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
Mastodo is evidence of the artist’s constant interest in simple materials and volumes, as well as an aesthetic bordering on design. The contrast between the stability of the base, which seems immutable, and the tumultuous pouring of water explores the idea of harmony among nature, landscape, and urban constraints.
Agora was produced when Viger Square, situated on the site of an old public garden dating from the nineteenth century, was reconfigured. The old square, among the most beautiful gardens in the downtown core, and its hundred-year-old trees were slated to be razed to make way for construction of the Ville-Marie tunnel in 1976. Jointly with the Ville de Montréal, the Ministère des Transports du Québec asked artists Charles Daudelin, Claude Théberge, and Peter Gnass to produce a public square on the site. The restoration of the public artwork Mastodo in 2024, by artist Charles Daudelin, is part of phase 1 of the redevelopment of Square Viger (blocks I and II).