Léon Bellefleur
(1910-2007) - Artist Biography
For 25 years Léon Bellefleur was an elementary school teacher, developing his artwork during the summers and studying during the evenings at the école des Beaux-Arts in Montreal. In 1954 he was able to retire and pursue his art career full-time.
Along with Albert Dumouchel, Jacques de Tonnancour, Louis Archambault and others, Bellefleur joined the Prisme d'Yeux led by Alfred Pellan, signing their manifesto in 1948 and exhibiting with the group. These artists were open to traditional expression and inspiration, and were responding to the more radical ideological approach of the Automatistes. Through this association, Bellefleur became interested in the Surrealist preoccupation with the subconscious as a source of inspiration. Towards the end of the decade, he became interested in the work of Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky and the Spanish artist, Juan Miro.
After retiring, Bellefleur travelled to Europe and set up a studio in Paris, producing prints and etchings. He also experimented with painting techniques, working with a spatula, which provided cleaner definitions to outlines than a brush and created various dimensional effects. Bellefleur spent most of the next 10 years working and travelling in Europe, before returning to Quebec permanently in 1966. His career was boosted by a retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada in 1968. He continued to create lyrical and surrealist influenced painting, drawings, and prints through the 1980s.
"Mystery works and is everywhere in life, around us and even in us, especially in art, I feel. A work without mystery is not a work of art; it is just a decorative object, made with a great deal of craftsmanship, but without soul or inner life, without mystery, in fact, and without wonder!" –Léon Bellefleur
Solo Exhibitions
Maison des Compagnons, Montréal, 1946;
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (with Fritz Brandtner), 1950;
Agnès Lefort Gallery, Montreal, 1951, 1955;
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal (with Anne Kahane), 1954;
Galerie l'Actuelle, Montréal, 1956;
Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal, 1957, 1958, 1960;
Dresdnere Gallery, Montreal, 1961;
Here and Now Gallery (Dorothy Cameron Gallery), Toronto, 1961;
"A la gloire de la main" (To the glory of the hand), Claude Haeffely Gallery, Montreal (with Roland Giguère and Gerard Tremblay), 1963;
Galerie du Siècle, Montréal, 1964, 1966;
Galerie Connaître, Paris, 1965;
Roberts Gallery, Toronto, 1966, 1968, 1971;
Galerie l'Atelier, Quebec, 1967;
Blue Barn Gallery, Ottawa, 1967;
National Gallery of Canada Ottawa (this retrospective will also be exhibited at the London Public Library and Art Museum and at the Contemporary Art Museum of Montreal), 1968;
Galerie Michel Champagne, Québec, 1969;
Damkjar Gallery, Hamilton (with Jack Shadbolt), 1972;
Upper Street Gallery, London, 1973;
Downstairs Gallery, Edmonton (with Shadbolt and Michael Forster), 1974;
Galerie Les Deux "B", Saint Antoine sur Richelieu, Quebec, 1975, 1979;
Internationale Gallery, Ribe, Denmark, 1975;
Galerie Charlotte Frenette, Québec (with Giguère and Tremblay), 1981;
Frederick Palardy Gallery, Saint Lambert, Quebec, 1982.
Group Exhibitions
Contemporary Art Society, 1943, 1944, 1945, 1946, 1947, 1948;
Canadian Art Exhibition, André-Grasset College, Montreal, 1944;
Spring Exhibition, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (from now on Bellefleur will be included in nearly all the Museum spring exhibitions), 1947;
Travelling exhibition in Belgium, organized by the Association for Artistic and Intellectual Progress of Wallonie, 1950;
Second International COBRA Exhibition, Liere, 1951;
First Biennial Exhibition, Sao Paulo, 1951;
Recent Quebec Paintings, travelling show in Canada and the United States, organized by the National Gallery of Canada and the Vancouver Art Gallery, 1951;
Canadian Group of Painters, Art Gallery of Toronto, 1952;
International Phases Exhibition, Galerie Creuse, Paris, 1955;
International Engraving and Drawing Exhibition, Lugano, Switzerland, 1956;
Association of Non-Figurative Artists of Montreal, Helene de Champlain Restaurant, Montreal, 1956;
Second Biennial of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1957;
International Engraving Exhibition, Ljubljana, Yugoslavia, 1957;
Trente-cinq peintres dans l'actualité, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1957;
Twelve Painters of Montreal, St. Helen's Island, 1957;
Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (with Borduas, Mousseau and Riopelle), 1957;
Four Painters of Quebec, Art Gallery of Toronto (with Fernand Leduc, Lemieux and Picher), 1957;
Canada Pavilion, Universal Exhibition of Brussels, 1958;
Third Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1959;
International Exhibition for the Guggenheim Honours, Guggenheim Museum, New York (with Alleyn, Borduas, Riopelle and Town), 1960;
Fourth Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, 1961;
Canadian Art, Galerie Arditti, Paris (with Alleyn, Borduas, Ferron, Lefebvre and Riopelle); this exhibition was also shown in Milan, Zurich and Turin, 1962;
Canadian Modern, Art Spolete, Italy, 1962;
Surrealism in Canadian Painting, London Public Library and Art Museum, 1964;
Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1967;
Panorama of the Art in Quebec, 1940-1966, Contemporary Art Museum, Montreal, 1967;
Three generations of Quebecois art, 1940-1950-1960, Contemporary Art Museum, Montreal, 1976;
Tendances actuelles au Québec, Contemporary Art Museum, Montreal, 1978;
The Contemporary Art Society, Montreal 1939-1948, travelling exhibition organized by the Edmonton Art Gallery, 1980.
Awards and Honours
Jessie Dow Prize, Spring Exhibition, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, 1951;
Prize for painting, Commonwealth Contest, Vancouver, 1956. Prize for drawing, Second Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, 1957;
Scholarship for research by the Arts Council, 1958. Canada, represented by Alleyn, Bellefleur; Borduas, Riopelle and Town, received the Guggenheim Prize for the best national presentation Guggenheim Museum, New York, 1960;
Scholarship for research by the Arts Council, 1968;
Borduas Prize, Government of Canada, 1977.
Public Collections
The National Gallery of Canada;
The Contemporary Art Museum;
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts;
The Museum of Quebec;
Art Gallery of Ontario;
London Art Gallery;
Hamilton Art Gallery;
Tel-Aviv Museum.
