Technique: Oil, pastel, engraving, watercolor, gouache
1927-1998
Claude Picher was born in Quebec in 1927.
He studied at the École Nationale des beaux-arts in Quebec (1945-46), with Jean-Paul Lemieux as his teacher, and then at the New School of Social Research in New York (1947-48). He received a scholarship from the French Government and studied at the École du Louvre and the École Nationale Supérieure des beaux-arts (1948-1949). In 1958, he studied at the Salvador Dali Foundation at Bryn Mawr University and in Mexico City.
From 1950 to 1958, he was director of exhibitions at the Musée du Québec. From 1958 until 1962, he was representative of the national gallery for the east of the country and deputy director at the Musée du Québec between 1963 and 1964.
He began painting full time in 1964. He represented Canada at the Fifth Biennial of Canadian Painting, at the Commonwealth Institute in London in 1973. In 1979, he participated in four exhibitions: London, Paris, Madrid and Düsseldorf with the Firestone collection. His last exhibitions took place at the Galerie Balcon d'art in Saint-Lambert (1988) and at the Galerie Christine in Toronto (1989).
Collections
- National Gallery of Canada
- Museum of Fine Arts of Quebec
- National bank of Canada
- Zurich Lines and Travel Insurance
Honors
- 1941-1946 - First Prize for drawing and painting at the provincial exhibition in Quebec, QC
- 1956 - First Prize at the Spring Salon of the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, QC
- 1958 - First Canadian artist to receive a grant from the Salvador Dali Foundation at Bryn Mawr University in Pennsylvania, USA
- 1960 - He becomes a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (associate member in 1973)
- 1962 - Represents Canada at the second International Biennale in Paris