Bellefleur’s works are often centered in the trappings of childhood: play, games, spontaneity, and naïve creativity. He was experimental, interested in the act of art making, the response of creative individual to paper, paint and canvas, and sensitive especially to surface, texture and composition. His works often have a centrally focused theme, wherein paint builds and moves out from the centre of the work, sometimes with a sense of purpose, in other works, as pure paint on canvas. He said, “When I step in from of my canvas, I have nothing prepared. I am naked: I am completely free. I don’t have a subject in mind, nor a title, not
even a colour scheme. Nothing.”
We thank Lisa Christensen for contributing this essay
Described by Paul Duval as a bridge between the prevailing influences of Paul Emile Borduas and Alfred Pellan, Montreal -born Léon Bellefleur is remembered for his richly textured abstractions and a historically precocious sense of fantasy. After receiving his teaching diploma in 1929 Bellefleur enrolled in evening classes at the…
Described by Paul Duval as a bridge between the prevailing influences of Paul Emile Borduas and Alfred Pellan, Montreal -born Léon Bellefleur is remembered for his richly textured abstractions and a historically precocious sense of fantasy. After receiving his teaching diploma in 1929 Bellefleur enrolled in evening classes at the Ecole des Beauxs-arts de Montreal until 1938 where he developed an inclination for surrealist ideas and techniques. These interests were heightened in the 1940s through his close association with Pellan, and in 1948 Bellefleur signed the manifesto Prisme d’yeux, exhibiting regularly with this short lived group. In 1953 Bellefleur joined the Automatiste movement spearheaded by the notorious Paul Emile Borduas. A relationship which exposed him to automatic writing and drawing. Much time was spent in France in the 1950s studying engraving and during a later trip he submersed himself deeply in the ideas of surrealist founder Andre Breton. The National Gallery of Canada mounted a retrospective of Bellefleur’s work in 1968 and in 1977 he became the first artist to receive the Prix Borduas. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from Concordia in 1987 and appointed to the Royal Canadian Academy in 1989.
