CHRISTIAN MARCEL BARBEAU. CAS. RCA. [b.1925].

Marcel Barbeau was born in Montreal in 1925. From 1942 to 1947 he studied under Paul-Emile Borduas at the École du Meuble in Montréal (Riopelle was a friend and fellow student). He regularly visited Borduas’ studio and met artists, intellectuals and the Automatistes. As a member of that, group he participated in all it’s exhibitions and signed its manifesto ”Refuse Global”. He also became a member of the Contemporary Art Society with whom he exhibited from 1945 to 1948. He lived in the United States and Europe for extended periods in the fifties, seventies, and nineties. He met artists from the Abstract Expressionist movement in the United States and in Paris reacquainted himself with Fernand Leduc and the minimalist and cinetic artists from Galerie Iris Clert (where he exhibited). In 1969 he received a retrospective exhibition at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and that same year went to California and to do photographic and sculpture projects. While living in France [1971-74] he did a series of monumental sculptures and his first performance piece. Though Barbeau is mainly known for his paintings he created work in almost all artistic medias. He exhibited extensively in Canada, the United States, Europe and North Africa. He also participated in a number of international exhibitions. Many publications and articles in French and English have been written about his work and he was featured in a number of films including “Libre comme l’art” by Manon Barbeau (co-produced by Informaction and the National Film Board of Canada in 2000). Barbeau received various awards including the Samuel and Ayala Zacks Purchase Prize from the Royal Canadian Academy [1963], Lynch-Staunton Foundation Grant from Canada Council [1973], McDonald Canada purchase award [1985], and the Order of Canada [1995]. In 1998 one of his works was used in a Canadian stamp honouring the Automatists. His work is in numerous public, corporate, and private collections, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, British Museum London, Chrysler Art Gallery, Norfolk, Virginia, Lyon Museum of Fine Arts, Lyon, France, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, Musée du Quebec, Quebec City, Rose Art Museum, Waltham, New Jersey, and the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. Since 1996 has lived in Bagnolet, a Paris suburb, and continues to visit Canada each summer.

Bibliography: MacDonald, “Dictionary of Canadian Artists” [vol. 1, pp 177-180]