. Excellent examples of these in the exhibition are Saltimbanques joueurs de cartes, (1956) and Trois saltimbanques et marionette (1954).

Beaulieu was certainly influenced by Pablo Picasso, but now we clearly see that he left his own distinguishing mark and was no poor-man’s-Picasso.

In Paris, he was close with Picasso and Henri Matisse, Quebec artist Alfred Pellan as well as Jean Dallaire. During these years, he regularly displayed his works in various Montreal galleries, with a major solo show in 1959 at Dr. Stern’s Dominion Gallery.

Beaulieu developed a technique of mixing watercolours with flour, producing a textured effect that enhanced his George Braque-inspired still-lifes. Engravings and etchings are other mediums in which he excelled.

The artist never laid an egg with his images of roosters, which are highly coveted by collectors. Outstanding is the 1974 untitled painting of clown, girl and rooster. Don’t overlook the abstract Le coq gris (1954). Other works that caught my eye at the show were Moulin à café (1953), Nature morte au poulet (1953) and Femme lisant (1947).

The exhibition includes about 35 works and among them are some from the collection of local financial whiz Steven Jarislowsky, who is often referred to as Canada’s Warren Buffett.

As always for these exhibitions, the Klinkhoff family produces an accompanying bilingual catalogue and Beaulieu’s is extremely insightful. In preparing it, art historian Germain Lefebvre traced the life of the artist and his family in depth.

Beaulieu returned to Quebec for good in 1973 and discovered Saint Sauveur, where he eventually bought a home to which he added a studio.
“I’ve come full circle,” he said one day. ” I’m returning to my roots. Nature in the Laurentians is calling out to me. To tell the truth, I was often homesick in Europe and I’m very happy to be coming home.”

Beaulieu needed the quiet of the countryside after his whirl in Paris. He died in 1996.

Overlooked and undervalued in today’s marketplace, the result of this retrospective should create renewed interest, and rising prices, for Beaulieu’s art.

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff is located at 1200 Sherbrooke Street W., corner Drummond. Call 514-288-7306 or visit www.klinkhoff.com.

Copyright © The Suburban

The Westmount Independent
September 22-23, 2009 (p. 23)

Alan (left) and Jonathan Klinkhoff with Beaulieu's 1956 painting "L'oiseau en cage". (Photo by Erin Stropes, The Independent)

Paul Vanier Beaulieu was a Montreal native who spent the post-World War II years painting in Paris and rubbing shoulders with such luminaries as Picasso and master printer Georges Leblanc. His work was celebrated by his contemporaries, but as part of the European art movement he hasn’t had the recognition in Canada as many contemporary Quebec artists have had – until now.

Forty of Beaulieu’s paintings are on display at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff until September 26. The gallery is run by three Westmounters: brothers Alan and Eric Klinkhoff, and Alan’s son Jonathan. And Westmount is no stranger to Beaulieu’s work – half of the paintings featured in the show are on loan from the private collections of Westmount residents.

A Canadian in Paris

Paul Beaulieu was born in Montreal in 1910. According to the in-depth biography prepared specially for this exhibition by art historian Germain Lefebvre, he waited tables and sold paintings to raise funds to sail to Paris in 1938, where he was immersed in the cultural milieu of the period. Unfortunately, his Canadian citizenship was a liability when the Nazis took Paris in 1940, and he spent four years in an internment camp in St. Denis.

After the liberation of France, Beaulieu returned to Paris. He painted and exhibited successfully in both France and Quebec for the rest of his life. His work is in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Musée national d’art modern in Paris. He is known for his roosters and circus scenes, as well as his colourful portraits and still lifes.

No-sale show

The Beaulieu retrospective is part of an annual series of no-sale shows put on for 34 years by the Galerie Walter Klinkhoff to expose visitors to the work of lesser-known Canadian artists. The shows are well attended by students, collectors and art aficionados. In recent years, the collections have also been displayed online for those who can’t make the trip to Montreal to see the show in person.

“We choose important Canadian artists who we consider worthy of review,” says Alan Klinkhoff. “Beaulieu was a peer among greats, and we hope to see his work get the exposure it deserves in a Canadian
context.”

Galerie Walter Klinkhoff is located at 1200 Sherbrooke St. West. Free admission. For more information, to schedule a tour, or to view the collection online, visit www.klinkhoff.com.

La Presse / Cyberpresse, Montréal
La Presse Canadienne
Publié le 14 septembre 2009 à 08h30

Deux galeries d’art montréalaises établies proposent à compter de samedi et jusqu’au 26 septembre deux expositions rétrospectives de peintres québécois de la modernité ayant fait leur marque.

