Edmund Alleyn

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Edmund Alleyn
Jean-Paul Lemieux and Jean Dallaire
SpouseAnne Cherix
Websiteedmundalleyn.com

Edmund Alleyn (June 09, 1931 – December 24, 2004)[1][2] had an art career that underwent many stylistic changes.[3][4] He explored various styles of painting including abstraction, narrative figuration, technology and pop art, as well as different media.[5] Critics feel that his inability to be categorized marks him as contemporary.[3] Even more important, they say that he helped remove excessive compartmentalization from art practice.[6]

Early years

Born in Québec City in 1931 to a family of English and Irish heritage, Edmund Alleyn attended the École des beaux-arts in Québec City, where he studied with

Jean-Paul Lemieux and Jean Dallaire. In 1955, he won the Grand Prix aux concours artistiques de la Province de Québec and a grant from the Royal Society of Canada.[4]

Career

From 1955 to 1970, Alleyn stayed in France twice for long periods of time. During this time, he at first explored

Jean-Paul Lemieux, Frances Loring, and Albert Dumouchel
, he represented Canada at the
Venice Biennial.[8] In the period 1962 to 1964, Alleyn’s growing interest in North American Indigenous art was reflected in ideographic and biomorphic forms and more colourful work, then by the mid-1960s he created "cybernetic" figurative painting. Afterwards, inspired by the 1968 uprisings in Paris, he experimented with film and technological sculpture, moving toward an imagery that came from technology, electronics and mass media.[4][5]
His Introscaphe 1 (1970) was one of the first multimedia works ever made. Shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, it consists of an egg-shaped capsule with space for one viewer, which visitors were invited to enter and go through a multisensory experience.

On his return to Canada, he was struck by the changes caused by the Quebec’s

Plexiglas and installed in front of representations of sunsets. These he called his "Quebec Suite".[9] Eventually he created the moody private landscapes of his large-scale paintings done between 1983 and 1990.[3][4]

In 1990, he returned to figuration in his "Indigo" series which he exhibited at the Galerie d’art Lavalin and at the 49th Parallel in New York. At the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Sherbrooke in 2004, he showed his final series, "Les Éphmérides" (1995-2004)[10] which consisted of 12 large canvases as well as ink washes that echoed his abstract and figurative work of the 1960s.[4] Alleyn said of his work,

My works are an aide-memoire for life; a fragmentary antidote against amnesia, which kills more effectively – and softly – that the bullet shot by the elite. Edmund Alleyn, By Day, By Night (Les éditions du passage, 2013)[9]

Alleyn had many solo exhibitions and participated in important group shows both in Canada and abroad.[11] His works are included in the collections of Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal and the National Gallery of Canada, among others.[5] He is represented by Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal.

From shortly after his return in 1970 from France until his retirement in 1991, he held a teaching position at the University of Ottawa, to which he commuted, maintaining his studio in Montreal.[3] Alleyn died of cancer on December 24, 2004, at the age of 73.[4][12]

Major solo exhibitions during his lifetime

  • The introscaphe 1, Museum of Modern Art in Paris, 1970[11]
  • Indigo, Lavalin Art Gallery and 49 Parallel, New York, 1990[11]
  • The horizons of expectations, 1955-1995 (retrospective), Musée d'art de Joliette and Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, 1997[11][13]
  • Les Éphémérides, Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts, 2004[11]

Awards

Movies about Edmund Alleyn

Legacy

In 2016, the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal organized a second retrospective titled Dans mon atelier, je suis plusieurs (In My Studio, I am Many), curated by Mark Lanctôt.[4]

References

  1. ^ a b c MacDonald, Colin S. (1967). A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, vol. 1 (First ed.). Ottawa: Canadian Paperbacks Publishing. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  2. ^ "Collection". aggv.ca. Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  3. ^ a b c d Twerdy, Saelan (4 August 2016). "Who Was Edmund Alleyn? Rediscovering a Mercurial and Untimely Talent". momus.ca. MOMUS, Aug 4, 2016. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h "Edmund Alleyn". macm.org. Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Retrieved 12 August 2021.
  5. ^ a b c Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Acquisition Proposal for Edmund Alleyn’s Anatomy of a Sigh; The Ephemerides and All Night Long III, accession #41640; #41680, and #41641, Curatorial File, National Gallery of Canada
  6. ^ a b c "Contemporary Art in Québec, p. 41". Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec. Retrieved 15 August 2021.
  7. ^ a b "Edmund Alleyn". dictionnaire.espaceartactuel.com/. Espace. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  8. ^ a b "Venice Biennale, 1972". National Gallery of Canada. Archived from the original on 13 October 2013. Retrieved 13 August 2021.
  9. ^ a b Kozinska, Dorota. "Edmund Alleyn In my studio, I am many". viedesarts.com. Vie des Arts no. 243, Summer 2016. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  10. ^ Marcoux, Gabrielle. "Edmund Alleyn". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  11. ^ a b c d e Lapointe, Gilles. "Chronology". translate.google.com. MACM. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  12. ^ "Edmund Alleyn". ottawacitizen.remembering.ca. Ottawa Citizen, 2004. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
  13. ^ "Edmund Alleyn". www.museejoliette.org. Musée de Joliette. Retrieved 17 August 2021.
  14. ^ "My Father's Studio". f3m.ca. f3m. Retrieved 14 August 2021.

Bibliography

  • Lanctôt, Mark; Asselin, Olivier; Bonin, Vuncent; Lapointe, Gilles; Weber-Houde, Aude (2016). Edmund Alleyn: In My Studio I Am Many (English ed.). Montreal: Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal. Retrieved 16 August 2021.
  • Lapointe, Gilles (2017). Edmund Alleyn: Biographie. Montreal: University of Montreal Press. Retrieved 14 August 2021.
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