Armand Vaillancourt

Heffel Auction House Biography and Notes

Armand Vaillancourt was born in Black Lake in 1929 and raised on a farm in St-Ferdinand, in a time when everything was done by hand. Vaillancourt arrived in Montreal in 1951, bringing the boundless energy of a pioneer. The artist first entered the public eye in 1953 with his debut public work, L’Arbre de la rue Durocher. As Marie-Ève Beaulé wrote, “This essential work by Vaillancourt marks the beginning of modern sculpture in Quebec.”(1) Today at age 92, Vaillancourt the sculptor and painter— one of the fathers of modern sculpture in Canada and master of material expressionism—maintains an influential presence in the art world. Since the early 1980s, his body of work has been enriched by his passionate painting practice from which is taken this selection of works chosen by the artist. We are very proud to collaborate with Heffel Fine Art Auction House for this inaugural sale. Starting in 2010 and onward, Vaillancourt’s paintings are characterized by two constants: his use of whips and the chromatic duality of black and white. The artist orchestrates a battle with matter using a tool he created himself to explore a range of ideas wherein forces and tensions are keenly felt. The use of whips amplifies the artist’s movements, harnessing his vital energy. 1. Marie-Ève Beaulé, Inter: art actuel, no. 111, 2012. We thank Joanne Beaulieu, vice-president of the Fondation Armand-Vaillancourt, for contributing the original French essay. Although we tend to think of Armand Vaillancourt as an artist who chisels more than he paints, it is time to take a closer look at his signature expressionism in paint. An inventive and extraordinary creator with wide-ranging interests, his prodigious pictorial output has been a constant throughout his career. His paintings, drawings and prints have always expressed his passion for the role of art in society, with every work a performative clash of energies in which the creative impulse of colours dominates both material and tool—all is movement and action in his hands. In this sense, Vaillancourt is a media figure, inseparable from his work as the herald of the struggle for greater social justice. He expresses the gestural poetry of being alive—cutting pieces of daily life into letters, lines, figures and abstract shapes. Therein lies the rightness and relevance of Vaillancourt’s paintings - neither splintered nor fragmented, each of his works contains the full fervour of his life made art. We thank Guy Sioui Durand, Wendat, sociologist, art critic and independent curator, contributing the original French essay.