André Philibert

Winter Fire Flies

Born in Montreal in 1944, Andre Philibert studied at l’Institut des Arts Graphiques from 1963-1965, as well as L’École des Beaux-Arts de Montréal. In 1966, he visited the great museums of Europe and returned in 1984 for a four month journey. Philibert held his first solo exhibition in Montréal in 1968 and published the first Quebecois cartoon book “Oror 70” in 1970. In 1969 he received a Canada Council Arts grant and began teaching graphic arts at CEGEP Ahuntsic in 1971. After leaving the city and settling in Chartierville in the Eastern Townships for some years he returned to painting, focusing on the landscapes he had seen in his new surroundings. In 1983, he received First Prize and the prix René-Huyghes at Sherbrooke’s Salon International de la Peinture. For André Philibert, the nocturnal winter landscape is the pretext for skillful chromatic studies where the dominant tonality, dark blue, assumes different values according to whether he desires the scene to be cool or warm. As for winter, this painter achieves serene images from along the shore of Saint Laurence and in the back country. For him, the human presence is a primordial element dominating each painting, rather through the use of a symbol of a lamp light glimmering in the night than in the physical depiction of individuals. André Philibert has been called the ‘Painter of the Night’ by many critics, but it would be more accurate to describe him as a painter of the full moon, of the sunrise and the sunset, or maybe even as a magician. His works depict another reality, all enveloped in blue, but so real that the viewer forgets his own. These numerous scenes of Quebec winter, with everything under snow make us feel blissful and reminiscent of childhood. The luminosity of his landscapes create a night atmosphere of calm and quiet. Philibert’s work is refreshing, contemporary by the geometry of its forms, and unique because of his mastery of technique. A graphic artist by training, André Philibert has taken part in numerous exhibitions, solo and group, and his works can be found in Europe, the United States, and Canada.