Leon Bellefleur, 97, esteemed Quebec artist dies
wazzzy
Leon Bellefleur, who died of pneumonia at the Alfred Durocher
Geriatric Institute in Montreal on Feb. 21 at the age of 97, was one
of Quebec's most influential abstract artists and used a spatula with
a sense of youthful abandon to apply seductive colours to his
canvases.
Although not as intense a painter as Jean-Paul Riopelle, or as
sophisticated as Paul-Emile Borduas, both his contemporaries,
Bellefleur was one of the leading artists of his generation.
"Not all of Bellefleur's work stands the test of time," Gazette art
critic Ann Duncan wrote in 1988. "At times he is an awkward colourist,
with the jewel-like beauty of his gouaches sometimes going astray in
his oils. But there's no debating Bellefleur's importance in helping
Quebec shake free of the conservative tastes and parochial viewpoints
that not long ago dominated art in this province."
Leon Bellefleur was born in Montreal on Feb 8, 1910.
His mother died when he was 6 years and he withdrew into his drawing.
His father tried to discourage the boy's interest in art.
Bellefleur instead became an elementary school teacher, graduating
from the Jacques Cartier Normal School in 1929.
After a 1938 meeting the painter Alfred Pellan, who was dabbling in
surrealism, Bellefleur became intrigued with the avant garde,
especially with works of Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, and by his own
children's spontaneous use of colour. He took up painting again.
"Only those who have retained the ability to dream, to play, to feel
moved, and to pursue an ideal can hope to make their life a great and
splendid thing," he wrote by way of explanation.
His first exhibition was in 1946 and by 1950 the Montreal Museum of
Fine Arts staged a second exhibition. As a result he was able to quit
teaching and make art full time.
"No reasoning is involved in his work," wrote Le Canada's art critic,
Rolland Boulanger, "Only the eyes and the heart; he produces paintings
in a state of spontaneity and exhilaration, the most essential factors
in art and artistic creation... he has opted for absolute lyricism."
Bellefleur was briefly a member of a short lived group of artists
known as Prisme d' yeux, that was formed to counteract the anarchy
being advocated by Les Automatistes. In 1951 he went to France to
study lithography with one of the art world's leading engravers,
Johnny Friedlaender.
By 1956, Bellefleur was so commercially successful he began to divide
his time between France and Quebec. In 1960, along with Riopelle,
Borduas and Harold Town and Edmund Alleyn, he was a recipient of the
Guggenheim award and represented Canada at a show in New York. The
National Gallery of Canada mounted the first retrospective of his work
in 1968.
For Bellefleur, colour was always more important than design. "I paint
a l'instant," he was fond of saying, "My painting leads me."
Twenty five years after his first retrospective at the National
Gallery in Ottawa, a second exhibition, Rhythms and Colours, which
featured 100 of his works was mounted in 1993.
He was the first artist to receive the Prix du Quebec's Borduas prize
in 1977. A lavishly illustrated biography, Bellefleur: The Fervour of
the Quest, by Guy Robert, was published in French and in English in
1988.
Bellefleur was predeceased by his wife, Rita Jolicoeur, whom he
married in 1934. He is survived by his five children. The funeral will
be held on April 20.