BIOGRAPHY:
Alfred Pellan is a painter, muralist, illustrator and costume designer born in Quebec City on May 16, 1906 and who died in Montreal on October 31, 1988. After enrolling at the École des beaux-arts de Québec, he distinguished himself by winning first prizes and medals in painting, drawing, sculpture, sketching, anatomy, and advertising. The first scholarship recipient from the Government of Quebec in 1926, he went on to study at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts in Paris (1926–1930) and received a First Prize in painting in the studio of Lucien Simon in 1928.
Staying in Paris until 1940, he attended the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, the Académie Colarossi, and the Académie Ranson. In 1935, he won first prize at the mural art exhibition in Paris, and in 1939, alongside Picasso, Derain, Dufy, and Dali, he took part in Washington, D.C., in the exhibition “Paris Painters of Today.” Returning to Canada at the beginning of the Second World War, he taught at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1943 to 1952. Deeply opposed to any form of academicism, he helped instill in this institution a more liberal approach, grounded more in universality and evolution. Alongside his teaching work, he illustrated poetry collections and created costumes and sets for theater productions. In 1948, he co-signed “Prisme d’Yeux,” a manifesto written by Charles de Tonnancour advocating artistic freedom free from any ideology. Pellan said: “The pictorial approach is essentially free. Painting is based on emotion and revelation, having at its disposal for expression the unpredictable means of plastic and poetic invention.”
Recipient of a research grant from the Royal Society of Canada, he returned to Paris where he became the first Canadian to present a solo exhibition at the Musée national d’art moderne.
Returning to Quebec in 1955, he took part in several exhibitions and created murals, which contributed to his national recognition. Throughout his career, Pellan was the subject of numerous monographs and documentaries. The recipient of many awards and honors, including the Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1983, he was appointed an Officer of the National Order of Quebec in 1985.
