Rita Letendre
Trailblazing artist Rita Letendre died Nov. 20 after a long illness. She was 93.
Born in Drummondville, Que., in 1928 to Abenaki and Quebecois parents, Letendre moved to Montreal and briefly studied at the École des beaux arts. She discovered the Automatistes – a group of artists who were experimenting with colour and form – and their work resonated with her. She went on to experiment with the spontaneity of abstraction through colour field work in oils, pastels, acrylics and airbrush.
“What I want to express is life," she said. "I want to understand life and try to project it to others."
Letendre met her husband, the Russian-born Israeli sculptor Kosso Eloul, on a trip to Italy in 1962. Together, they worked and travelled the world.
Letendre played a significant role in the history of public art in Toronto, where she was commissioned to create many large-scale public projects – one of only a few women at the time considered for public works on this scale. Her work included major murals at Ryerson University and the Royal Bank Plaza, as well as the stained-glass skylights of the Glencairn subway station.
Over her career, Letendre had more than 60 solo exhibitions. Her works are held in numerous collections, including the Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada. She was awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2010 and was an Officer of the Order of Canada, among other honours.
At a 90th birthday celebration for Letendre, Wanda Nanibush, curator of Indigenous art at the Art Gallery of Ontario, summed up the artist by saying she “paints fire and light in a way we’ve never seen before.”
“Her paintings open up our hearts and souls to what life can be, and that makes us want to live better, more passionately and stronger. This is what Rita Letendre has brought to us through her work and who she was as a person.”
Letendre is survived by her son, Jacques Letendre.
Source: Art Gallery of Ontario
