| Marcel Barbeau was born in Montreal on February 18th, 1925. Between 1942 and 1947, he studied painting and sculpture with Paul-Emile Borduas at the Ecole du Meuble in Montréal, where he was a student in furniture design. At that time and until 1953, he regularly visited his master's studio where he met other young artists and intellectuals, all members of the Automatistes. As a member of that major Canadian contemporary art movement, he participated in all exhibitions featuring the group and signed its manifesto,Total refusal. Some art historians consider that he was and remains its most innovative artist. He also was a junior member of Montreal Society of Contemporary Art with which he exhibited between 1945 to 1948. From 1958 to 1974 and 1991 to 1996, he lived and worked in the United States and in Europe. Visiting new York (1951) and San Francisco (1957), he met with some artists from the Abstract Expressionists movement and the Pacific School. In Paris, he met again with Fernand Leduc from the Automatists' group and he associated with minimalist and cinetic artists from Galerie Iris Clert where he exhibited. Among these artists, Lucio Fontana signed an introduction for his one-man show catalogue at Iris Clert gallery. In New York, Barbeau consorted with members of the french cinetic movement, GRAV (Groupe de recherche d'art visuel), and exhibited with the American op art school throughout the United States. After his retrospective show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery in 1969, he spent a year in Southern California where he created photography and sculpture projects. While living in France between 1971 and 1974, he started his major series of monumental sculptures and did his first performances. Since then, he shares his time between painting and sculpture. In 1991, he returned to Paris where he then worked for a few months, annually until the spring of 1996. In the fall of that year, he established himself in Bagnolet, a Paris suburb, continuing to visit Canada each summer. Mainly known as a painter, he has been involved in most visual art Media: drawing, sculpture, print, photography and performance. He has created many monumental works. His art has been exhibited in Canada, in the United States, in Europe and in Northern Africa where he had many one man shows. He has also participated in several international exhibitions. His works have been widely commented on in newspapers, magazines, catalogues and art books published in Canada, France and United States and in a fully illustrated monography, Marcel Barbeau: Fugato/ Le regard en fugue, published by CECA (Montréal, 1991), and in France at the Cercle d'art (Paris, 1994). He was also the subject of a few art films and videos among which renown film maker Manon Barbeau’s Barbeau “Libre comme l’art”. This was a 49 minutes film on his work and career co-produced by Informaction and National Film Board of Canada (2000). In 1963, he received the Zack Purchase Prize from the Royal Canadian Academy. In 1973, he was given a Lynch-Staunton Foundation Grant by Canada Council. In 1985, he was awarded the sculpture purchase award of the McDonald Canada Art Competition. He was invited to join the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in August 1992. In 1995, he received the Order of Canada as an officer(?). In 1998, Canada Post reproduced one of his works on a stamp as part of its series in honor of the automatist painters, signatories of the manifesto Total refusal. He was the special guest artist at the 2003 Montreal Jazz Festival which published a limited numbered print, Django Blue, on this occasion. His works are in many private, public and corporate collections in Canada, in the United States and in Europe among which are: the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), the British Museum (London), the Chrysler Art Gallery (Norfolk, Virginia), the Lyon Museum of Fine Arts (Lyon, France), the National Gallery of Canada ( Ottawa), the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal), the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (Montreal), Quebec National Fine Arts Museum (Quebec), the Rose Art Museum,(Waltham, N.J.) and the Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam). Marcel Barbeau passed away January 2, 2016 in Montreal. |
| 2007 Marcel Barbeau and William Armstrong, Virginia Christopher Fine Arts, Calgary, Alberta, November. 2006 Vertiginous Limits, Elliott Louis Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia. April. |
| 2006-2008 Art et Société au Canada 1913-1950, a travelling exhibtion organized by the National Gallery of Canada 2006 Boîtes de cigares peintes - Collection de Claude Bouchard”, Galerie d’art de l’Alliance française, Ottawa 2006 Art Reach, une expositiion traveling exhibtion organized by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia 2006 Explosion of Forms and Textures: Quebec Art of the 1960s from the Bas-Saint-Laurent Museum, Triangle Gallery, Calgary 2006 Quebec Connection, Summer Art Stroll coordinated by the Triangle Gallery, Calgary 2006-2007 Children's Corner / Le coin des enfants, Galerie Bellemare, Montreal 2007 Barbeau, Goodwin, Hurtubise et Serra, Galerie Bellemare, Montreal 2007 Démystifier l’art,/Demystifyaing Art : L’abstraction au Québec hier et aujourd’hui, Galerie d’art Stewart Hall, Pointe-Claire, Québec 2007 Rétrospective des 25 ans du Symposium international d'art contemporain de Baie Saint-Paul, Centre d’exposition de Baie Saint-Paul, Baie Saint-Paul, Québec |
