Ulysse Comtois was an important Canadian sculptor, painter, muralist, draftsman, printmaker and educator. He is most famous for his kinetic* sculptures.

He was born in Granby, Quebec, a town about 40 miles east of Montreal. He lived in or near Montreal most of his life and died in Saint-Hyacinthe, a town about 30 east of there. (1)

His sculpture mediums included welded steel, aluminum, laminated wood, stainless steel, bronze and mixed mediums. His painting and graphic mediums included oil, acrylic, gouache*, pastel, colored pencil, graphite, charcoal, ink, collage*, serigraph* and mixed mediums. His subjects were primarily shape, color and texture; although several of his paintings and sculptures have realistic references. Some paintings have a landscape quality and some paintings and sculptures have distinct figures. His styles included Expressionism*, Abstract Expressionism*, Color Field*, Abstract Surrealism* and Geometric Abstraction*. Many of his sculptures were influenced by Dada* and Constructivism*. (2)

Comtois was mostly self-taught. His formal art education consisted of a year at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Montreal (1949 - 1950). He left the school and became associated with the avant-garde art revolution that was taking place in Montreal in the 1940s and 1950s, largely under the leadership of Paul-Emile Borduas(3) and Les Automatistes*.

Later, he taught at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts (1968); at the University of Quebec, Montreal (1969 - 1974); and at Concordia University, Montreal (1976). He was considered very knowledgeable about the history of sculpture; and is also listed as a former teacher at Laval University, Quebec City and the University of Ottawa, Ontario. (4)

His travels include New York City in 1960, where he apparently was greatly influenced by the works of Julio Gonzales. He also traveled through Europe and Israel in 1963 on a Canada Council Grant with his then wife artist Rita Letendre. (5)

He is listed in one source as a member of Les Automatistes* (1953) though most only indicate he exhibited with them. Some sources indicate he was a member of the Non Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal* though most say he only exhibited with them. (6)

In addition to exhibiting with the above organizations his works were also included in many important group exhibitions including "Espace 55", Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1955); the 4th Biennial Exhibition of Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa (1961); "Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art", National Gallery of Canada (1967); "Panorama of Painting in Quebec: 1940 - 1955", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1967); "Panorama of Painting in Quebec: 1955 - 1966", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1967); "Expo 67", Montreal [mural] (1967);"The Ontario Centennial Art Exhibition", Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (1967) [touring]; the Venice Biennale (1968); "Panorama of Sculpture in Quebec: 1945 - 1970", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1970); "Three Generations of Quebec Painting", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1976); "Sculpture in Quebec", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1977); "Approaching Abstraction", Ottawa Art Gallery, Ontario (1998); "Art and Society - Quebec 1960 to 1970", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (1999); "Artcity: When Montreal Becomes A Museum", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (2001); and "The Place of Magic! The Forties, Fifties and Sixties in Québec - Part II", Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art (2006). (7)

The public venues for his solo exhibitions include the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art [retrospective] (1983); the Museum of Quebec, Quebec City (2001); and The Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Concordia University, Montreal (2001).

He also did a joint exhibition with Letendre at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1961.

Through the years, venues for his private gallery solo and group shows have included the Galerie l'Actuelle, Montreal; Galerie Artek, Montreal; Dorothy Cameron Gallery, Toronto; Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montreal; Galerie Agnès Lefort, Montreal; Galerie Edouard Smith, Paris; Galerie Moos, Toronto; Galerie Antoine, Montreal; and Winchester Galleries, Victoria, B.C. (8)

His works were also chosen for a special exhibition of contemporary Canadian art, by the National Gallery of Canada, at the Canadian Government Conference Centre (Ottawa), for the visiting [British] Commonwealth Heads of State in 1973. The other artists included were Gershon Iskowitz, Guido Molinari, Michael Snow, Claude Tousignant and Joyce Wieland. (9)

Comtois's works do not appear to be frequently traded on the secondary market; the author has been able to locate only 8 works that have sold at auction (using multiple sources) since 1999. Nevertheless, they are avidly collected by museums; according to the Canadian Heritage Information Network* there are 187 Ulysse Comtois works in museums across Canada. They include the Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, Ontario), the Ottawa Art Gallery (Ontario), Museum London (Ontario), the Art Gallery of Hamilton (Ontario), the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Nickle Arts Museum (Calgary), the Joliette Art Museum (Quebec), the Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, Ontario), the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery (Concordia University, Montreal), Dalhousie Art Gallery (Halifax, N.S.), the Winnipeg Art Gallery (Manitoba), the Vancouver Art Gallery (B.C.), the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa). The Museum of Quebec has the largest Ulysse Comtois collection; comprised of paintings, sculptures and drawings; it totals 112 works.

His awards include the very prestigious Prix Paul-Emile-Borduas Award in 1978 and Canada council grants in 1963 and 1967. (10)


Footnotes:

(1) Source: National Gallery of Canada artist's page - http://cybermuse.gallery.ca/cybermuse/search/artist_e.jsp?iartistid=1096.

(2) Source: Museum illustrations and descriptions of mediums in the Canadian Heritage Information Network* data base and The Canadian Encyclopedia (online) article by Denise Leclerc [NGC curator] http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0010828.

(3) All artists mentioned in this biography have their own pages in AskART.

(4) Sources for education dates and places: The Collector's Dictionary of Canadian Artists at Auction (2001), by Anthony R. Westbridge and Diana L. Bodnar; The Canadian Encyclopedia (see AskART book references); and the University of Ottawa http://www.visualarts.uottawa.ca/legacy.html.

(5) Source: The Canadian Encyclopedia (online) article by Denise Leclerc and AskART biography of Rita Letendre. Author's note: Comtois and Letendre divorced, Letendre married sculptor Kosso Eloul in 1967.

