Canadian Folk Art and Outsider Art
Joseph-Elie Simard. Sculptor. Wood carver. Grande-Baie, Quebec. Active mid 20th century.
Joseph-Elie Simard made naive painted carvings of people, birds, fish and animals. He also made relief carvings. He was not known to sign his work. Simard was first mentioned in Les Patenteux du Quebec.
(Ref: Les Patenteux du Qubec. Louise de Grosbois, Raymonde Lamothe and Lise Nantel, Les Editions Parti Pris, Montreal, 1978.)
Joseph Shink. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Beaumont, Quebec. Active mid 20th century.
Joseph Shink was a sculptor of naive carvings of people, birds and animals as well as religious figures. His carvings of people were known for their strong facial features, particularly their eyes. His work was painted in ‘as found’ colors. Active in the 1950’s; Shinks work has been collected by Quebec’s Museum of Civilization.
Ref:Blake McKendry, An Illustrated Companion to Canadian Folk Art (1999).
Ref: Adrien Levasseur. Website. And: Sculpteurs en Art Populaire au Quebec, Editions GID, Quebec. 2012.
Roger Dumont. Sculptor. St. Arsene, Quebec. Active late 20th century -.
Roger Dumont makes sculptures of birds, largely imaginary carvings of hens, roosters, ducks and geese, to name a few, as well as people . He worked with ‘as found’ wood; driftwood, roots of trees and other wood parts found in the forests around Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec. He at one time worked with his partner, Celine Denis who would color the birds. Most carvings are signed R. or Roger Dumont but I have seen works with both names. Roger Dumont has created many marvelous impressionistic and colorful carvings.
Two works by Roger Dumont:
Roger Dumont. Two Birds.
A link to a film about Roger Dumont on Vimeo:
Gaston Bergeron. Sculptor. Woodcarver. Laval, Quebec. Active mid-20th century.
Mr. Bergeron’s greatest work is his fabulous Miniature Circus. Over a period of some 35 years he sculpted circus wagon after wagon, each one numbered and with their animals or entertainers inside. No one knows for certain how many he made. (Each wagon is numbered and I have seen numbers into the 70’s.) He made every aspect of a Circus Parade as well. There are groups of marching elements such as Corsairs, Romans, Cowboys and Cowgirls, Costumed Indians, Clowns, Acrobats (the list goes on) and he made spectators; from the awestruck children to the curious and wistful adults.
The wagons are carved and adorned with moldings and carved figures dancing and playing instruments and calling the passer-by to visit the circus. Everything brightly colored. All are carved to scale and with every detail down to the under carriage, wheels and harnesses of each wagon and horse.
An interesting aspect of his circus carvings is that when we, the spectator, look at it on it’s level (rather than down at it), we see that it is carved from the view point and perspective of a child. Mr. Bergeron must have seen a Circus parade when he was a child and that sense of wonder never left him. Fortunately for us he put it all into his Circus parade. And he took it on the road in a travelling exhibition around Canada and the United States; sometimes using an old school bus and charging a small amount to people who wished to see it. Much like Archelas Poulin with his automatons and Moise Potvin with his automatons and his large set ‘The Story without Words’. A large part of the circus is in the collection of The Canadian Museum of Civilization in Hull, Quebec.
A carving of a Circus Truck by Gaston Bergeron:
Gaston Bergeron. A Circus Truck on Parade.
I am posting some links to the Museum of Civilization site and parts of the Bergeron Circus:
http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/treasure/282eng.shtml
http://collections.civilisations.ca/public/objects/common/webmedia.php?irn=3095703
Archelas Poulin. Sculptor. Painter.Lac Megantic, Quebec. Active early to mid-20th century.
After a work accident in 1917, Poulin began to work with a carving knife. His talent was natural and enormous. He created two dozen dioramas depicting the life of Jesus and took them on the road to fairs around North America. He lost them to theft in 1926 and proceeded to make another even more compelling set of dioramas showing each month in the life of rural Quebec 100 years ago and these were automatons; they moved and danced. And he returned to life as an itinerant artist. These automaton/dioramas were intricate, complex and wonderfully colorful. The Museum of Civilization has a fair collection of his works.
The Ballroom Carving-Diorama/automaton is quite transcendent. I am including a link to the Can. Mus. Of History’s article on Archeas Poulin here:
http://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/treasure/122eng.shtml