La galerie Valentin présente ainsi Jean Paul Lemieux/Oeuvres de 1956 à 1979. Les oeuvres choisies, plus d’une vingtaine d’huiles empruntées à des collections privées canadiennes, donnent une assez bonne idée de la production de la période dite classique de l’artiste, celle postérieure à l’année 1956 et qui s’étend jusqu’à la fin des années 1970.

Cette exposition est présentée alors que la galerie Valentin, anciennement L’Art français, célèbre ses 75 années d’existence.

L’autre galerie présentant une exposition rétrospective d’un artiste québécois important est la galerie Walter Klinkhoff. L’exposition porte sur l’oeuvre du Montréalais d’origine Paul Vanier Beaulieu, décédé en 1996.

À cette occasion, la galerie propose 40 des plus grandes oeuvres de l’artiste appartenant aussi à des collectionneurs canadiens. Paul Vanier Beaulieu a été le premier artiste contemporain canadien à vendre une toile au Musée national d’art moderne de Paris en 1951.

La galerie Walter Klinkhoff offre ce genre d’exposition rétrospective sur un artiste de renom tous les ans depuis plus de trois décennies. La galerie Valentin a récemment emboîté le pas. Les deux galeries sont toutes deux situées rue Sherbrooke Ouest, à Montréal.

James Wilson Morrice's "Mountain Hill, Quebec" on exhibit in Canadian Masterpieces at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff

Masterpieces Retrospective Exhibition

The summer of ‘08 flew right by and now we are all looking at our calendar to what will be a very busy autumn. The immediate event here at Galerie Walter Klinkhoff is our 35th annual non-selling exhibition, this year aptly entitled “Canadian Masterpieces”, an exhibition of select masterpieces, each representative of a style or movement in the history and evolution of Canadian art. Admittedly, due to the limitations of space our survey is far from comprehensive. Nevertheless, rinse your eyes in the brilliance demonstrated by the individual paintings on view, ranging in generations and styles from Cornelius Krieghoff through John Little. I assure you of a visual feast. (Because of any number of gaps in prohibiting this to be an exhaustive timeline, perhaps a future challenge might be for us to make a show exclusively of the art movements not represented this time around. Have any of you got an important Colville to either lend us or even sell us?) “Canadian Masterpieces” will be on view here in the gallery from Saturday, September 20th until Saturday, October 4th. I encourage you to visit this exhibition ideally physically in the Gallery but if that’s inconvenient tune in to www.klinkhoff.com.

The gallery advantage

Come Saturday, November 8, as has become the semi-annual tradition developed here over the last few years, we shall be hosting an exhibition and sale of “Important Canadian Art”. Already we have a selection of fine works aside for the sale and remark that every day brings exciting potential additions we intend to firm up. One of the many virtues of this on-line event is that we can add new works for sale even at the eleventh hour. For that matter we can add works for sale even during the exhibition and sale itself. The beauty of what we do in our ongoing daily buying and selling (or occasionally receiving works on a consignment basis) is that you the seller are selling in the market as it is at the time you make your decision to proceed, not in some unpredictable market months and months down the road. That is to say, for those of you who might consider an alternative selling venue to a “fixed price gallery” and one where you consign your work say in mid-October, your work will only be offered for sale some seven months later and then, assuming it sells, you will be paid thirty-five days after that. That’s eight months forward, at a pre-determined date and time! The scenario is analogous to you giving specific instructions to your stock-broker to sell at the market your shares in company “X” at 10:45 am on Tuesday, May 26th of next year. The recent turmoil in the financial markets and the unpredictable nature of the economy should further underscore the risk of making blind commitments in a future market, and also emphasize the advantages of selling to fixed-price venues. With a fixed-price gallery, you are often presented the option to sell to us outright or, alternately, consign the work at a slightly lower discount. With a consignment we have the luxury to present, on your behalf, your painting individually to the most enthusiastic and active buyers in the market for your work. Whereas the sale of your work is usually consummated efficiently, perhaps over a period of weeks we are not confined to one specific day, perhaps one which may be adversely impacted by political and economic events.

Those of you who have some precious works of art to sell I invite you to contact us for a confidential consultation.

To potential buyers please stay in touch. Our website is presently evolving toward something which we believe is visually more attractive and more informative.

The “highlight” feature is a concept we take pleasure in penning. Some among you have definitely found it useful in your purchasing process. As I wrote in the first issue of this newsletter if you have any feedback please do not hesitate to address me a polite note.

P.S. Our hats go off to colleague Rod Green, whose contribution to art collecting in Western Canada is being celebrated with a dinner in his honour at Calgary’s Glenbow Gallery.