BOURBEAU, Louise (1928)

Louise Bourbeau graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Québec (1966) where she was awarded the Lieutenant Governor’s Medal. She also completed an MFA (1973) and a PhD (1979) at Ohio State University in the United States. Inspired by artists such as Brancusi, Arp and Henry Moore, Bourbeau draws her energy from the raw material of stone and marble, favouring themes of the human figure and representations of plants and animals. By using the technique of direct carving, she brings ancestral memories back to the surface of her living materials; brimming with symbolism, these become a sort of extension of the self, an age-old mirror. Bourbeau’s abstract or stylized sculptures illustrate purity of form and line, the division and juxtaposition of planes, shimmering surfaces and the reflection of light. Stone is both the body and soul of her work. In 1993, for her exhibition at Galerie Madeleine Lacerte in Quebec City, she published a catalogue in collaboration with Thérèse Labbé entitled Images de pierre, 1988-1992.