Fernand Leduc

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Fernand Leduc (b. 4 June 1916 Viauville, Montréal, Québec) is a Canadian Québécois abstract expressionist painter who was a major figure in the Quebec contemporary art scene in the 1940s and 1950s. During his 50 years' career Fernand Leduc has participated in many expositions in Canada, France and other countries.

1 Biography
2 Selected expositions
3 Sources
4 External links

[edit] Biography

In 1938 Leduc started his studies at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montréal. After graduation in 1943, he left the church and shortly after became a member of the Contemporary Arts Society. Leduc played a major role in forming the group known as the Les Automatistes, co-signing the famous Refus Global manifesto, but not contributing to the illustrated book. He moved to Paris with his wife Thérèse Renaud in 1946 and slowly distanced himself from the group. There he participated in an exhibition, called Automatisme, at the Galerie du Luxembourg that examined the group. By late 1948, he had distanced himself from them and had joined the Plasticiens. In Paris, Leduc developed a friendship with the painter Jean Bazaine, whose art was then in the category of abstracted landscape. This contact was an influence on Leduc's works of the early 1950s.

He returned from Paris in 1953. With Borduas, the theoretician of the Automatist group, he was the one who maintained the closest ties with the French surrealists. Leduc moved to a type of hard-edge abstraction in 1955. He founded the Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montréal (Association des artistes non-figuratifs de Montréal) in 1956. He experimented at that time with various forms of spontaneous and gestural nonfigurative painting, his works gradually becoming more involved with interactions and contrast of colours.

Leduc returned to France in 1959 and stayed there until 1970, when he came back for 2 years to teach in Montréal. In 1979 he was awarded the Louis-Philippe Hébert Prize and the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1988.

Leduc currently lives in Paris and Italy.

[edit] Selected expositions

2001 Galerie Graff, Montréal
1997 Musée du Québec, Québec
1986 Musée du Nouveau Monde de La Rochelle
1985 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Chartres
1984 Services Culturels du Québec, Paris
1980 Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; Centre Canadien à Paris; Musée Municipal, Brest, France
1975 Dizaine canadienne (Ten days over Canada), Lyon, France; Tapestries Les 7 jours, Agnes Etherington Art Centre, Kingston, Ontarion et York University, Toronto, Ontario; Michochromies, House of Canada, London, United Kingdom; Microchromies pastels, Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal
1974 Tapestries Les 7 jours, Galerie Kostiner-Silvers, Montréal; Journées Canadiennes, Toulouse, France
1973 Tapestries Les 7 jours, Centre culturel canadien, Paris; Thielson Gallery, London, Ontario; Exposition itinérante à travers les provinces maritimes, Galerie III, Montréal
1972 Galerie Jolliet, Québec; Galerie III, Montréal
1970 Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris; Galerie III, Montréal; Exposition rétrospective de Fernand Leduc, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal; Musée du Québec; Mendel Art Gallery, Saskatoon; Memorial University of Newfoundland, Saint-John; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton; Université de Sherbrooke; The Robert Mc Laughin Gallery, Oshawa
1966 Musée du Québec; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Montréal
1963-1965 Galerie 60, Montréal
1962 Galerie Hautefeuille, Paris
1961 Délégation du Québec à Paris
1959 Galerie Artek, Montréal
1958 Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montréal
1956 Galerie l'Actuelle, Montréal
1955 Musée de Granby; lycée Pierre Corneille, Montréal
1950-1951 Galerie Creuze, Paris
1950 Cercle Universitaire, Montréal