Edmund Alleyn
 
1931-2004
 
 
Edmund Alleyn was born in Quebec City. He took his first formal schooling in Quebec at the Saint-Patrick English School (1937-1943). He started painting at age ten, after being encouraged by his aunt who was an amateur painter. Later, his father sent him to the French college of Saint-Charles-Garnier (1943-1947) but Alleyn, who didn’t speak French, didn’t get good grades. In 1947, his interest in art increased when he discovered the work of James W. Morrice. In 1950, he abandoned his regular studies and was admitted at École des Beaux-Arts de Québec in 1951 after being recommended by Jean Paul Lemieux. There he studied under Lemieux who he had met two years earlier in Port-au-Persil in the Charlevoix region.
 
In his early works, Alleyn was very much influenced by two important Quebec artists, Goodridge Roberts and Alfred Pellan. In around 1954, Alleyn started experimenting with non-figurative works and by the mid-1950s, he made his mark with his lyrical abstractions. After a few participations to different exhibitions, he was awarded the Grand Prix des Concours Artistiques de la Province de Québec at the young age of 24. He finished his studies at École des Beaux-Arts in 1955 and left for Paris after being granted a two year bursary from the Royal Society of Canada.
 
In Paris, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts and also frequented the Académie Julian but attended classes rarely. While he was in France, he participated in many group exhibitions in various prestigious venues: the Smithsonian Institution, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, the National Gallery of Canada, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and others. He also exhibited his work in many private galleries in Montreal, Toronto, Paris and London. In 1958, he was awarded the Guggenheim International Award along with other Canadian artists Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jack Shadbolt, Tony Urquhart and Graham Coughtry.
 
In 1959, he came back to Canada and settled in a studio in Quebec City. In the years leading up to his return in France in 1961, he participated in many important international exhibitions in Canada and abroad including shows in Switzerland, Italy, France, Germany, Mexico, the United States and Brazil, where he received an honourable mention at the 5th Biennale of Sao Paolo. He went back to France in 1961 and bought a space that he transformed into a studio. That year he participated in an exhibition in Montreal with Canadian painters Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Léon Bellefleur and Harold Town. The following year he met Anne Cherix, whom he later married in 1964. In 1963, Alleyn received further recognition when one of his paintings was acquired by the National Gallery of Canada at the 5th Canadian Biennale held at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
 
From the mid-1960’s, Alleyn abandoned his lyrical abstractions and began experimenting with more figurative art work influenced by science and technology. In 1967, he participated at Expo ‘67 in Montreal, where he exhibited works at the Quebec and France pavilions. The following year, he participated actively in the May ’68 events in Paris, creating posters supporting the strike. By the end of the sixties, Alleyn began working on installations, one of his creations being a multi-media egg-shaped capsule into which the spectator entered and sat in the enclosure to undergo different electronic sensations. This creation was exhibited for the first time at the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris in 1970.
 
Alleyn came back to Canada in 1971. He still worked with installations, but this time painting life-size figures on plexiglass and placing them in front of large painted panoramas of nature. Starting in 1972, Alleyn began teaching at the Visual Arts Department of the University of Ottawa, a post that he occupied until 1991. Over the course of the next three decades, Alleyn kept experimenting with different styles and mediums, while exhibiting at various museums and galleries in Canada and abroad. He also created works commissioned works for the Canadian Government and the City of Sept-Îles (1977). In 1996, a retrospective show was held at the Musée d’Art de Joliette, the Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec and at the Ottawa Art Gallery. In late 2003, Alleyn was struck by cancer and he died the following year at the age of 73.
 
 
 
Collections:
 
- National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON)
- Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (Montreal, QC)
- Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto, ON)
- Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (Victoria, BC)
- Agnes Etherington Art Centre (Kingston, ON)
- The Winnipeg Art Gallery (Winnipeg, MN)
- Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris, France)
- Musée National des Beaux-Arts du Québec (Quebec City, QC)
- Musée d’Art de Joliette (Joliette, QC)
- Musée du Bas-Saint-Laurent (Rivière-du-Loup, QC)
- Musée des Beaux-Arts de Sherbrooke (Sherbrooke, QC)
- Mackenzie Art Gallery (Regina, SK)
- Musée Régional de Rimouski (Rimouski, QC)
- Musée de Lachine (Lachine, QC)
- Ottawa Art Gallery (Ottawa, ON)
- Mendel Art Gallery (Saskatoon, SK)
- The Robert McLaughlin Gallery (Oshawa, ON)
- Canada Council for the Arts (Ottawa, ON)
- Confederation Art Centre and Museum (Charlottetown, PEI)
- Université de Montréal (Montreal, QC)
- Galerie de l’UQAM (Montreal, QC)
- Concordia University (Montreal, QC)
- National Bank of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- Loto-Québec (Montreal, QC)
- Hydro-Québec (Montreal, QC)
- Snc-Lavalin (Montreal, QC)
- Power Corporation of Canada (Montreal, QC)
- Firestone Art Collection (Ottawa, ON)
- Caisse de Dépôt et Placements du Québec (Montreal, QC)
- Mouvement des Caisses Populaires Desjardins (Montreal, QC)
- La Pulperie de Chicoutimi (Chicoutimi, QC)