Louis-Pierre Bougie (16 August 1946 – 10 January 2021)[1] was a Canadian painter and printmaker specialized in engraving and etching.[2][3] He developed his knowledge of intaglio techniques at Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut in Paris, where he worked for fifteen years, and through travel and study in France, Portugal, Poland, Ireland, Finland, and New York. His work is regularly shown in Canadian, American, and European galleries, and is represented in major public and private collections, notably in Québec and New York. Bougie was considered Québec's foremost engraver for the depth and consistency of his work. He died from pneumonia.[1]
Training
After an introduction to printmaking at École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, where he attended classes with Angèle Beaudry, Louis-Pierre Bougie studied in Paris, notably at Lacourière-Frélaut (1979–1993), Atelier Rene Tazé, and Atelier Champfleury, and in Vancouver and Montreal. Additional training in Strasbourg (1979–1982), Kraków (1980), Helsinki (2003), and Buenos Aires (2006) introduced him to a compagnonnage-like approach to the transmission of printmaking skills.
2006 - Québec artist residency, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1979–1987 - Cité Internationale and Lacourière-Frélaut, Paris, France (engraving)
1979–1982 – Visiting artist, Arts Décoratifs, Strasbourg (lithography); Ateliers Champfleury (lithography) and Lacourière-Frélaut, Paris, France
1975–1982- Atelier Luc Nadeau, Montreal, and Baie St-Paul
1975–1977- Atelier Arachel (lithography, etching) and Atelier Graff, Montreal
1972–1973 - Vancouver School of Art (independent student), Vancouver
1969–1972 - Atelier de Recherche Graphique, Guilde Graphiqu, Montreal
1967–1970 - École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal (independent student with Angèle Beaudry)
Work
Louis-Pierre Bougie produced a considerable body of engraved and painted works that applied traditional techniques such as burin, aquatint, and chine collé to contemporary printmaking. An heir to Goya, Blake, and Rops, he had developed an original monotype technique that combined engraving with live figure drawing in a reversal of traditional processes: the paper is first drawn with pierre noir and reworked with acrylic before receiving a print from a copper plate marked with spit-bite and drypoint. The finished print captures all elements with exceptional transparency, bringing its subject to light in the true sense of illumination. In Bougie's work, engraving was a process that both opened and sealed spaces. Desire and imagination inhabited matter in unexpected ways, and appearance was literally cast in a different light (through highlights and illumination), giving us back a bit of ourselves.
Bougie also illustrated the cover artwork of several Canadian musicians, including Harmonium's Les cinq saisons, René Lussier's Le trésor de la langue, Le corps de l'ouvrage, Au diable vert, and Le contrat (with Gilles Gobeil), and Conventum's Le bureau central des utopies and 77-79 + Réédition.
Influence and involvement
In the early 1980s, while also conducting residencies at major printmaking studios abroad (including Paris and Strasbourg), Bougie joined forces with Catherine Farish, Pierre-Léon Tétreault, Kittie Bruneau, and other print-based artists to found Atelier Circulaire. Throughout his career, he promoted the work of Quebec printmakers both locally and outside Canada. He also collaborated closely with writers and poets. In 1983, the poets Gaston Miron and Michael La Chance together signed a telegram to Bougie:
We salute Louis-Pierre Bougie, one of those rare souls who is always a step ahead, continuously opening the way to new possibilities and escaping the bounds of mortal time.
As an engraver and etcher of international renown, he has brought greater visibility to Québec printmaking and has been pivotal in inviting printmakers from abroad to take part in major collaborations with Québec, including artist's books, residencies, and exchanges between Québec and other countries. He has also helped foster talent in Québec, both through his work with artists at Atelier Circulaire and as the organizer and curator of numerous exhibitions.
Selected exhibitions
Bougie's work benefited from the support of major curators such as Léo Rosshandler, Bernard Lévy, Céline Mayrand, Gilles Daigneault, Claude Morissette, and Anne-Marie Ninacs.
