Serge Lemoyne
Serge Lemoyne (1941-1998) - Artist Biography
Once nicknamed “l’enfant terrible of contemporary Quebec art,” Serge Lemoyne was born in Acton Vale on June 13, 1941. Having studied at the École des beaux-arts from 1958 to 1960, before being expelled, Lemoyne went to be considered by many art historians as the first Quebec painter to fully embrace pop art.
For ten years, from 1969 to 1979, Lemoyne only painted in blue, white and red. During this period, he produced his most famous series of paintings, Bleu-blanc-rouge, a striking tribute to the legendary Montreal Canadians of the time.
Lemoyne is particularly fond of triangular canvas shapes, which can be found in several of his works. The triangulations vary in number, format and color with some stretched vertically and horizontally, to dazzling effect.
Lemoyne made it his mission throughout his career to make art accessible to all. Seeking to bring Quebec artists out of the shadows, he often fought for their recognition on the world stage. In 1987, Serge Lemoyne produced his own posters which he stuck up all over the city to denounce the lack of publicity that the organizers of the Hundred Days of Contemporary Art in Montreal offered to Quebec artists who participated in the exhibition presented on avenue du Parc. .
Outspoken and combative, Lemoyne even dipped his toe in the arena of politics when he ran for the Parti poétique québécois in 1970 in Bagot and for the Parti rhinocéros in the federal elections of 1979 and 1984. Sadly, the artist passed away much too early from cancer in 1998.
Permanent Collections:
Musée du Québec
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal
Banque d’oeuvres d’art, Ottawa
Lavallin
Loto-Québec
Pratt & Whitney
Martineau Walker
La Banque Nationale
La Banque Toronto-Dominion
Musée de Lachine
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke
Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent
Musée de Chicoutimi
Université Carlton à Ottawa
Université Concordia à Montréal
Université du Québec à Montréal
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Oshawa
Artist Specialization: Popular culture was a significant subject of Lemoyne's work—he devoted ten years to exploring hockey and his "bleu, blanc, rouge" series is a tribute to the Montreal Canadiens whose uniforms are these colors. Blue, white and red are also the colours found in the flags of France and the United Kingdom—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.