(6) Source: Art Gallery of Ontario: The Canadian Collection (1970) by Helen Pepall Bradfield (the only reference to include him as a member of Les Automatistes and the Non Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal) and Contemporary Canadian Art (1983), by David Burnett and Marilyn Schiff lists him as a member of only the Non Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal (see AskART book references). All other sources used in the preparation of this biography imply he only exhibited with the two groups.

(7) The sources for exhibitions are the Montreal Museum of Contemporary Art and the Art Gallery of Ontario; both have extensive archived catalogues online.

(8) Source: A Dictionary of Canadian Artists (1974), by Colin S. MacDonald (see AskART book references).

(9) Source: The Art Gallery of Ontario, archived catalogues online.

(10) Source: Quebec Minister of Culture - http://www.prixduquebec.gouv.qc.ca/recherche/desclaureat.php?noLaureat=178.

* For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx

Prepared and contributed to askART by M.D. Silverbrooke.

“My art philosophy is that distinct categories such as abstract art and figurative art don’t exist. These are not mutually exclusive, opposing genres. Rather, they form one continuum. It’s a question of degrees, not of species.”- Ulysses Comtois

Quebec-born Ulysses Comtois, best known for his kinetic sculptures, did not restrict himself to one medium or style but explored his ideas through painting, sculpture, and photography, as well as through abstract and figurative works.

Ulysses Comtois was born in Granby, Quebec in 1931. Comtois studied briefly at the École des beaux-arts in Montreal (1949–50) before deciding to leave the school and to focus on his own art, inspired by the Automatistes and their 1948 manifesto, Refus global. Some of his work from that period consisted of colour bars over a background of bright colours.

He participated in the last Automatistes exhibition, La matière chante, organized by Claude Gauvreau at Galerie Antoine in the spring of 1954. In 1955, he was part of the group exhibition Espace 55, at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. After the demise of the Automatistes, Comtois joined the Association des artistes non-figuratifs de Montréal, an alliance of Plasticiens and Automatistes and participated in their exhibitions from 1955 to 1959.

Comtois received a Canada Council grant in 1963, allowing him to travel in Europe and Israel. By the 1960’s Comtois was creating novel sculptural pieces first in wood then in metal, exhibiting his small sculptures of welded steel at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 1961.

In 1968, the National Gallery of Canada selected Comtois, together with Guido Molinari, to represent Canada at the 34th Venice Biennale. The NGC purchased Comtois’ kinetic sculpture, Column, for its collection, a work that has been on view at the National Gallery since 1995. The piece comprises of 70 aluminum plates fitted over a steel rod with base, each of the plates independently movable through a full circle. He also produced a relief mural for the entrance of the Expo ’67 Administration & News Building.

Comtois returned to painting in the 1970’s, his works encompassing a broad range of styles, from figurative art to colourful pointillist-like pieces, to more geometric work characterized by black grid-like structures on a monotone or patterned surface.

Throughout his career, Comtois taught at several institutions, including the École des beaux-arts in Montreal (1965–70), Université du Québec à Montréal (1970–72), Université Laval, (1970–76), and Concordia University (1976–85; 1991–94).

Comtois also continued to work with sculpture, and in the mid-1980s he began an ambitious series entitled the Romanesque Suite, made of wood, wax, and bronze. In this series, Comtois built each piece with layers of carefully applied modeling clay, his contact with the work and his manipulation of the clay evident on the finished surface.

Comtois was awarded the Prix de la Province de Québec (1964), Canada Council Grant (1967), the prestigious Paul-Émile Borduas Prize in 1978 by the Government of Québec, and the Prix Louis-Philippe Hébert (1991). The Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal organized a comprehensive retrospective of his work in 1983. In 2012, the National Gallery held the Ulysses Comtois: Photographs exhibition, a collection Comtois’ photographs of family, friends, his artworks, exhibition openings and installations.

Ulysses Comtois died of cancer at the age of 68 on July 10, 1999, in Sainte-Madeleine, near Mont Saint-Hilaire, Quebec.

Selected Corporate, Private and Public Collections:
Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
Art Gallery of Hamilton (Hamilton, ON)
Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
Canada Council Art Bank (Ottawa, ON)
Carleton University (Ottawa, ON)
Claridge Collection (Montréal, QC)
Concordia University (Montréal, QC)
Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
Musée d'art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
Musée du Bas Saint-Laurent (Rivière-du-Loup, QC)
Musée de Lachine (Lachine, QC)
Musée Laurier (Victoriaville, QC)
Musée du Mont-Saint-Hilaire (Mont-Saint-Hilaire, QC)
Musée National des beaux-arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
Museum London (London, ON)
Museum of Modern Art (New York, NY)
National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
Université de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
Vancouver Art Gallery (Vancouver, CB)
The Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)

Selected Solo and Group Exhibitions:
2012 Ulysses Comtois (1931-1999), Winchester Galleries Modern, Victoria, BC Ulysses Comtois: Photographs, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON

1995 Ulysses Comtois, Richard Gorman, Jack Bush, York University, Toronto, ON

1983 Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, QC

1968 34th Venice Biennale, Venice, Italy

1966 Galerie Moos, Toronto, ON

1966 Galerie Edouard Smith, Paris, France

1964 Galerie Agnes Lefort, Montreal, QC Galerie Nova et Vetera, Collège Saint-Laurent, Montreal, QC

1962 Galerie Denyse Delrue, Montreal, QC

1962 Dorothy Cameron, Toronto, ON

1961 Musee des Beaux Arts, Montreal, QC

1959 Galerie Artek, Montreal, QC

1956 Galerie l'Actuelle, Montreal,QC

1954 L'Echouerie, Montreal, QC

Selected Links:
Canadian Encyclopedia
National Gallery of Canada