Giant mural in Montreal commemorating Leonard Cohen

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Giant mural in Montreal commemorating Leonard Cohen

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http://montrealgazette.com/news/local-n ... rescent-st

Giant mural commemorating Leonard Cohen coming to Crescent St.
René Bruemmer, Montreal Gazette

Published on: April 11, 2017 | Last Updated: April 11, 2017 5:46 PM EDT
Atowering mural commemorating Montreal singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen will grace the side of a 20-storey building on Crescent St. just north of Ste-Catherine St. in downtown Montreal.

When completed in September, it will be among the largest murals in the city, visible from de Maisonneuve Blvd., Sherbrooke St. and the lookout on Mount Royal.

Mayor Denis Coderre confirmed the news in a tweet Tuesday morning.
“Between now and September, this magnificent wall in downtown Montreal will become a magnificent, 8,500-square-metre mural of Leonard Cohen,” he wrote.

Cohen died in November at the age of 82. 

The mural will be part of the “Montreal’s Great Artists” series of works commissioned by the non-profit group MU that promotes murals rooted in local communities, with funding from Montreal and Quebec’s Culture Department. Other artists honoured among the 14 murals created since 2o10 include pianists Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones, author Dany Laferrière and recently, writer Mordecai Richler.

The mural will be part of the “Montreal’s Great Artists” series of works commissioned by the non-profit group MU that promotes murals rooted in local communities, with funding from Montreal and Quebec’s Culture Department. Other artists honoured among the 14 murals created since 2o10 include pianists Oscar Peterson and Oliver Jones, author Dany Laferrière and recently, writer Mordecai Richler.

The Cohen tribute will be done by Montreal artist Gene Pendon (a.k.a. Starship) who did the Laferrière and Peterson murals for MU, and American artist El Mec, known for his striking outdoor portraits, including some done in Montreal. The vision for the Cohen piece has not been finalized. When it is, the artists will present it to Cohen’s family members for approval before rendering it on the building.

The work will likely be done between late June and September, the period during which there is the least chance of rain, said MU artistic director Elizabeth-Ann Doyle. The city is expected to cover $200,000 of the cost, with the rest of the money coming from fundraising initiatives. 

“It will be so visible, and such an amazing statement,” Doyle said. “It will be a legacy that will be open to everybody, tourists and Montrealers. It will change the landscape of downtown Montreal.”

Another mural honouring Cohen is slated to be drawn this summer on the side of the nine-storey Cooper Building on St-Laurent Blvd. near Duluth Ave., as part of the local development committee’s popular annual Mural Festival. Some critics argue the Plateau-Mont-Royal project is more fitting, given it is where Cohen lived in his later years in Montreal.

Doyle said MU has been planning to honour Cohen in some way since 2013, hoping initially to produce a mural in 2014 to commemorate his 80th birthday, but could not find an urban canvas large enough in the Plateau. Their next plan was to produce a mural in 2017 to coincide with the 50th anniversary of the release of his first album, Songs of Leonard Cohen.

Cohen’s death spurred a new sense of urgency to hit their 2017 target. When the massive Crescent St. location came came available, MU seized the opportunity, Doyle said
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