Born in Granby, Charles Daudelin took Paul-Émile Borduas’s advice to move to Montréal, where he took courses at the École du meuble from 1939 to 1943. Elected a member of the Contemporary Arts Society in 1941, he lived in New York and then in Paris, where he attended Fernand Léger’s studio. Teaching at the École des beaux arts de Montréal, Daudelin created the “integrated art” section there in 1963. Among his most prestigious accomplishments in integration art are the altarpiece in the Sacred Heart chapel at the Notre-Dame basilica and the sculpture-fountain Embâcle at Place du Québec in Paris.
Artwork description
The fountain installed in front of the Saint-Laurent Library, at the corner of Rue de l’Église and Rue Saint-Germain, is in the form of a truncated, fragmented rock. Water and light spring through seven bronze plaques. The surface of the main piece is slightly textured, showing the traces of its fabrication.
Cailloudo is integrated with a landscape designed by the architect Jacques Garand. From the paved hillock serving as a pool, water in the overflow pipe flows into a gutter and runs gently under a concrete disk on which are six seats also created by Daudelin.
The natural, plain, discreet ovoid form of the sculpture does not act as a monument imposed on the space. Rather, it is the central piece of an environment that appeals to calm and introspection, at the same time extending the peaceful ambience of the library beyond its walls.