Biographical notes
by Christian Bédard
Claude Bibeau was born in Drummondville, Quebec, on March 23, 1954. Seventh in a family of fifteen children, he is the only one to have showed an interest in artistic pursuits. Already at a young age he excelled in drawing. He dropped out of school rather early to devote himself to becoming a self-taught painter. The early Seventies corresponded to Claude Bibeau’s first formal artistic manifestation. During this period, he produced several works exhibited both in solo and group shows in various parts of Quebec.
Returning from a study trip in France, in the autumn of 1973, a new form of artistic expression began to emerge. Works, comprised of watercolours, ink drawings and oils, featured titles and colours evocative of candy (bonbon). It is at this period that he and another painter, Colin Chabot, founded “Le Mouvement Bonbon” to promote an aesthetic reflection on the universe of children which, ultimately, is created by adults only to delude children.
Bibeau starts using acrylic resins almost exclusively. The subjects of his paintings are drawn directly from childhood memories, their form inspired by fairy tales, comic strips, animated drawings, as well as toys. In fact, both his works on canvas and his sculptures imitate toys and, sometimes, real, unaltered toys, are introduced in the works themselves. These works are called “Oeuvres Bonbons”. Naturally, it followed that the second manifesto of “ Mouvement Bonbon” be presented in the form of a colouring book.
In 1976, three new members joined “Mouvement Bonbon”, two more painters and a poet. With the publication of the third and last manifesto, the course initially ushered by Bibeau and Chabot is pushed still further by inviting the observer/spectator to become a “Bonbon Being”. With the exhibition “concept-affiches”, held in five cities across Quebec, under the theme “Appel aux Extra-terrestres”, “Mouvement Bonbon” gradually distances itself from the world of human experience. Bibeau’s works become peopled with characters and symbols reflecting his incomprehension of human ideals and stereotypes.
The disbandment of the movement led him to temporarily give up painting and hitherto direct his talents towards children’s theatre. He joins the group “La Cannerie” as set-designer and actor, partakes in the collective scriptwriting of the shows, and even gives workshops in various schools. It was also at this time or perhaps a little later, that he started to collect toys from the 1950-70 era, a collection to which he continuously added up until the last months of his life. This fascination for toys resulted in their use as models in plastic compositions that were astonishing and far removed from a naïve or childish vision of the world.
In 1979, Claude Bibeau leaves “La Cannerie” and Drummondville, and settles in Montreal. He goes back to painting and dedicates himself to the exploration of portraiture. During this period he produced an impressive number of portraits: of himself, of his friends and even of his favorite animals. Again, his privileged source of inspiration being toys, he gives to these portraits a “paint by numbers” effect. As the depth of his search increased and the range of his topics widened, his technique gradually moved towards hyperrealism.He will then produce a series of portraits and paintings with a high degree of detail, evidencing the excellence of his artistic technique. The characters in these paintings are transposed in scenes that are sometimes taken from newspaper clippings, sometimes imagined by the painter. Hommage aux idoles , Paix et Amour , Chabounadonga and La Saint-Jean well illustrate this period.
By 1985, however, this shift towards hyperrealism comes to an end. A pictorial universe at first influenced by the toy and ultimately dominated by it is soon firmly established. This universe proposes a critical view of society where toys are put on a stage, as in the theatre, by a manifestly hurt and fragile adult-child, who cannot believe any longer in the authenticity of human intentions and who perceives and portrays through his paintings the falseness in human pursuits. At the beginning, the toy, which represents the essential element of the composition, still shares a moment in space with a human presence. But the gradual evolution of his thematic soon expels all human presence from his paintings other that in the form of anthropomorphous toys. Autoportrait mécanique ou Hommage à Vinci , painted in 1986, was the first work of this latest and last period of Claude Bibeau’s artistic production.
It is during this highly seminal period that most of his richest works are created : Sébastien, Parade and he heartrending Figure de tragédie, to name but a few. This period is marked by the many tributes (Hommages) to famous painters, namely, Raphaël, Ingres, Modigliani, Lemieux and Géricault, and by works inspired by Greek mythology and Antiquity, as well as by works representing human concerns seen through the activities of animals and insects .
Diagnosed HIV positive early in the nineties, Claude Bibeau’s health starts declining after 1996. With is life companion for 17 years, Uwe von Harpe, he will do a few trips to Europe. But in 1997, the sudden death of his lover and the progressive decline of his health force him to stop painting altogether. On July 30th 1999, after battling AIDS for several months, he dies surrounded by his closest friends.