Serge Lemoyne (June 13, 1941 – July 12, 1998) was a

Canadian artist The following is a list of Canadian artists working in visual or plastic media (including 20th-century artists working in video art, performance art, or other types of new media). See other articles for information on Canadian literature, Canadian ...

from Quebec. He worked as a

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

ist as well as creating

painting 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 ...

s, assemblages and

prints In molecular biology, the PRINTS database is a collection of so-called "fingerprints": it provides both a detailed annotation resource for protein families, and a diagnostic tool for newly determined sequences. A fingerprint is a group of conserve ...

. Lemoyne explored themes such as the environment, technology, and social justice. Lemoyne's work was exhibited in Canada and internationally, and he received numerous awards throughout his career. He died in 1998 at the age of 57.

Work

Lemoyne studied at the

École des beaux-arts de Montréal École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région ...

from 1958 to 1960. He cited as early influences

Les Automatistes Les Automatistes were a group of Québécois artistic dissidents from Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The movement was founded in the early 1940s by painter Paul-Émile Borduas. Les Automatistes were so called because they were influenced by Surrea ...

and the Plasticiens. Lemoyne had a collaborative approach to making art, seeking active engagement between artwork, audience and the artist. He helped found L’Horloge du Nouvel-Age in 1964 with

Claude Péloquin Claude Péloquin (1942 – 25 November 2018) was a Québécois poet, writer, singer, songwriter, screenwriter, and director. Péloquin published more than twenty books of poetry. He was also the author of many popular songs, including Robert C ...

, Yves Hébert and Jean Gauguet-Larouche and a year later, Le Zirmate. Both groups held events combining music, poetry, dance and visual effects to create

happenings A happening is a performance, event, or situation art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related events. History Origins Allan Kaprow first coined the term "happen ...

. Popular culture was a significant subject of his work—he devoted ten years to exploring

hockey Hockey is a term used to denote a family of various types of both summer and winter team sports which originated on either an outdoor field, sheet of ice, or dry floor such as in a gymnasium. While these sports vary in specific rules, numbers o ...

. ''bleu, blanc, rouge'' is a tribute to the

Montreal Canadiens The Montreal CanadiensEven in English, the French spelling is always used instead of ''Canadians''. The French spelling of ''Montréal'' is also sometimes used in the English media. (french: link=no, Les Canadiens de Montréal), officially ...

whose uniforms are these colors. Blue, white and red are also the colours found in the flags of

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotland, Wales and North ...

—the two language heritages that both unite and divide Canada. Perhaps Lemoyne's best-known work is ''Dryden'', an understated portrait of the goalie mask belonging to Montreal Canadiens star goaltender

Ken Dryden Kenneth Wayne Dryden (born August 8, 1947) is a Canadian politician, lawyer, businessman, author, and former National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender. He is an Officer of the Order of Canada and a member of the Hockey Hall of Fame. He was a Liber ...

. A 2001 exhibition organized by Musée régional de Rimouski, ''Greg Curnoe, Serge Lemoyne : deux nationalismes?'' paired the francophone Lemoyne's body of work with that of the anglophone

Greg Curnoe Greg Curnoe (19 November 1936 – 14 November 1992) was a Canadian painter known for his role in the Canadian art movement labeled London Regionalism, which, beginning in the 1960s, made London, Ontario, an important centre for artistic produ ...

. In 2008—ten years after the artist's death, the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke (

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional count ...

) organized ''Salut Lemoyne!'' an exhibition of work by Lemoyne together with the works of other Quebec artists with whom he was associated, including

Armand Vaillancourt Armand J. R. Vaillancourt (born September 3, 1929) is a Canadian sculptor, painter and performance artist from Quebec. He is known for his public art fountain entitled Vaillancourt Fountain located in San Francisco. He lives in Montreal. Biogr ...

Pierre Gauvreau Pierre Gauvreau (23 August 19227 April 2011) was a Québécois painter and writer who also worked in film and television production. Career He was born in Montreal, and enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal in 1937, today part of ...

, Janine Carreau, Hélène Goulet, Reynald Connolly, Cozic, François Gauthier, Gilles Boisvert, and

Serge Tousignant Serge Tousignant (born May 28, 1942) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist and a photographer. Career After receiving his graphic arts diploma from the École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal in 1962, Tousignant began to study lithography and etchi ...

. ''Art contemporain en fin de siècle'' (1994), produced by Jacques Larré, profiled Lemoyne, as well as the photographer

Geneviève Cadieux Geneviève Cadieux (born 17 July 1955) is a Canadian artist known for her large-scale photographic and media works in urban settings. She lives in Montreal. Education Cadieux was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1955. She received her BA in Visual ...

and the artist and architect Melvin Chaney. ''Lemoyne : documentaire sur la vie et l'oeuvre du peintre Serge Lemoyne'' (2005) examines Lemoyne's approach to creating art through personal videos, television archives and interviews with his peers,

, Marcel Saint-Pierre and Claude Jasmin. The commemorative envelope for the postage stamp to celebrate the

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 ...

issued by Canada Post on September 26, 2011 features a portion of Lemoyne's work ''Dryden'' (1975).

Life

Lemoyne was born on 13 June 1941 in

Acton Vale, Quebec Acton Vale is an industrial town in southcentral Quebec, Canada. It is the seat of the Acton Regional County Municipality and is in the Montérégie administrative region. Its population in the Canada 2021 Census was 7,605. The town covers an area ...

. He died on 12 July 1998 in

Saint-Hyacinthe, Quebec Saint-Hyacinthe (; French: ) is a city in southwestern Quebec east of Montreal on the Yamaska River. The population as of the 2021 Canadian census was 57,239. The city is located in Les Maskoutains Regional County Municipality of the Montérég ...

References

External links

lemoyne.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Lemoyne, Serge 1941 births 1988 deaths Canadian conceptual artists École des beaux-arts de Montréal alumni