Few Québec artists have enjoyed such wide recognition as Jean Paul Lemieux, whose works are included in numerous public collections in Québec and Canada, and many private ones. But the relatively late emergence of his characteristic style, for which he became well known, overshadowed entire facets of his practice that remain unfamiliar to most. The watercolours he produced in Brittany in 1955 offer an eloquent example of this.
Lemieux concluded his year of study in France with a sojourn in Brittany. But it was precisely his return to Québec that marked the beginning of his so-called “classic” period. Lemieux claimed to have freed himself from his “sacrosanct” ties to France, which he considered alienating, and to have finally found his place in Québec painting—what Gabrielle Roy described as Jean Paul Lemieux’s terres nouvelles, in an article she wrote for Vie des Arts in 1963. In sum, Lemieux “became Lemieux” in 1956, just after his return from Brittany.
Two authors who were set to play a major role in Francophone literature—Gabrielle Roy, who had won the Prix Femina in 1947, and Anne Hébert, who would receive it in 1982—were also present in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys during this period. Yet another interesting aspect that highlights how women played an important role in Lemieux’s cultural sphere. He and his family were renting a house in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys when, in June, they met Gabrielle Roy, who lived in the nearby town of Port-Navalo until her departure the following month. Anne Hébert later joined her friends in Brittany, where she briefly stayed before exploring the rest of France. A third high-profile author and fellow laureate of the Prix Femina (1927) who also spent time in Saint-Gildas-de-Rhuys then was Marie Le Franc, who was originally from Sarzeau. Her circle of friends included Roy, who introduced her to Lemieux.
This unique context transformed Lemieux’s brief passage in the Rhuys Peninsula into an extraordinary experience that offered a veritable “open field” of creative possibility. This exhibition invites the public to discover, through this rarely exhibited body of work, a unique facet of Lemieux’s life and the full richness and diversity of his career.
Curator: Michel Paradis, Curator, Musée d’art de Joliette (1989-1990)
Artists
Jean Paul Lemieux, Suzanne Bergeron, Sylvia Daoust, Simone Hudon, Marcella Maltais and Jori Smith
Biographies
Jean Paul Lemieux
“Jean Paul Lemieux (1904–1990), painter, illustrator, critic, and teacher, is one of the most significant artists in the history of Canadian modernity. While Lemieux evolved on the margins of the principal art movements of his time, his oeuvre belongs with the great figurative exploration of the twentieth century. Born in Quebec City, he chose to pursue his artistic and teaching career in his native city. His art and his thought radiated outward from that centre for more than half a century.”
Grandbois, Michèle. (2016). Jean Paul Lemieux: Life & Work, 2016, Art Canada Institute. Retrieved from www.artbooks.artcanada.com.
Michel Paradis
When he was the Curator of Collections at the Musée d’art de Joliette, Michel Paradis worked on a variety of exhibitions on Canadian and Québec art. Among them was Présence des ivoires religieux dans les collections québécoises [The Presence of Religious Ivory Artifacts in Québec Collections] (1990), and its accompanying catalogue. He then completed a doctorate degree on the subject of ivory sculptures from the Gothic period.
From 1989 to 2007, he taught the history of Canadian art at UQAM and at Bishop’s University. In 1991, he joined Collège Montmorency, eventually teaching full-time there between 1996 and 2017, specializing in the documentation of collections and the preventive conservation of cultural heritage. He led on-site workshops, notably among Montréal’s religious communities and as a co-operant in Haiti and Guadaloupe. He also took part in ICOM’s General Conferences (Rio 2013, Milan 2016), and was a presenter at several professional conventions in Québec.