André Fauteux (born March 15, 1946) is a Canadian artist who now lives in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Ontario. Fauteux is a sculptor known for his abstract welded steel sculpture, which is related to Geometric abstraction.Robert James Belton.
Sights of Resistance: Approaches to Canadian Visual Culture
'. University of Calgary Press; 2001. . p. 65–. His

modernist Modernism was an early 20th-century movement in literature, visual arts, and music that emphasized experimentation, abstraction, and Subjectivity and objectivity (philosophy), subjective experience. Philosophy, politics, architecture, and soc ...

sculptures are also related to the Formalist ideas associated with

Clement Greenberg Clement Greenberg () (January 16, 1909 – May 7, 1994), occasionally writing under the pseudonym K. Hardesh, was an American essayist known mainly as an art critic closely associated with American modern art of the mid-20th century and a formali ...

Early life and education

Fauteux was raised by his mother, Lyle Secord Fauteux, née Ferguson, in

Hamilton, Ontario Hamilton is a port city in the Canadian Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Ontario. Hamilton has a 2021 Canadian census, population of 569,353 (2021), and its Census Metropolitan Area, census metropolitan area, which encompasses ...

. She encouraged his artistic endeavors. He attended

Upper Canada College Upper Canada College (UCC) is an independent day and boarding school for boys in Toronto, Ontario, operating under the International Baccalaureate program. The college is widely described as Canada's most prestigious preparatory school, and ha ...

in Toronto as a boy, where Vernon Mould taught him painting. He next studied art at

Central Technical School Central Technical School is a Canadian composite high school in Toronto, Ontario. The school is run by the Toronto District School Board (TDSB); before 1998, it was run by the Toronto Board of Education (TBE). Central Tech is located in the H ...

in Toronto, Ontario, principally with Robert Ross and Winston Laurence, in the mid-1960s.

Career

Fauteux moved to Ibiza, Spain in 1967, where he met other artists, including Graham Coughtry and Gordon Rayner. While in Ibiza, he painted and only began sculpture after his return move to Toronto in 1969. His first work was made of wood. Fauteux worked at a Toronto gallery owned by

Avrom Isaacs Avrom Isaacs, D.F.A. (March 19, 1926 – January 15, 2016) was a Canadian art dealer and tastemaker. Career Avrom Isaacovitch, known as Av Isaacs, was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and moved to Toronto with his family in 1941. Isaacs graduated ...

in the late 1960s. In 1970, he received his first

Canada Council for the Arts The Canada Council for the Arts (), commonly called the Canada Council, is a Crown corporation established in 1957 as an arts council of the Government of Canada. It is Canada's public arts funder, with a mandate to foster and promote the study a ...

grant. Fauteux worked with

Anthony Caro Sir Anthony Alfred Caro (8 March 192423 October 2013) was an English abstract sculptor whose work is characterised by assemblages of metal using ' found' and industrial objects. He began as a member of the modernist school, having worked with ...

at York University in 1974 and 1975,Joan Murray.
Canadian Art in the Twentieth Century
'. Dundurn; 1 November 1999. . p. 151. afterwards working as a minimalist sculptor in steel.A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, volumes 1-8 by Colin S. MacDonald, and volume 9 (online only), by Anne Newlands and Judith Parker National Gallery of Canada / Musée des beaux-arts du Canada He was a guest artist at the Emma Lake Artists' Workshops in 1976. He showed with the Sable Castelli Gallery in the Yorkville area for over 25 years. In

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, he showed with William Edward O'Reilly Gallery. In 1987, Fauteux was chosen by Helen Frankenthaler as one of five artists chosen to receive the Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Awards presented at the Guggenheim Museum. Also in 1987, he participated Triangle Barcelona, Casa de la Caridad,

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, where he made a large circular sculpture that is now a Holocaust Memorial in the Parc de la Ciutadella. Fauteux returned to Spain in 1990 to make sculptures at the Centre D'ART la Rectoria, Sant Pere Villamajor,

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

. In recent years, his art was represented by the Moore Gallery in Toronto, which had shows of Fauteux's boldly colored and shaped paintings.

