Marcel Barbeau, (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.
Career
Born in Montreal, he studied with
Paul-Émile Borduas
Paul-Émile Borduas (November 1, 1905 – February 22, 1960) was a Québecois artist known for his abstract paintings. He was the leader of the avant-garde Automatiste movement and the chief author of the Refus Global manifesto of 1948. Bordu ...
at the Ecole du Meuble in Montreal, and later shared a studio with classmate
Jean-Paul Riopelle
Jean-Paul Riopelle, (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the ''Refus Global'', the 1948 manif ...
.
At the Ecole Barbeau associated with other students of Borduas. Together, they formed a group which became known as the
Automatistes. Barbeau, like the others, was specially interested in psychoanalysis and the use of the unconscious and this interest influenced his work from 1946 to 1957. With them, he signed the
Refus Global
Le Refus global ( en, Total Refusal, link=yes) was an anti-establishment and anti-religious manifesto released on August 9, 1948, in Montreal by a group of sixteen young Québécois artists and intellectuals that included Paul-Émile Borduas, Jea ...
in 1948
[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] because he and the other signatories wanted to be free of formal structures - a movement which extended far beyond painting.
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.
In 1957 he returned to drawing from live models and experimented with calligraphy, then focused on drawing and collage which continued to be his main interest until 1961.
From 1964 to 1968 he researched
Op Art
Op art, short for optical art, is a style of visual art that uses optical illusions.
Op artworks are abstract, with many better-known pieces created in black and white. Typically, they give the viewer the impression of movement, hidden images, ...
and film techniques. He lived in Paris from 1962-1964 where he next exhibited his work. He then moved to NYC where he lived and worked for the next four years (1964-1968), exhibiting his work and in Montreal showing his work at Galerie du Siècle while taking part in group shows in both cities. In 1969, the
Winnipeg Art Gallery
The Winnipeg Art Gallery (WAG) is an art museum in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Its permanent collection includes over 24,000 works from Canadian, Indigenous Canadian, and international artists. The museum also holds the world's largest collec ...
in collaboration with the
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal
The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (MACM) is a contemporary art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the Place des festivals in the Quartier des spectacles and is part of the Place des Arts complex.
Founded in 1964, it is ...
, held a
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ''retrospectare'', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in medicine, software development, popu ...
exhibition of his work.
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.
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).
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).
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.
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.
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).
Despite its diversity and profusion, his work reveals a unity. Economy of means and aesthetic perfection was of great concern for him.
[Ninon Gauthier, ''Marcel Barbeau : Then and now'', 2013.]
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."
Public Collections
Barbeau is represented in well over fifty public and corporate collections including the
National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada (french: Musée des beaux-arts du Canada), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the ...
; the
Art Gallery of Ontario
The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Be ...
; and the
Stedelijk Museum
The Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (; Municipal Museum Amsterdam), colloquially known as the Stedelijk, is a museum for modern art, contemporary art, and design located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. , Amsterdam.
Honours
* 1972 Canada Council’s
Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award The Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award is a monetary award given since 1971 by the Canada Council for the Arts to Canadian artists judged to be outstanding in their mid-careers.
Since 2005, the award is given to one recipient in each of the follo ...
* 1995 Officer of the
Order of Canada
The Order of Canada (french: Ordre du Canada; abbreviated as OC) is a Canadian state order and the second-highest honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit.
To coincide with the c ...
* 1998 Barbeau`s work is used as a stamp by
Canada Post
Canada Post Corporation (french: Société canadienne des postes), trading as Canada Post (french: Postes Canada), is a Crown corporations of Canada, Crown corporation that functions as the primary Postal administration, postal operator in Canada ...
as a part of the collection on the
Automatistes
* 2003 member,
Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880.
History 1880 to 1890
The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor Genera ...
* 2013
Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts
The Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts are annual awards for achievements in visual and media arts in Canada. Up to eight awards are presented annually with the prize amount is $25,000
Created in 2000 by then Governor General Adrie ...
* 2013
Paul-Émile Borduas
Paul-Émile Borduas (November 1, 1905 – February 22, 1960) was a Québecois artist known for his abstract paintings. He was the leader of the avant-garde Automatiste movement and the chief author of the Refus Global manifesto of 1948. Bordu ...
Award, prix du Québec
* 2015 Ordre National of Québec
Legacy
Barbeau`s fonds is available at the Archives de l’UQAM - Fonds Marcel Barbeau (University of Quebec Archives), Montreal, QC and the Archives nationale du Québec- Archives de l’audio visuel (Quebec National Archives, audio-visual Archives), Quebec City, QC
References
Bibliography
*
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Barbeau, Marcel
1925 births
2016 deaths
Artists from Montreal
Canadian painters
Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts winners
Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts
Officers of the Order of Canada
Officers of the National Order of Quebec
Sculptors from Quebec
Canadian abstract artists
20th-century Canadian artists
21st-century Canadian artists