Artist's books
A significant part of Louis-Pierre Bougie's printed oeuvre involved a dialogue with poetry in the form of collaborative exhibitions and, above all, artist's books that brought together the artistry of typographers, printmakers, poets, and bookbinders. Bougie created books with many poets, among them Gaston Miron, Paul Chamberland, Geneviève Letarte, Jérôme Élie, Michel Butor, Michel van Schendel, François-Xavier Marange, Paule Marier, and Michaël La Chance. Working closely with the authors, he contributed a distinctive sensibility that was both rough and sensitive, abrasive and idyllic. His artist's books were featured in the following exhibitions:
1990 – Titre?, Bibliothèque des arts, Université du Québec à Montréal
2005 – Titre?, Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec
2007 – Actualité de l’estampe au Québec, Grande Bibliothèque, BAnQ (second iteration of exhibition originally presented in Québec City, 2005)
2013 - Louis-Pierre Bougie – 30 ans de livres d'artiste, Centre d'archives de Montréal, BAnQ (curator: Claude Morissette)
Collections
Bibliothèque nationale d’Ottawa
Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec, Montreal
2013 - Michaël La Chance, Louis-Pierre Bougie. Espaces chavirés, torsions du désir. Foreword by Isabelle de Mévius, preface by Georges Leroux. Montreal: Les Éditions de Mévius.
2005 – Sylvie Alix, Louis-Pierre Bougie: prix de la Fondation Monique et Robert Parizeau 2005. Ed. Anne-Marie Ninacs, with translations by C. Bilodeau and M. E. Elgue. Quebec City: Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec.
2005 - Michel van Schendel, Absence de bruit. Quebec City: Éditions Lacerte Art Contemporain - Galerie Orange.
2001 - Bernard Lévy, Études au quotidien. With poems by Paul Chamberland and Michaël La Chance. Quebec City: Éditions Galerie Madeleine Lacerte.
1996 - Louis-Pierre Bougie, Journal d’exil, New York 1996. With texts and poems by Michaël La Chance, Jérôme Élie, Geneviève Letarte, François-Xavier Marange, and Paule Marier. Quebec City: Galerie Madeleine Lacerte.
1996 – Louis-Pierre Bougie, Christine Palmiéri, Espace D. René Harrison, et al., De la monstruosité, expression des passions. Montreal : Jaune-Fusain.
1991 - Michaël La Chance, Céline Mayrand, Morsures. Louis-Pierre Bougie Gravures et monotypes 1986–1990. Preface by Léo Rosshandler. Montreal: Éditions Promotion des arts Lavalin, Maison de la Culture Côte-des-Neiges, Atelier Circulaire.
1978 - Louis-Pierre Bougie (dessins). Quebec City: Musée du Québec.
Selected solo exhibitions
2015
UQAC and Galerie La Corniche, Chicoutimi
Galerie d'art du Centre culturel de l’Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke
Galerie du Théâtre, Magog
Galerie d’art Jean-Claude Bergeron, Ottawa
Galerie atelier Circulaire, Montreal
2014
Musée d'art contemporain de Baie St-Paul (retrospective), Baie St-Paul
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
Centre d’arts Orford, Orford
2013
Centre culturel 1700 La Poste (retrospective), Montreal
Bibliothèque et archives nationales du Québec (30 ans de livres d’artiste), Montreal
2012
Maison de la culture Marie-Uguay, Montreal
Bibliothèque de Sainte-Thérèse (retrospective), Sainte-Thérèse
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
Maison de la culture Villeray - Parc-Extension (30 ans de livres d’artiste), Montreal
2007
Galerie Orange, Montreal
2005
Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec (Monique and Robert Parizeau Foundation Prize), Quebec City
Centre d'exposition de l'Université du Québec à Chicoutimi, Chicoutimi
2004
Atelier Circulaire, Montreal
Galerie Orange, Montreal
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
2003
Galerie Pierre-Luc St-Laurent, Ottawa
2002
Atelier Lacourière et Frélaut, Paris
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
Galerie Pierre-Luc St-Laurent, Ottawa
Galerie Éric Devlin, Montreal
2001
Calligraphic Centre, Winston-Salem, United States
2000
Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, Quebec City
Atelier-Galerie Presse-papier (Festival de Poésie), Trois-Rivières
Calligraphic Centre, Winston-Salem, United States
1999
Galerie Eric Devlin, Montreal
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
Centre culturel de Saint-Jérôme
1998
Galerie Nane Cailler, Lausanne, Switzerland
1997
Galerie L’Autre Équivoque, Ottawa.
