Louis Archambault, OC (1915 – 2003) was a Quebec sculptor born in Montreal, Quebec, he won the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada's Allied Arts Medal in 1958. In 1956, works by Archambault along with those of Jack Shadbolt and Harold Town represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. In 1968, he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.
Mr. Archambaul is recognized today as the premier formalist of Canadian sculpture. The award-winning artist simplified form and moved away from traditional uses of wood and bronze. Well regarded internationally, his works have been displayed beside those of Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, and Henry Moore, but within Quebec society, he remained an outsider and an enigma.
In the postwar period when Quebec artists were at the forefront of the Quiet Revolution, Mr. Archambault was a solitary figure, and remembered by his contemporaries as being cold, distant and “British.” As a consequence, he remained largely unknown in his home province. His severe and serene compositions are geometric, mystical and architectural. They often employ a balance between levity and weight and form and empty space.
By the 1950s, Mr. Archambault was moving away from ceramics and investing more and more energy in sculpture. His first big break occurred in the 1951 international sculpture exhibition held in London, England, where his work was regarded as exceptionally innovative. From there, he went on to distinguish himself when he represented Canada at the Milan Triennale in 1954 and the Venice Biennale in 1956.
In the 1960s, he was commissioned to make sculptures for the airports in both Toronto and Ottawa, and in 1967 it looked like Mr. Archambault might become a dominant name in the world of art when he represented Canada at Expo 67 in Montreal. His work titled Un Grand Couple, which sat outside the sculpture pavilion was stunning, and his Douze Personnages fared beautifully next to the works of Calder, Giacometti, and Picasso, and garnered international praise for superb craftsmanship.
Mr. Archambault never capitalized on his international reputation. Throughout his life, he supported himself and his family by teaching art at various art schools and universities in Montreal.
In his 1999 melancholy and meditative documentary, A la recherche de Louis Archambault, Quebec filmmaker Werner Volkmer provides an extraordinary portrait of the sculptor. Mr. Volkmer concentrates less on the art and more on the character of the man who created it. In the flesh, the 85-year-old Mr. Archambault is especially shy and seems to recede from the camera. The film, like its subject, reveals an artist who neither attempts to seduce nor please, but reveals a glimpse of a man who became truer to himself with age.
Musée des beaux-arts curator Stephane Aquin recalls Mr. Archambault as an intense perfectionist: “He created from a plan and never varied from his vision. There was a surgical precision about his work that bordered on obsessive. While we were setting up the show, Archambault was constantly tinkering with the display. The works are colossal and very difficult to set up. But Louis would look at something and insist that it had to be moved a few inches to the left or the right. He didn’t care how many extra hours of work it might take. The end product had to match that vision that lived inside his head.”
Elegant in his mind and his manners, Mr. Archambault was always a gentleman: honest, loyal and authentic. In his sculpture, he sought out the spiritual, while in his heart he remained a purist. Near the end, he was a frail and soft-spoken man with thin white hair and a thin white beard. His voice was shaky but it was filled with a lifetime of love and admiration for his dear wife Mariette.
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Louis Archambault or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
Mr. Archambaul is recognized today as the premier formalist of Canadian sculpture. The award-winning artist simplified form and moved away from traditional uses of wood and bronze. Well regarded internationally, his works have been displayed beside those of Pablo Picasso, Alberto Giacometti, and Henry Moore, but within Quebec society, he remained an outsider and an enigma.
In the postwar period when Quebec artists were at the forefront of the Quiet Revolution, Mr. Archambault was a solitary figure, and remembered by his contemporaries as being cold, distant and “British.” As a consequence, he remained largely unknown in his home province. His severe and serene compositions are geometric, mystical and architectural. They often employ a balance between levity and weight and form and empty space.
By the 1950s, Mr. Archambault was moving away from ceramics and investing more and more energy in sculpture. His first big break occurred in the 1951 international sculpture exhibition held in London, England, where his work was regarded as exceptionally innovative. From there, he went on to distinguish himself when he represented Canada at the Milan Triennale in 1954 and the Venice Biennale in 1956.
In the 1960s, he was commissioned to make sculptures for the airports in both Toronto and Ottawa, and in 1967 it looked like Mr. Archambault might become a dominant name in the world of art when he represented Canada at Expo 67 in Montreal. His work titled Un Grand Couple, which sat outside the sculpture pavilion was stunning, and his Douze Personnages fared beautifully next to the works of Calder, Giacometti, and Picasso, and garnered international praise for superb craftsmanship.
Mr. Archambault never capitalized on his international reputation. Throughout his life, he supported himself and his family by teaching art at various art schools and universities in Montreal.
In his 1999 melancholy and meditative documentary, A la recherche de Louis Archambault, Quebec filmmaker Werner Volkmer provides an extraordinary portrait of the sculptor. Mr. Volkmer concentrates less on the art and more on the character of the man who created it. In the flesh, the 85-year-old Mr. Archambault is especially shy and seems to recede from the camera. The film, like its subject, reveals an artist who neither attempts to seduce nor please, but reveals a glimpse of a man who became truer to himself with age.
Musée des beaux-arts curator Stephane Aquin recalls Mr. Archambault as an intense perfectionist: “He created from a plan and never varied from his vision. There was a surgical precision about his work that bordered on obsessive. While we were setting up the show, Archambault was constantly tinkering with the display. The works are colossal and very difficult to set up. But Louis would look at something and insist that it had to be moved a few inches to the left or the right. He didn’t care how many extra hours of work it might take. The end product had to match that vision that lived inside his head.”
Elegant in his mind and his manners, Mr. Archambault was always a gentleman: honest, loyal and authentic. In his sculpture, he sought out the spiritual, while in his heart he remained a purist. Near the end, he was a frail and soft-spoken man with thin white hair and a thin white beard. His voice was shaky but it was filled with a lifetime of love and admiration for his dear wife Mariette.
© 2019. All content on this blog is protected by international copyright laws All images are copyrighted © by Louis Archambault or assignee. Apart from fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review as permitted under the Copyright Act, the use of any image from this site is prohibited unless prior written permission is obtained. All images used for illustrative purposes only
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| Mr. Louis Archambault |
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| 1946, L'Appel |
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| 1948, Tête |
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| 1949, Urne |
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| 1950, Cochonnet |
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| 1950, Masque |
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| 1950, Plat «Oiseau» |
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| 1953, Femme se coiffant |
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| 1954, L'oiseau jaune |
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| 1955, The Moon Maids |
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| 1955, The Moon Maids |
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| 1958, Sans titre |
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| 1958, Sans titre |
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| 1959, le grand pretre |
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| 1959, Une fille d'Eve |
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| 1963, Les anges radieux, Place des arts |
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| 1966, Tall Couple detail |
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| 1966, Tall Couple |
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| 1966-68, Homme et femme |
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| 1967, Personnages: Enfants |
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| 1967, Personnages: Femme |
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| 1967, L'homme ailé |
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| 1967, Personnages |
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| 1967, Personnages |
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| 1967, Personnages |
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| 1967, Personnages |
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| 1967, Personnages, Terre Des Hommes, Expo 67 |
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1967, Personnages: Soleil |
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| 1967, Personnages: Soleil |
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| 1967, Tall Couple |
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| 1968,, Homme et femme, Beneath the Hepburn Block |
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| 1970, Le grand couple blanc |
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| 1973, Modulation no. 2 |
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| 1980, Justice |
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| 1980, L'ascension difficile |
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| 1985, Hommage à Asclepios |
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| Femme au Chignon |
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