Lot 143
LOUIS COMTOIS
Note:
Louis Comtois was born in Montréal, Québec in 1945. He studied at the École des beaux arts de Montréal before moving permanently to New York City in 1972. His early abstract work in the 1960‘s, marked by the use of bright paint layers on layers of dark colour, was greatly influenced by Claude Tousignant, Guido Molinari and Yves Gaucher. In later years, Comtois’ abstract work dealt with a variety of multimedia, where he painted monumental monochromatic paintings on triptychs made of wood and covered with jute or muslin soaked in plaster.
Comtois won The Canada Council's Gershon Iskowitz prize for achievement and success as a professional Canadian visual artist in 1987. He died in New York in 1990. The City of Montreal along with the Association des galeries d'art contemporain (AGAC) set up the Louis Comtois Award in his honor to support and promote the work of an artist who has distinguished him/herself on Montréal's contemporary arts scene in the last fifteen years. Comtois died of AIDS in 1990.