Cohen legacy honoured with 20-storey mural
‘Magnificent wall’ to feature late singer
MONTREAL • A towering mural commemorating Montreal singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen will grace the side of a 20storey building on Crescent Street in downtown Montreal.
When completed in September, it will be among the largest murals in the city. 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 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 city is expected to cover $200,000 of the cost, with the rest of the money from fundraising.
“It will be a legacy that will be open to everybody, tourists and Montrealers,” MU artistic director Elizabeth- Ann Doyle said. “It will change the landscape of downtown Montreal.”
Doyle said MU hoped 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.