Marcel Barbeau
Marcel Barbeau, OC OQ RCA (February 18, 1925 – January 2, 2016) was a Canadian painter, sculptor, graphic and performance artist who used different forms of abstraction and art techniques and technology to express himself.[1]
Career
Born in Montreal, he studied with
When Riopelle and Borduas left Montreal for Paris and New York respectively and the other signatories formed the Plasticians, he began to investigate his own form of abstraction. He exhibited small ink non-objective paintings in NYC (1952) and also exhibited in Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City.
As a painter and sculptor, Barbeau addressed most of the fields in the visual arts. As a multidisciplinary artist, he tried to change the plastic language by transgressing disciplinary boundaries.[3] His collages became paintings (1959-1963 and 1986-2005), art prints (1969) and sculptures (1984-1988). His drawings of poems, made of words and letters, sometimes have borrowed their medium and relief from painting (1957).[3] His sculptures resemble drawings thrown in space (1971-1977) or look like small shelters, almost architectural (1985-1992). His performances, real stagings of the act of creation, materialized through paintings, drawings and, under his directive with the complicity of photographers or film directors, through photographs, films and videos, giving some permanence to otherwise ephemeral artistic gestures (1972-1980).[3]
Curiosity led Barbeau to study the main contemporary artistic trends originating from other disciplinary fields. His interest in those art forms encouraged him to draw on their structures in order to find some convergences, connivances, anchor points or to confirm aesthetic intuitions.[3] He used poetry, music, dance and architecture to renew his art, as for example, his phonic calligraphies (1957-1960) inspired by his friend Claude Gauvreau's poetry or his interdisciplinary events from the seventies and the eighties.[3] He even created works that fall under these disciplines such as his phonic chants from the mid-eighties, which appear in the portrait film by Manon Barbeau entitled "Barbeau, Libre comme l’art"; his dance-action paintings from the seventies; the choreography he created for the opening dance part of his exhibit at Domaine Cataraqui (1999).[3] Despite its diversity and profusion, his work reveals a unity. Economy of means and aesthetic perfection was of great concern for him.[3]
In 2010, Barbeau said in an interview about his work:
"When I paint I never look for an emotion. But the forms in the painting will get together and nearly make love; the forms want to live together."[4]
Public collections
Barbeau is represented in well over fifty public and corporate collections including the
Honours
- 1972 Canada Council’s Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award[7]
- 1995 Officer of the Order of Canada[8]
- 1998 Barbeau`s work is used as a stamp by Automatistes[9]
- 2003 member, Royal Canadian Academy of Arts[1]
- 2013 Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts[8]
- 2013 Paul-Émile Borduas Award, prix du Québec[10]
- 2015 Ordre National of Québec[11]
Legacy
Barbeau`s fonds is available at the Archives de l’UQAM - Fonds Marcel Barbeau (University of Quebec Archives), Montreal, QC[12] and the Archives nationale du Québec- Archives de l’audio visuel (Quebec National Archives, audio-visual Archives), Quebec City, QC[13]
References
- ^ a b "Marcel Barbeau s'éteint à l'âge de 90 ans" (in French). Le Devoir. 2 January 2016. Retrieved 2 January 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada
- ^ a b c d e f g Ninon Gauthier, Marcel Barbeau : Then and now, 2013.
- ^ Enright, Robert. "Marcel Barbeau: The Colour of Change". bordercrossingsmag.com. BORDERCROSSINGS magazine, 2010. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Collection". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca. Canadian Encyclopedia. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Prizes". Canada Council. Retrieved 15 August 2022.
- ^ a b "Marcel Barbeau". www.gallery.ca. National Gallery of Canada. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". /postagestampguide.com. Canada Post. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". www.prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca. November 11, 2013.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". /www-ordre--national-gouv-qc-ca.translate.goog/membres. Government of Quebec. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". acdps.uqam.accesstomemory.org. UQAM. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
- ^ "Marcel Barbeau". marcelbarbeau.com/bibliographie. National Archives of Quebec. Retrieved 4 August 2022.
Bibliography
- Gagnon, Carolle; Gauthier, Ninon (1990). Marcel Barbeau: Le Regard en Fugue/Marcel Barbeau: Fugato. Montreal: CECA Inc. Retrieved 3 August 2022.
External links
- Media related to Marcel Barbeau at Wikimedia Commons
- Official website