Paul Béliveau

Art Book, Vanitas 13.12.06, 2013, acrlyic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold) Art Book, Vanitas 13.12.06, 2013, acrlyic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold)

Born in 1954, Paul Béliveau completed his bachelor's degree in visual arts from Laval University in 1977. Recognized for his expertise in drawing, engraving and painting, he has had more than 100 solo exhibitions across Canada, the United States and Europe. He has received numerous prizes in the visual arts and multiple grants from the Canada Council, as well as the Ministère des Affaires Culturelles du Québec. He has also taken part in several committees and juries as a specialist in the visual arts. His works are found in many private collections and museums. Béliveau has been a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts since 1999.


ARTIST STATEMENT

"In my painting I like not to randomly accumulate images but rather converge towards an organised assemblage of elements responding to each other and building upon each other. In this work centered around citation, Vanitas (formerly called Les humanités and then Les rencontres) is a logical result of my relation with objects, the books more specifically, which is a clear demonstration of human knowledge, of thought transference which survives mankind. I like to use painted books as a strategy against loss, eventhough worn books, metaphorically, evoque the passage of time and reveal one's own finiteness."

Paul Béliveau

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

 

Extract from The Theatre of Affinities or How to Transcend Appearances par / by Dany Quine, 2001

 

"…In Paul Béliveau's paintings, the play of juxtaposition is not the result of a random accumulation of images. Rather, it converges towards an idea of structure or of system, an organised assemblage of elements responding to each other and building upon each other… The artist, it should be noted, has always been fascinated by architecture, by the way machines work and by industrial structures, which he compares, in fact, to living organisms…

 

…Paul Béliveau's works do not represent terminal points. On the contrary, they reveal themselves to be outlines, sketches, creations which are constantly evolving…The meanings conferred on the images reproduced by the artist are therefore always relative…The artist's particular approach accentuates the phenomenological character of an aesthetics which reflects explicitly the contingent nature of existence…It is in this formal and conceptual coherence that the specificity of Paul Béliveau's work resides. His paintings, which live only through the pocesses of creation or of apprehension, invite us to transcend perceptible reality by directing our gaze towards the continuity of things, towards something that--paradoxically--seems to withstand the action of time and which could perhaps be called "humanity"."

 

Available works

Vanitas 13.01.23, 2013, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold)
Vanitas 11.02.17, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 122 cm
Les Rencontres #1 (Hendrix), 2009, serigraphy, 66 x 66 cm
Challenger 05, 2012, mixed techniques, 10 x 30 cm
Igor 02, 2012, mixed techniques, 10 x 30 cm
Les rencontres # 2 (Latour), 2009, serigraphy, 41 x 91 cm
Les Humanités (Marilyn), 2008, serigraphy, 48 x 99 cm
Irene 05, 2012, mixed techniques, 10 x 30 cm
Irene 06, 2012, mixed techniques, 10 x 30 cm,
BP 01, 2012, mixed techniques, 10 x 30 cm
Art Book, Vanitas 13.12.06, 2013, acrlyic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold)
Petite chronique, 2002, serigraphy, 69 x 46 cm

SOld Works

Vanitas 120518, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold)
"Marylin 001" Vanitas 12.10.24, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 76 cm (Sold)
"Da Vinci", Vanitas 12.05.04, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 64 cm (Sold)
Vanitas 11.02.21, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 91 cm
Vanitas 11.02.18, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 61 x 76 cm (Sold)
"Picasso", Vanitas 12.05.09, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 152 cm (Sold)
Vanitas 11.08.08, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 76 x 152 cm (Sold)
"Audrey", Vanitas 12.04.30, 2012, acrylic on canvas, 152 x 64 cm
Vanitas 11.02.10, 2011, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 122 cm (Sold)