| PUBLIC COLLECTIONS Agence de coopération culturelle et technique de la Francophonie, Paris Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University, Kingston, Ontario Quebec Archives, Quebec UQAM Archives, Montreal Art Gallery of Hamilton, Hamilton, Ontario Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario Art Gallery of Peterborough, Peterborough, Ontario Montreal Art Collection, Montreal, Quebec, Canada Art Bank, Canada Art Council, Ottawa, Ontario Montreal Public Library, Montreal, Quebec Canada National Library, Ottawa Carleton University, Ottawa France National Library , Paris Quebec National Library, Montreal Jacques Doucet Library, France National Library , Paris British Museum, London Baie Saint-Paul Exhibition Centre Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, Virginie, U.S.A Confederation Centre of the Arts, Art Gallery and Museum, Charlottetown, Prince Edouard Island Loan Collection, Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec Canada Art Council, Ottawa, Ontario City of Joliette, Joliette, Quebec City of Saint-Laurent (Hôtel de ville), Saint-Laurent, Quebec City of Lachine (Marina de Lachine), Lachine, Quebec Dalhousie Art Gallery, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova-Scotia École des Hautes études commerciales, University of Montreal, Montreal Greater Victoria Art Gallery, Victoria, BritISH-Columbia UQAM Gallery, University of Quebec in Montreal, Montreal Hart House, University of Toronto, Ontario Canadian Institute, Quebec Istituto Culturale e l'Arte, Catania, Italy Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery, Kitchener, Ontario Lamton Gallery, Sarnia, Ontario Laurentian University Museum and Art Centre, Sudbury, Ontario Hôtel des Postes, Laurier Museum, Victoriaville, Québec, Canada Leonard and Bina Ellen Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal Lethebrige Art Gallery, University of Lethebridge, Alberta London Art Gallery and Museum, London, Ontario Mc Gill University, Montreal, Quebec Mc Intosh Art Gallery, Western University, London Ontario Mc Inzie Art Gallery, Regina, Saskatchewan McLaren Art Centre, Barrie, Ontario McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Toronto Memorial University Art Gallery, Saint-John, Newfoundland Ministry of External Affairs of Canada, Ottwa, Ontario Montreal Contemporary Art Museum, Montreal, Quebec Musee a"Art Moderne et Contemporain de Strasbourg Acadian Art Museum, University of Moncton, New-Brunswick Joliette Museum of Art, Joliette, Quebec Mont-Saint-Hilaire Museum of Art, Quebec Civilisation Museum, Quebec, Quebec North Coast Museum, Sept-Îles, Quebec Lachine Musuem, Lachine, Quebec National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario Lyon Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, France Montreal Fine-Arts Museum, Montreal, Quebec Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts, Sherbroke, Quebec Bas St-Laurent Museum , Rivière-du-Loup, Québec Quebec National Museum of Fine Arts, Quebec, Quebec La viellePulperie (Saguenay-Lac St-Jean Museum), Chicoutimi, Quebec Louis-Émond Museum, Péribonka, Quebec Rimouski Regional Museum, Rimouski, Quebec, Canada Charlevoix Regional Museum, La Malbaie, Canada. National Gallery, Washington (DC) New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New-Brunswick Nova Scotia Art Gallery and Museum, Halifax Nickle Art Museum, University of Calgary, Calgary, Alberta Owen Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New-Brunswick Robert Mc Lauglin Art Gallery, Oshawa, Ontario Rodman's Hall Arts Centre Collection, Saint-Catherine, Ontario Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts Royal Victoria Hospital, Montreal, Quebec Simon Fraser Museum, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia. Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Holland Stratford Art Gallery, Stratford , Ontario The Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton, Alberta The Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia The Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, Manitoba Toronto City Corporation (Hôtel de ville), Toronto, Ontario University of Moncton, Moncton, New-Brunswick University of Montreal Universitéy of Sherbrooke University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Massachusetts Windsor Art Gallery, Windsor, Ontario CORPORATE COLLECTIONS Aird and Berlis, Toronto, Ontario Banque Nationale, Montreal, Queybec Bombardier Inc, Montreal, Quebec Deloitte & Touche, Toronto, Ontario Éditions Gaétan Morin, Montreal, Quebec Esso Resources, Calgary, Alberta Fédération des caisses populaires et d'économie Desjardins, Leyvis, Quebec Gaz métropolitain, Montreal, Quebec General Electric Canada Limited, Mississaugua, Ontario Gottlieb and Parson, New York City, USA Harel, Drouin & Associés, Montreal, Quebec INCO, Toronto, Ontario Industrielle-Alliance, Montreal, Quebec Loto-Quebec, Montreal McDonald's Restaurants Canada, Toronto, Ontario Norcen Resources Ltd, Calgary, Alberta Power Corporation, Montreal, Quebec Reader's Digest Canada, Montreal, Quebec. Richard Brown Baker, New York City, New York Union-Vie, Drummondville, Quebec Shell Canada Limited, Calgary, Alberta Spectra, Montreal Teleglobe Canada inc., Montreal, Quebec Via Rail, Montreal, Quebec. |