Pioneer of design and visual arts in Quebec, co-signer of the manifesto Overall refusalMadeleine Arbor died on December 10 at the age of 101. UQAM paid tribute to him in 2012 by awarding him an honorary doctorate on the recommendation of its Faculty of Arts. Through this gesture, the University wanted to recognize the unique contribution of this extraordinary artist in the fields of design, scenography, television and the visual arts.
Born in Granby, Madeleine Arbor was an autodidact who excelled in the visual arts, particularly in environmental design, long before this word existed in everyday vocabulary. Forced to earn a living at 17, she was hired as a saleswoman at the Birks jewelry store in Montreal, where she quickly stood out as an original window dresser. Frequenting avant-garde artists such as Paul-Émile Borduas and Jean-Paul Riopelle, in 1948 she was one of the signatories of the manifesto Overall refusalthe founding text of the opening to the modernity of Quebec artistic expression. Subsequently, she worked for around twenty years in television, where she contributed, as a designer and host, to disseminating knowledge in design, architecture and visual arts to a wide audience.
A multidisciplinary artist, Madeleine Arbor has touched on everything: drawing, painting, posters, animated films, sculpture, theater and television scenography, making furniture and murals, interior design of private and business residences. This prolific designer taught for 20 years at the Montreal Institute of Applied Arts, then at the Cégep du Vieux-Montréal. She was the first woman to chair the Arts Council of the Urban Community of Montreal, from 1989 to 1991. In 2000, the Musée des beaux-arts de Québec dedicated a solo exhibition and an original publication to her which celebrated the diversity of his achievements.
Madeleine Arbor received the title of Member of the Order of Canada in 1987 and Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 1999. She was named a member of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 2001 and received the Sam-Lapointe of the Montreal Design Institute for his entire body of work, in 2002.
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