Kittie Bruneau (12 October 1929 – 6 April 2021) was a Canadian

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

and

printmaker Printmaking is the process of creating work of art, artworks by printing, normally on paper, but also on fabric, wood, metal, and other surfaces. "Traditional printmaking" normally covers only the process of creating prints using a hand proce ...

Life and work

Bruneau was born in Montreal on 12 October 1929. She studied at École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1946 to 1949. She studied for a year at the Montreal School of Arts under the supervision of

Ghitta Caiserman-Roth Ghitta Caiserman-Roth (March 2, 1923 – November 25, 2005) was a Canadians, Canadian painter and printmaker. She was a founder of the Montreal Artist School and her work is in the National Gallery of Canada. Caiserman-Roth was also an associate m ...

. As a young woman, Bruneau was torn between the visual arts and dance. Following her studies, she travelled to Paris, where she spent the next ten years. While in Europe, she danced in the corps de ballet for the Ballets de Rouen, and the Ballets de l’étoile of Maurice Béjart. While in France she gave birth to a daughter, Anook. In 1961, Bruneau moved to

Bonaventure Island Bonaventure Island (officially in French: île Bonaventure) is a Canadian island in the Gulf of St. Lawrence located off the southern coast of Quebec's Gaspé Peninsula, southeast of the village of Percé, Quebec, Percé. Roughly circular i ...

near

Percé, Quebec Percé is a small city near the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec, Canada. Within the territory of the city there is a village community also called Percé. Percé, member of the association of Most Beautiful Villages of Quebec, is mainly a t ...

where she lived and worked until 1972. During that time she had a second daughter, Nathalie. At that time, the Province of Quebec evicted all residents in order to depopulate the island. Her island studio is preserved as part of the

Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé National Park Île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé National Park (french: Parc national de l'île-Bonaventure-et-du-Rocher-Percé) is a provincial park of Quebec. The park is located at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula near the village of Percé, Quebec, and ...

. Since then she has worked each summer in a studio on Pointe-Saint-Pierre, a few kilometers from Bonaventure. Bruneau has a direct approach, using bright colours and a free gestural manner to portray figures and objects combined in compositions that have their roots in the world of poetry and dream. She paints with the canvases on the floor, walking over them as she works. Her work aligns with

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

, with some aspects of automatism. Other artists who explore this territory include in Quebec, Alfred Pellan 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 ...

; and internationally,

Joan Miró Joan Miró i Ferrà ( , , ; 20 April 1893 – 25 December 1983) was a Catalan painter, sculptor and ceramicist born in Barcelona. A museum dedicated to his work, the Fundació Joan Miró, was established in his native city of Barcelona i ...

, Paul Klee, and Wassily Kandinsky. She has collaborated with Leonard Cohen, Claude Haeffely, Françoise Bujold, Michaël La Chance and other poets to produce work that combines literature and the visual arts. Between 1982 and 1992, she painted seven murals in various places in Quebec. Bruneau's work is represented in the collections of the National Gallery of Canada,

Canada Council Art Bank Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by total ...

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 ...

, and the

Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple-pea ...

. Bruneau was made a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts She died at the age of 91 on 6 April 2021.

Artist books

* 1980 - ''D’îles et d’ailes'' (avec poésies de Leonard Cohen, Claude Haeffely, Michaël La Chance, Jacques Renaud, ill. Kittie Bruneau), Montréal, Éditions de la Marotte. np. BNQ, CA/137 RES * 1974 - ''Ah ouiche — t'en — plain'', poésies de Françoise Bujold, avec des pointes sèches de Kittie Bruneau, Guilde Graphique. * 1974 - ''Entre chien et loup'' (poésies de Michaël La Chance avec ill. Kittie Bruneau), Montréal, La Guilde Graphique, 9 pl. BNQ, RES/CA/38; SIGIRD, 02-1143038. * 1973 - ''La Clef de l'envers'' (poésies de Michaël La Chance avec ill. Kittie Bruneau), Montréal, Éditions de la Marotte, n.p. BNQ, RES/CE/19

Bibliography

* 1999 - Nicole Thérien, ''Kittie Bruneau'', Centre d'exposition du Vieux Palais, Les 400 Coups, 96 p. * 1967 - Jacques de Roussan, ''Kittie Bruneau'', préf. Paul Mercier, Lidec, Coll. « Panorama », 36 p.

Notes

External links

Le plaisir de peindre- Kittie Bruneau (personal site)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bruneau, Kittie 1929 births 2021 deaths French Quebecers 20th-century Canadian painters 21st-century Canadian painters 20th-century Canadian women artists 21st-century Canadian women artists 20th-century Canadian printmakers Canadian printmakers Members of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Artists from Montreal Women printmakers École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni Canadian surrealist artists