In the middle of the room, a giant: a recovered plastic monster, with colossal legs, whose head is pierced with light. The play, which is almost four meters high, is titled Masters. It is signed Alexis Vaillancourt, the son of Armand, who made it with the artist Olivier Bonnard. Humanoid made up of an amalgam of everyday objects, metal rods, styrofoam, concrete, Masters seems to bear witness to the effect on humans of the waste it has produced.
“The link with the human who created all this pollution, and who ends up drinking it. It also exceeds him, ”says Alexis Vaillancourt.
Father and son, Armand and Alexis Vaillancourt, aged 92 and 29 respectively, are exhibiting together, for the first time, at the Diane-Dufresne Art Center in Repentigny. In the bright room, the works respond to each other, echoes of respective passions that have spread over sixty years apart, sculptures assembling various recovered materials, paintings in gushing colors, or in black and white, as evidenced by the recent production. by Armand Vaillancourt. “Painting in black and white, that satisfies me completely”, says the father with the long white hair, questioned on this new direction. Like his father, Alexis Vaillancourt sees in the scraps, in the waste, the potential work of art.
Street school
But his approach remains distinct. “Me, I am very autonomous, and he too”, underlines the nonagenarian. The title of the exhibition, Two hearts two heads, testifies to this. With other artists, Alexis Vaillancourt participates in the project of the WIP gallery, boulevard Saint-Laurent, where he has already exhibited. “We celebrated three years this year,” he says. But like his father, who was criticized by the École des Beaux-Arts in 1953 for having undertaken to carve the tree in the rue Durocher without having the diploma which would have sanctioned his status as an artist, Alexis Vaillancourt has first developed his art in the street. We then qualified The tree on rue Durocherthe first sculpture of modern art in Quebec.
In the street, Alexis for his part tamed the lettering of the graffiti, then the murals. In 2020, it was he who signed the mural in tribute to his father, in Montreal.
Abandoned buildings were the places where he refined his art. “It allowed me to discover and practice things,” he admits.
But it was from early childhood that Alexis manifested his penchant for the visual arts, he who followed his parents, artists of art galleries in performance.
Hellish race, one of Armand Vaillancourt’s paintings, which was reproduced on the exhibition poster, also shows a white and yellow spiral on which are small cars that belonged to Alexis as a child, including his favorite, a blue automobile which is at the center of the work.
Works that answer each other
The works of Alexis, Armand Vaillancourt and his wife, the artist Joanne Beaulieu, who is moreover at the origin of the exhibition, have preserved them religiously. The trio has already presented a joint exhibition when Alexis was about seven years old.
“From the start, we were able to follow what he was doing, and vice versa,” underlines the father, who is still ecstatic about his son’s early works.
“I worked with Joanne a lot on the choice of works and on the scenography. And I think we didn’t want the exhibition to be separated in the middle, with each of our works on our side. Armand has a selection of works which is incredible, he has hundreds and hundreds of them. Me, I am younger, it is more restricted, but I still tried to find a link between our work ”, notes Alexis. “I like volumes, and I really like architecture. With the format, there is something more alive, something that is bigger than yourself. “
At his side, Armand remains inexhaustible, on art, but above all on life, on social commitment, and on his quest for justice and equity. On a wall of the exhibition, we can see the room I am hungry, that he created in 1999 for the 150e anniversary of the Society of Saint-Vincent-de-Paul, where hands seem to be raised to demand that they have enough to eat.
I like volumes, and I really like architecture. With the format, there is something more alive, something that is bigger than you.
” I am hungry, it was certain that I brought it, relates Joanne Beaulieu. It is a work statement, which Armand often presents. “
With the father and the son, the discussion necessarily addresses the theme of the environment. Humanity “is going to hit a wall”, laments Armand Vaillancourt, referring to the climate crisis, while his son responds that in reaction, he applies himself to living the present moment as best he can.