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
In 1956, sculptor Armand Filion created two reliefs in openwork cast metal, painted white. This contrasts with the black stone to which they are attached. The art commemorates the educational function of the building, because each of the main people portrayed are teaching three others in a natural, bucolic setting; an anachronistic scene with regard to the contemporary city that was modernizing. The left panel shows a lay teacher while the one on the right portrays a nun. This representation of both religious and lay teachers on the facade of the administration building corresponds to realities changing since the 1930s and 1940s, a time when education was provided almost as much by religious teachers as laypersons, although the number of religious educators was dropping.