Yves Trudeau

Yves Trudeau, one of the most significant artists of his generation, was known for having a rigorous sculptural practice with an underlying social message. His activities as a founding member of the Association des sculpteurs du Québec, for which he also served as president, led to the creation of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal. Trudeau became involved with a number of associations to promote the rights and status of artists. Having studied a range of artistic disciplines in his youth, Trudeau first worked primarily as a ceramicist before turning his attention to sculpture in the late 1950s. His work from the 1960s features a more expressionistic and abstract approach to materials, echoing the great social upheavals of the period. Trudeau used a mixture of materials such as wood and metal (iron, bronze, aluminum), and made them interact with each other through complex textures and configurations, often in an ascending movement that emphasized verticality. From the 1970s onward his style became more pared-down, as evidenced in his open and closed “wall” works in which folded volumes are rhythmically spaced to actively interact with those who experience them.