Fernand Leduc | |
|---|---|
 Leduc in 1995 | |
| Born | (1916-07-04)July 4, 1916 |
| Died | January 28, 2014(2014-01-28) (aged 97) |
| Known for | painter |
| Spouse | Thérèse Renaud |
Fernand Leduc (4 July 1916 – 28 January 2014) was a Canadianabstract expressionist painter and a major figure in the Quebec contemporary art scene in the 1940s and 1950s. During his 50-year career, Leduc participated in many exhibitions in Canada and France. He was born inViauville,Montreal,Quebec.
In 1938 Leduc started his studies at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. After graduating in 1943, he left the church and shortly after became a member of theContemporary Arts Society. Leduc played a major role in forming the group known as theLes Automatistes, co-signing theRefus Global manifesto, but not contributing to the illustrated book. He moved toParis with his wifeThérèse Renaud in 1946 and slowly distanced himself from the group. There he participated in an exhibition, calledAutomatisme, at the Galerie du Luxembourg that examined the group. By late 1948, he had joined thePlasticiens. In Paris, Leduc developed a friendship with the painterJean Bazaine, who was at the time producing works which could be described as abstracted landscapes. This contact was an influence on Leduc's works of the early 1950s.
He returned from Paris in 1953. WithPaul-Émile Borduas, the theoretician of the Automatist group, he was the one who maintained the closest ties with the Frenchsurrealists. Leduc moved to a type ofhard-edge abstraction in 1955. He helped foundThe Non-Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal (Association des artistes non-figuratifs de Montréal) in 1956 and was its first President.[1] 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 two years to teach in Montréal. In 1970, the Centre culturel canadien in Paris in combination with theNational Gallery of Canada held a travelling exhibition of 16 paintings done over a three-year period in which he used biomorphic abstraction.[2] In 1977 he received theVictor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award.[3] In 1979 he was awarded the Louis-Philippe Hébert Prize and thePaul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1988.
Leduc died of cancer in Montreal on January 28, 2014.[4]
