Painter Madeleine Arbour dies at age 101
A mother at a time when that usually kept you housebound, she waltzed around multiple commitments, her life spread out between Montreal, New York and Paris.
Madeleine Arbour, a pioneering figure in Quebec design, a multidisciplinary artist, and a co-signatory of the 1948 Refus Global manifesto, has passed away, as announced by her family.
Her remarkable career reflected her unconventional journey and her flair for discovery. A self-taught artist, Arbour left school at 15 and embraced a wide range of passions. She believed that art was an essential part of society, one that could not be overlooked. In the early days of Radio-Canada television, she hosted La Boîte à Surprise, a children's craft segment.
Arbour was also the companion of Pierre Gauvreau, brother of Claude, another key figure in the Automatist movement. She created stage costumes for him during this period.
A mother at a time when many women stayed home, Arbour managed multiple roles, dividing her time between Montreal, New York, and Paris.
In the mid-1960s, she founded a workshop for women designers on Saint-Paul Street in Old Montreal, frustrated by the lack of opportunities for women in the design world. Between 1986 and 1994, she was responsible for redesigning the interiors of Air Canada planes and Via Rail trains.
Journalist Odile Tremblay, writing for Le Devoir on Arbour’s centenary, paid tribute to her, noting, “Madeleine Arbour experienced poverty and paternal abandonment, but never ignorance.” Tremblay also highlighted the artist’s strong character and belief in her own destiny.
