Edmund Alleyn (June09, 1931 December24, 2004) had an art career that underwent many stylistic changes. He explored various styles of painting including abstraction, narrative figuration, technology and pop art, as well as different media.Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Acquisition Proposal for Edmund Alleyn’s Anatomy of a Sigh; The Ephemerides and All Night Long III, accession #41640; #41680, and #41641, Curatorial File, National Gallery of Canada Citics feel that his inability to be categorized marks him as contemporary. Even more important, they say that he helped remove excessive compartmentalization from art practice.

Early years

Born in Québec City in 1931 to a family of English and Irish heritage, Edmund Alleyn attended the École des beaux-arts in Québec City, where he studied with

Jean-Paul Lemieux Jean Paul Lemieux, (1904 - 1990) was one of the foremost twentieth century painters in Canada. He worked in several different styles, as represented by his five artistic periods. Biography He was born in Quebec City, where he also died. He wa ...

and

Jean Dallaire Jean-Philippe Dallaire (9 June 1916 – 27 November 1965) was one of the leading artists working figuratively in the 1960s in Canada. He is known for his festive scenes peopled by macabre characters. Early years Jean-Philippe Dallaire was born in ...

. In 1955, he won the Grand Prix aux concours artistiques de la Province de Québec and a grant from the

Royal Society of Canada The Royal Society of Canada (RSC; french: Société royale du Canada, SRC), also known as the Academies of Arts, Humanities and Sciences of Canada (French: ''Académies des arts, des lettres et des sciences du Canada''), is the senior national, bil ...

Career

From 1955 to 1970, Alleyn stayed in France twice for long periods of time. During this time, he at first explored

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

. In 1958 and 1960, Alleyn was included in the selection of Canadian paintings featured in the Guggenheim International competition, and in 1959 he won the bronze medal at the

São Paulo Biennale SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U.S. ...

, then in 1960, with

Graham Coughtry Graham Coughtry (June 6, 1931January 13, 1999), was a Canadian modernist figurative painter. Biography Coughtry was born in Saint-Lambert, Quebec, on June 8, 1931. He learned to paint at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts School, then attended ...

Frances Loring Frances Norma Loring LL.D. (October 14, 1887– February 5, 1968) was a Canadian sculptor. Career Loring studied in Europe before enrolling at the Art Institute of Chicago, where she studied with Lorado Taft. She was a member of both the Royal C ...

, and

Albert Dumouchel Albert Dumouchel (April 15, 1916 – January 11, 1971) was a Canadian printmaker, painter and teacher. A multi-talented individual, Dumouchel also was a photographer and gifted musician. His work as an artist was largely abstract.A Dictionary of ...

, he represented Canada at the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

. In the period 1962 to 1964, Alleyn’s growing interest in North American Indigenous art was reflected in ideographic and biomorphic forms and more colourful work, then by the mid-1960s he created "cybernetic" figurative painting. Afterwards, inspired by the 1968 uprisings in Paris, he experimented with film and technological sculpture, moving toward an imagery that came from technology, electronics and mass media. His ''Introscaphe 1'' (1970) was one of the first multimedia works ever made. Shown at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, it consists of an egg-shaped capsule with space for one viewer, which visitors were invited to enter and go through a multisensory experience. On his return to Canada, he was struck by the changes caused by the Quebec’s

Quiet Revolution The Quiet Revolution (french: Révolution tranquille) was a period of intense socio-political and socio-cultural change in French Canada which started in Quebec after the election of 1960, characterized by the effective secularization of govern ...

and in the early 1970s, created proto-installations depicting realistic, colourful figures taken from photographs of crowds attending the Expo 67 site, which he then painted on

Plexiglas Poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) belongs to a group of materials called engineering plastics. It is a transparent thermoplastic. PMMA is also known as acrylic, acrylic glass, as well as by the trade names and brands Crylux, Plexiglas, Acrylite, ...

and installed in front of representations of sunsets. These he called his "Quebec Suite". Eventually he created the moody private landscapes of his large-scale paintings done between 1983 and 1990. In 1990, he returned to figuration in his "Indigo" series which he exhibited at the Galerie d’art Lavalin and at the 49th Parallel in New York. At the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Sherbrooke in 2004, he showed his final series, "Les Éphmérides" (1995-2004) which consisted of 12 large canvases as well as ink washes that echoed his abstract and figurative work of the 1960s. Alleyn said of his work,

My works are an aide-memoire for life; a fragmentary antidote against amnesia, which kills more effectively – and softly – that the bullet shot by the elite. Edmund Alleyn, ''By Day, By Night'' (Les éditions du passage, 2013)

Alleyn had many solo exhibitions and participated in important group shows both in Canada and abroad. His works are included in the collections of

Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec The Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec ( en, National Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec), abbreviated as MNBAQ, is an art museum in Quebec City, Quebec, Canada. The museum is situated in Battlefield Park and is a complex consisting of four bui ...

Montreal Museum of Fine Arts The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA; french: Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, MBAM) is an art museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is the largest art museum in Canada by gallery space. The museum is located on the historic Golden Square ...

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 ...

and 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 l ...

, among others. He is represented by Galerie Simon Blais in Montreal. From shortly after his return in 1970 from France until his retirement in 1991, he held a teaching position at the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (french: Université d'Ottawa), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ottawa ...

, to which he commuted, maintaining his studio in Montreal. Alleyn died of cancer on December 24, 2004, at the age of 73.

Major solo exhibitions during his lifetime

* ''The introscaphe 1'', Museum of Modern Art in Paris, 1970 * ''Indigo'', Lavalin Art Gallery and 49 Parallel, New York, 1990 * ''The horizons of expectations'', 1955-1995 (retrospective), Musée d'art de Joliette and

, 1997 * ''Les Éphémérides'', Sherbrooke Museum of Fine Arts, 2004

Awards

* 1955 Grand Prize at the Concours Artistiques of the Province of Quebec * 1955 grant from the

* 1958 and 1960, Alleyn was included in the selection of Canadian paintings featured in the Guggenheim International competition * 1959 bronze medal at the

* 1960 represented Canada at the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

with

, and

Movies about Edmund Alleyn

* ''L'Introscaphe'', Charles Chaboud, 10 min,

Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec The Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec ( 'National Library and Archives of Quebec') or BAnQ is a Quebec government agency which manages the province's legal deposit system, national archives, and national library. Located at the Gr ...

, 1971. * ''The horizons of expectations: reflection on painting'', 15 min,

, 1995. * ''Imagine the Nothing'', Jennifer Alleyn, The Other's Films, 8 min, 2001. * ''My Father's Studio'', Jennifer Alleyn, Amazon Film, 72 min, 2007.

Legacy

In 2016, the

organized a second

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 ...

titled ''Dans mon atelier, je suis plusieurs'' (''In My Studio, I am Many''), curated by Mark Lanctôt.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Alleyn, Edmund 1931 births 2004 deaths Artists from Quebec City Canadian contemporary artists Canadian abstract artists Canadian installation artists Canadian male painters Canadian multimedia artists Canadian sculptors University of Ottawa faculty 20th-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian painters Canadian art educators 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian male artists