1996
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte (Journal d'exil), Quebec City
Atelier Circulaire, Montreal
La Galerie Trois-Rivières (Festival de poésie), Trois-Rivières
Centre Culturel Henri Lemieux, Ville La Salle
1994
Galerie Madeleine Lacerte, Quebec City
Galerie James Roussel, Montreal
Galerie L’Autre Équivoque, Ottawa
1993
La Galerie, Trois-Rivières
Galerie Michèle Broutta, Paris, France
1992
Galerie Nane Cailler, Lausanne, Switzerland
1991
Maison de la Culture Côtes des Neiges (Promotion des arts Lavalin), Montreal
Susan Conway Gallery, Georgetown, Washington DC, United States
Michel Tétreault Art Contemporain, Montreal
1990
Circa, Montreal
L'autre équivoque, Ottawa
1989
Aire du Verseau, Paris (France)
L'autre Équivoque, Ottawa
1988
Galerie L'Aire du Verseau, Paris and Dijon, France
Michel Tétreault Art Contemporain, Montreal
Grand Palais à Paris (SAGA 88, FIAC Édition), France
1987
Galerie Triangle, Brussels, Belgium
1986
L'autre Équivoque, Ottawa
1986
Michel Tétreault Art Contemporain, Montreal
1985
Délégation du Québec à Paris, Paris, France
1984
Galerie de l'Université de Moncton, Moncton
Radio-Canada, Moncton
1983
Michel Tétreault Art Contemporain, Montreal
1982
Galerie Jean-Jacques Thibeault, Montreal
1981
Independent exhibition, Quebec City
1980
Délégation du Québec à Paris, France
Studio exhibition, Montreal
1979
Centre d'art du Mont-Royal, Montreal
Atelier Graff, Montreal
Studio exhibition, Montreal
1978
Musée du Québec, Quebec City
1974
Balcon les Images, Montreal
Galerie du Vieux Marché, Ottawa
1971–72
Atelier Galerie Laurent Tremblay, Montreal
Artist books
2013–15 - Ainsi fait, 13 engravings, text by François-Xavier Marange. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
2011 - Les mots griffonnés, 12 engravings, text by Michel van Schendel. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
2005 - Le jardinier, 17 engravings, text by Michel van Schendel. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
2004 - Terre brune, 25 engravings, poem by Michel van Schendel. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
2000 - Flou comme la nuit, 7 engravings on chine collé, poem by Geneviève Letarte. Saint-Lambert-Montreal: Éditions Bonfort and Éric Develin.
1996 - Rencontres, 16 engravings on Japan paper, texts by Paule Marier, François-Xavier Marange, Geneviève Letarte, and Jérôme Élie. Quebec City: Éditions Galerie Madeleine Lacerte.
1992 - Entre deux eaux, 8 etchings and 4 tinted plates, text by Michel Butor. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
1992 - Les derniers outrages du ciel, 6 engravings, text by Michaël LaChance. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
1990 - Terminus Nord, 12 engravings on chine collé, poem by Geneviève Letarte. Montreal: Éditions Atelier Circulaire.
1987 - Forger l’Effroi, 12 colour etchings, text by Michaël LaChance, foreword by Gaston Miron. Montreal-Paris: Éditions de la Griffe d’Acier.
1983 - Le prince sans rire, 12 etchings, poem by Michaël LaChance, postface and poem by Gaston Miron. Montreal-Paris: Éditions Lui-même.
1977 - Le rendez-vous d'août, 5 lithographs, poem by Raymond Cloutier.
1975 - Doux le vent, 5 silkscreen prints, poem by Jean-Guy Charbonneau. Montreal : Guilde Graphique.