Lise Gervais

Lise Gervais was an abstract artist born in Saint-Césaire on September 2, 1933 and she died in Montreal on April 30, 1998.  At the École des beaux-arts de Montréal where she studied under Jacques de Tonnancour, Stanley Cosgrove and Louis Archambault, she won the first prizes in drawing, painting and sculpture. In 1961, she held her first solo exhibition in Montreal at the Galerie Denyse Delrue.  Her style was more related to the Automatists than to the Plasticiens. ‘’Everything moves, flies, rises, or flaps loudly in Gervais’ paintings.  But nothing – absolutely nothing – flutters.  In fact, the dominant note in her technique is ‘’power’’, a power both authoritative and invigorating’’ (Dorothy Pfeiffer, 1964).  For many years, Lise Gervais was an art teacher at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, the Université du Québec à Montréal and Concordia University.  Her artworks can be found in the collections of the Musée des beaux-arts de Montréal, the Department of Global Affairs (formerly Department of Foreign Affairs), Concordia University as well as in several private collections.