Armand Filion graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Montréal (1927–31), which he entered when he was 17. When he was barely 21, he became a drawing teacher at the Commission des écoles catholiques de Montréal. His encounter with French architect Dom Bellot was decisive, as it turned him toward sculpture. From 1942 to 1968, in addition to producing a number of religious sculpture projects and integrations with architecture, he taught at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, where he founded the sculpture department.
Artwork description
The artwork is composed of two bas-reliefs on either side of the north entrance doors to the Maurice Richard Arena. The composition portrays sports figures, which are sculpted directly into the stone. Direct carving, the artist’s favourite technique, is here highlighted by the pure, stylized forms.
Although he had to deal with more realistic commissions for artworks throughout his career, robbing him of some freedom, for the artwork at the Maurice Richard Arena Filion proceeded without the slightest concern about distancing himself from the naturalist aesthetic to display a more personal, experimental style, almost approaching primitivism. Breaking with the norms of the time, this artwork is a good illustration of the transition toward modernism in sculpture.