Pierre Gendron
(1934)

Pierre Gendron Biography
(1934)

Born in Montreal, he studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Jacques de Tonnancour, Albert Dumouchel and Henry Eveleigh. He won a Province of Quebec prize and studied engraving in Paris and while there exhibited at Galerie du Haut Pavé (1958). The next year he exhibited in Montreal at the Galerie Agnes Lefort and in 1960 at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

Gendron was developing not only in graphic art but as a painter. Dorothy Pfeiffer in 1964 noted his oils and gouaches at the Galerie Lefort as follows, “. . . Genrdon’s non-objective paintings, the majority of which feature strong areas of red and orange tones contrasted to black and white should provide a stimulating life to any living room, or to any office interior.” He had been active with the Non-Figurative Artists’ association of Montreal and in this connection his work was chosen for exhibit at the National Gallery of Canada in 1960, an exhibition which had been organized by Claude Picher who was at that time Eastern Representative for the Gallery.

The following year Robert Ayre on seeing his work had not been so impressed and felt that Gendron had abandoned his lyricism in search of geometrical forms but noted, “He is not ’hard-edge’; he likes to vary his texture between thick, smooth paint and a transparent, woolly surface; but texture and colour lack sensitivity . . .” Ayre felt also that Gendron was in a transition period. Viewing the same show Michelle Tisseyre found that his work was geometric in a sense, lyric in the liberty of its forms and colour, giving a total effect of optimistic art. She went on to note that although she found plastic tendencies in his work by the geometric constructions, it was offset by freer elements of wavy lines. She notes his achievement of relief by his use of the palette knife and further highlighting by symbol-like ‘engravings’ reminiscent of prehistoric monuments.

Gendron is represented in the National Gallery of Canada, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Province of Quebec Museum. He lives in Montreal where he was a teacher of art for the Catholic School Commission.

Source: "A Dictionary of Canadian Artists, Volume II”, compiled by Colin S. MacDonald, Canadian Paperbacks Publishing Ltd, Ottawa, 1979