Pierre Ayot

Pierre Ayot was born in Montreal in 1943. He graduated from the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, where he taught as early as 1964, later continuing his teaching career at the Université du Québec à Montréal until 1995. In 1966 he founded l’Atelier Libre 848, a collective workshop later known as Atelier Graff, and was also one of the founding members of the group Média, gravures et multiples. Though initially focused on printmaking, his production soon exploded towards sculpture, painting and photography, as well as audio and visual installation. His works, showcased in over thirty solo exhibitions between 1965 and 2016, are now part of most major public and corporate art collections in Canada, as well as a number of foreign collections like the New York Museum of Modern Art’s, and the London Tate Modern’s. Before 2016, major exhibitions featured his work, namely at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal in 1980, Pierre Ayot, Museum Circus at the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec in 1992 and Pierre Ayot: Unlimited a retrospective presented at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in 2001. In the fall of 2016, Pierre Ayot – Regard critique, along with several other exhibitions make up a huge six-part retrospective that brings to life the whole of the artist’s career. He passed away on May 2nd 1995, and the Prix Pierre-Ayot, created in his memory in 1996 by the City of Montreal and AGAC, is awarded each year to an emerging artist.

artist’s website

Further reading:

• « Clin d’œil à Pierre Ayot », article by Louise Poissant for ETC #55, 2001, p.48-51.
• « Le museum circus de Pierre Ayot », article by Jocelyne Lupien for Espace Sculpture #25, 1993, p. 6-9.
• « Au soleil du cirque, mesdames et messieurs, Pierre Ayot », article by Gilles Rioux for Vie des Arts, n° 151, 1993, p. 30-33.
• « Ruses d’artistes : anamorphoses, arcimboldesques et images spéculaires » », article by Bernard Paquet for Vie des Arts, n° 169, 1997-1998, p. 16-18.
• « Monument sans ombre portée », text from the catalogue witten by Rose-Marie Arbour (also available in a downloadable pdf format).
• « Pour l’objet », texts from the catalogue by Madeleine Forcier and Jocelyne Lupien, Plein Sud ed.