BRUNI, Umberto (1914)

Umberto Bruni attended the École des beaux-arts de Montréal from 1930 to 1938, later teaching there from 1947 to 1969. During his long career, he has produced stained-glass works, frescos, drawings, murals, paintings and sculptures; he also very recently began exploring computer-generated images. As well as having decorated several churches in Montreal and elsewhere in Quebec, Bruni has painted official portraits, murals for various companies, still lifes and landscapes, and sculpted busts such as that of Brother André (1937), completed a few months after the monk’s death. In 1972, he was appointed director and curator of the Galerie de l’Université du Québec à Montréal. In 1989, the Order of the Sons of Italy presented him with a Gold Lion, a prestigious award of excellence to highlight his contribution to Canadian society as a teacher and artist. At the Leonardo Da Vinci Centre in Montreal, the Galleria Umberto Bruni was named in his honour and houses a bust of Da Vinci that he created. In 2006, Bruni received the Ordre du grand mérite académique and the Grand maître académicien awarded by the Académie internationale des Beaux-Arts du Québec.