Technique: Oil, illustration

1929-1997

Normand Hudon was born in Montreal in 1929. He studied at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal and then received a scholarship to study in Paris at the Académie de Montmartre, with the painter Fernand Léger. During this stay, he had the chance to meet Picasso and a little later, during a trip to New York, he met Salvador Dali.

From 1948 to 1958, Hudon was a freelance cartoonist for several newspapers such as Le Photo Journal, Le Petit Journal and La Patrie. From 1958 to 1961, he worked full time for Le Devoir, where his caricatures of Maurice Duplessis, whom he always represented accompanied by a vulture, were caustic and vitriolic. In 1961, he moved to La Presse, where he remained until 1965.

Alongside his activities as a political cartoonist, Hudon hosts television shows, directs humorous publications and leads a career as a painter. He died in 1997.

Exhibitions

  • 1956 - First major solo exhibition at the Agnès-Lefort gallery in Montreal.
  • 1956 - Exhibits 350 caricatures at Restaurant Hélène-de-Champlain, Montreal.
  • 1965 - Makes the front page of Time magazine (Canadian edition of July 9) with the portrait of Marc Favreau.
  • 1967 - Painted four panels on the ceiling of the Energy Pavilion at Expo 67.
  • 1967 - Mural for the Humor pavilion, Terre des Hommes