Madeleine Arbor, 1923-2024 | A great lady of design disappears

The Quebec designer, painter, television host, businesswoman and designer Madeleine Arbor has died at the age of 101. A pioneer of presentation design in Quebec, she was one of the last survivors of the signatories of the manifesto Overall refusal.

A great lady, a great woman, free and committed, Madeleine Arbor will leave an indelible mark in the history of Quebec and particularly that of design.

Born March 3, 1923 in Granby, she fell in love with the arts at a very young age. Tapestry, dance, drawing. With some talent. At 15, she had to use cunning to gain access to an Ozias Leduc exhibition which blew her away.

Lacking neither courage nor conviction, on August 9, 1948, she joined Paul-Émile Borduas, Jean Paul Riopelle, Marcel Barbeau, Fernand Leduc, Françoise Sullivan, Jean-Paul Mousseau, Marcelle Ferron, Thérèse Renaud, Louise Renaud , Bruno Cormier, Maurice Perron, Claude Gauvreau, Françoise Riopelle, Muriel Guilbault and Pierre Gauvreau to launch the manifesto Overall refusala political, social and cultural thunderclap in the retrograde Quebec of the time.

“For years, society made fun of us because we signed this manifesto,” said Madeleine Arbor in The Press in 1998. Now, we are designated by saying: here are the signatories of the Overall refusal ! As if we had little wings and were privileged. When I told my mother that I was going to sign the Overall refusalshe brought the whole family together in the living room. She said: “Look what Madeleine is going to do!” So I said, “Either I sign or I go out the third floor window.” »

Madeleine Arbor already had, at the age of 25, the freedom of tone of a determined woman. “Since I was little, I have known that to gain your freedom you have to pay dearly, you have to accept your difference,” she said to Anne Richer, in The Pressin 1992. A difference which led him to boycott, in 2002, the funeral of his friend and accomplice Jean Paul Riopelle, unhappy that they took place in a church.

Having promoted secularism, Madeleine Arbor liked to say that when Riopelle visited her in her loft-workshop on rue Saint-Paul, in Montreal, she made “big crosses on the tables” to tease him!

The design

Madeleine Arbor began expressing her attraction to art as a window dresser at Birks in 1939. She was 16 years old and designed window displays as if they were works of art. Passionate about beauty, the harmony of colors and beautiful arrangements, she loathed objects without soul. As a young bride (with Pierre Gauvreau), she preferred to eat on an ironing board rather than buy an ordinary table!

Having quickly established a reputation in design, in 1965 she opened her interior design office, Madeleine Arbor et Associés. She developed her talents at Seagram and Archambault. She decorated the cafeteria of the Canadian pavilion at Expo 67 and the Maison du Québec in New York in 1970. Later, from 1987 to 1994, she fitted out and decorated VIA Rail trains by incorporating works of art notably by Riopelle, Michael Snow and Barbeau.

We also owe him the aesthetic renovation of the lounges of the stations of Montreal, Toronto and Ottawa, the interior of Air Canada planes (from 1986 to 1990) and the public rooms of the residence of the Governor General of Canada at the Citadel of Quebec . For this official place, she had created River of lighta 30 m long luminaire! She also designed sets and clothing for the Théâtre du Rideau Vert and the Jean-Duceppe company.

A career in television

Madeleine Arbor also had a great career on the small screen, from the first years of television, notably from 1959 to 1965, in The surprise boxa show that taught kids how to DIY. In 1963, she created two puppets for television, Monsieur IXE and Monsieur Saitout. In the 70s, she participated in the youth series Patofville and hosts an interior design column on the show Women of today.

She had loved these TV experiences. “I remember the nervousness that gripped me before each of these appearances! she said daily The Sunin 2000. But above all I remember the extraordinary discovery that the camera was for me. When building Fanfreluche’s house, for example, what fascinated me was using the camera to create magic. With the camera, I felt like I was experimenting with a new DIY accessory! »

Education

While raising her children alone, following her divorce, she also made her mark as a professor at the Institute of Applied Arts of Montreal, then at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal, where she created the Presentation Aesthetics program (now Design of presentation).

She taught students how to create exhibition booths and product display layouts. A first in Quebec which opened up many opportunities in the field of applied arts. “I always started my classes by telling the students: “Go away if you find this boring!” », she said in 2018, during a ceremony at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal which paid tribute to her by naming one of its rooms in her name and awarding her a diploma for the sake of honor. Which made M say^me Arbor: “I’m even more delighted since I never had a diploma! »

Louise Tellier, an interior design teacher who had worked for four years in M’s studio^me Arbor, had testified, on this occasion, to the role she had played in his career. “That’s where I learned the basics of my profession. M^me Arbor created refined installations, without superfluities, to preserve only the essentials from which grace and beauty are born. She always knew how to create magic, making the ordinary extraordinary. » “Design responds to the need for calm and comfort,” said Madeleine Arbor. It lasts a long time while resisting fashion. »

Having always been involved in causes, Madeleine Arbor agreed in 1988 to chair the Arts Council of the Montreal Urban Community. She was the first woman in this position. She was surprised that she was called upon. “But,” she then said to The Pressperhaps we finally understood that in everything I did, both in The surprise boxthat at Women of today, Youth obliges or In other wordsI have always tried to introduce the public, children and women alike, to the arts, design, resourcefulness and autonomy. »