Ivanhoë Fortier

Born in 1931 in Saint-Louis-de-Courville, Ivanhoë Fortier studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal in the late 1950s and, after having focused on painting, chose to pursue a sculptural practice. In his work, he experiments with various materials such as metal, stone, plaster and wood to create works of architectonic quality that amaze by their monumentality and great beauty. Interested in the problems of form, line, materials and space as well as in environment, he advanced ideas that specifically address the relationship of sculpture to architecture. In the early 1970s for example, he devised “inhabitable” sculptures that functioned simultaneously as a living space and as a workshop. Ivanhoë Fortier has exhibited his work in Quebec and abroad. He has had notable solo exhibitions at the Musée du Québec in 1971 and at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1979. In 1962, he was awarded a prize in sculpture at the Concours artistiques de la Province du Québec. In addition to his artistic career, he taught art at the Université du Québec à Montréal for nearly thirty years.