Léon Bellefleur D.F.A. (February 8, 1910 February 22, 2007) was a French-Canadian abstract painter and print-maker.

Career

Léon Bellefleur was born in Montréal, Quebec, in 1910, and by the age of ten was drawing and painting. He earned a teaching diploma at

Jacques Cartier Jacques Cartier ( , also , , ; br, Jakez Karter; 31 December 14911 September 1557) was a French-Breton maritime explorer for France. Jacques Cartier was the first European to describe and map the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and the shores of th ...

teachers college in Montreal, graduating in 1929 and had a career in teaching for the next 25 years. He was mainly self-taught as an artist, but took evening classes from around 1929 until 1936 at the École des Beaux-Arts where he expressed his youthful admiration for the work of

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

. In 1938, Bellefleur met

Alfred Pellan Alfred Pellan (born Alfred Pelland; 16 May 1906 – 31 October 1988) was an important figure in twentieth-century Canadian painting. Biography Alfred Pelland was born in Quebec City on 16 May 1906. His mother, Régina Damphousse, died when ...

and through a friend, the Montreal art world. In 1943, he joined the

Contemporary Arts Society The Contemporary Arts Society was founded by John Goodwin Lyman, John Lyman in 1939 to promote modern art in Montreal, at a time when Canada was dominated by academic art. Lyman was the Society's first president. The additional officers were vice-p ...

. He was also a member of the

Canadian Group of Painters The Canadian Group of Painters (CGP) was a collective of 28 painters from across Canada who came together as a group in 1933. Formation The Canadian Group of Painters succeeded the disbanded Group of Seven, whose paintings of the Canadian wilde ...

, the

Canadian Society of Graphic Art The Canadian Society of Graphic Art (CSGA), originally called the Graphic Arts Club, was a non-profit organization of Canadian graphic artists. It was founded in 1904, and formally chartered in 1933. At one time it was one of the larger organizatio ...

and The Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal (1960). He participated in the activities of the Montreal

surrealists 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 ...

and in Montréal in 1945, he participated in the

Exquisite corpse Exquisite corpse (from the original French term ', literally exquisite cadaver), is a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule (e.g. ...

(Cadavre exquis) experiments with

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 ...

, Jean Benoît, Jean Léonard, Mimi Parent and Pellan. In 1948, he signed the manifesto ''Prisme d'yeux'', which defended diverse approaches to art-making. After the group dissolved, he remained friendly with the members of the ''Prisme d'yeux'', but followed his own aesthetic, inspired by

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky (; rus, Василий Васильевич Кандинский, Vasiliy Vasilyevich Kandinskiy, vɐˈsʲilʲɪj vɐˈsʲilʲjɪvʲɪtɕ kɐnʲˈdʲinskʲɪj; – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter a ...

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 ...

, and children’s art. Although he had been influenced in his early work by Pellan, following automatism and surrealism, he began to record the unconscious, creating coded atmospheres, states of mind and crystalline structures. He once said:

The fundamental discoveries for me were poetry, surrealism and esoterism - and, in art, a certain automatism translating the life of dreams and the unconscious, the world of chance and mystery.

In 1954, he left teaching and traveled to Paris to study engraving with

Johnny Friedlaender Johnny Friedlaender (26 December 1912 – 18 June 1992) was a leading German/French 20th-century artist, whose works have been exhibited in Germany, France, Netherlands, Italy, Japan and the United States. He has been influential upon oth ...

. His efforts were acknowledged with a Canada Council Fellowship in 1958, and he again made a trip to Paris, studying at lithography at Ateliers Desjobert and meeting

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

. He would continue to make lengthy trips to Paris for the next 12 years. In 1960, along with

Paul-Émile Borduas Paul-Émile Borduas (November 1, 1905 – February 22, 1960) was a Québecois artist known for his abstract paintings. He was the leader of the avant-garde Automatiste movement and the chief author of the Refus Global manifesto of 1948. Bord ...

Jean-Paul Riopelle Jean-Paul Riopelle, (October 7, 1923 – March 12, 2002) was a Canadian painter and sculptor from Quebec. He had one of the longest and most important international careers of the sixteen signatories of the ''Refus Global'', the 1948 manif ...

Harold Town Harold Barling Town, (June 13, 1924 – December 27, 1990) was a Canadian abstract painter. He is best known as a member of Painters Eleven a group of abstract artists active in Toronto from 1954-1960. Town coined the name of the ...

, and Edmund Alleyn, he represented Canada at the Guggenheim International at the

Guggenheim Museum The Guggenheim Museums are a group of museums in different parts of the world established (or proposed to be established) by the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation. Museums in this group include: Locations Americas * The Solomon R. Guggenhei ...

in New York. In 1965, he returned to Montreal for good, and had solo exhibitions in Canada and abroad. In 1968, he received a second Canada Council grant, and J.-R. Ostiguy organized his

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 ...

for the National Gallery of Canada. In 1977, he won the first annual Quebec government award for the arts as well as the

Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas The Prix Paul-Émile-Borduas is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals who are artists or craftsman in the fields of visual arts, of the trades of art, architecture and the design. It is na ...

. In 1985, he received the Louis-Philippe Hébert Prize from the Société-Saint-Jean-Baptiste and an honorary doctorate from

Concordia University Concordia University ( French: ''Université Concordia'') is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Founded in 1974 following the merger of Loyola College and Sir George Williams University, Concordia is one of the t ...

in Montreal. He was made a member of the

Royal Canadian Academy The Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) is a Canadian arts-related organization that was founded in 1880. History 1880 to 1890 The title of Royal Canadian Academy of Arts was received from Queen Victoria on 16 July 1880. The Governor General ...

in 1989. He died in 2007 in Montreal. His papers are in the National Library and Archives of Quebec (P898).

Record Sale Prices

In 2017, Bellefleur’s ''Des rêves et du hasard'', a 40 x 50 in canvas, estimated at $18,000-22,00, sold for $52,250 CDN (premium included) at the Heffel Auction, Vancouver.

References

Bibliography

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Bellefleur, Léon 1910 births 2007 deaths Artists from Quebec French Quebecers Canadian contemporary artists Canadian abstract artists