Style

Fauteux sculptures are spare in form and do not replicate external subjects. The modernistic style is an international

contemporary Contemporary history, in English-language historiography, is a subset of modern history that describes the historical period from about 1945 to the present. In the social sciences, contemporary history is also continuous with, and related t ...

aesthetic Aesthetics (also spelled esthetics) is the branch of philosophy concerned with the nature of beauty and taste, which in a broad sense incorporates the philosophy of art.Slater, B. H.Aesthetics ''Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,'' , acces ...

. The sculptures include visual spaces, often with a rhythmic quality made of repeated elements and over-lapping sections. Examples of this are the group of pyramid galvanized sculptures made in 1976 (''Triangle no. 1'') and in pieces such as ''Verve'' 1975, ''Moro'' 1977, and ''Rosalino Roll,'' 1977. There are clearly connected elements within works such as ''Blacksmith'' 1974, ''Empire'' 1976, and ''Fountain of Irony'' 1987. Fauteux has also used other materials including rubber in a group of works made in

Chicago, Illinois Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

in the 1990s; such as ''La Salle Loop,'' of gum rubber and brass. Recent sculpture has been colored with multiple layers of polychrome color and iridescent pigments, on top of coated galvanized steel and with some elements which are dipped in chrome and therefore shiny.

Major shows

In 1975, ''The Condition of Sculpture'', was held at the

Hayward Gallery The Hayward Gallery is an art gallery within the Southbank Centre in central London, England and part of an area of major arts venues on the South Bank of the River Thames. It is sited adjacent to the other Southbank Centre buildings (the Royal ...

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and included Fauteux. In 1976, he showed at the Dietcher O'Reilly Gallery, New York and in 1977, in ''Eleven Sculptors'',

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 ...

, Montreal. In 1982–83 a major

retrospective A retrospective (from Latin ', "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 software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...

of his sculpture toured Canada's museums: ''André Fauteux Ten Years'' organized and originating at the

Agnes Etherington Art Centre The Agnes Etherington Art Centre is located in Kingston, Ontario, on the campus of Queen's University. The gallery has received a number of awards for its exhibitions from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Association of Art Galleries ...

, which included a catalog essay by Karen Wilkin. In 1988, he held a show at Gallery One, Toronto which was reviewed positively. In 1989, he did an installation at Ball State University Art Gallery, Muncie, Indiana and in 1990–1991, he showed work in solo shows in New York, Toronto, Chicago and Barcelona.

Selected public collections

Fauteux's art work is held in major public collections across

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and abroad in Spain. These collections include the

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; ) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Located on Dundas Street, Dundas Street West in the Grange Park (neighbourhood), Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, the museum complex takes up of phys ...

, Toronto and

National Gallery of Canada The National Gallery of Canada (), located in the capital city of Ottawa, Ontario, is Canada's National museums of Canada, national art museum. The museum's building takes up , with of space used for exhibiting art. It is one of the List of large ...

Awards

*Canada Council Grants *Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Award (1987) Guggenheim Museum; André Fauteux, was chosen by Helen Frankenthaler as one of five artists chosen to receive the Francis J. Greenburger Foundation Awards presented at the Guggenheim Museum.

Books on André Fauteux

*''André Fauteux, Ten Years, 1972–1982'': ''André Fauteux, Dix Ans, 1972–1982'' (Paperback, 1982), text by Karen Wilkin, Publisher: Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Queen's University at Kingston, 61 pages, Illustrated, Language: English, () *''Canadian Art: Fauteux, André: New Sculpture''

989 Year 989 ( CMLXXXIX) was a common year starting on Tuesday of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * Emperor Basil II uses his contingent of 6,000 Varangians to help him defeat Bardas Phokas (the Younger), who suffe ...

Filmography

Fauteux appeared in the 1979 National Film Board film ''Jack Bush'', explaining how Bush influenced him. The film was directed by Murray Battle and produced by Rudy Buttignol at Cinema Productions.

References

External links

"André Fauteux"
The Centre for Contemporary Canadian Art website
André Fauteux's homepage
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fauteux, Andre 1946 births Living people Artists from Ontario North American sculpture People from Haldimand County 20th-century Canadian sculptors Canadian male sculptors 20th-century Canadian male artists 21st-century Canadian sculptors