Marcel Barbeau established himself as a pioneer in a number of memorably significant artistic movements—abstract expressionism, minimalism, Op Art…—in painting as well as sculpture. His œuvre offers testimony of a profoundly personal and original approach in which the expression of movement is a central theme. Barbeau approaches this theme as a continuous form of questioning, from which new compositional modes or processes unceasingly emerge, notably the all over, which he began developing in 1946. As Robert Enright words it, Barbeau is at the same time a problem-maker and a problem-solver: "He makes problems because he is so restless and he solves problems because he is so persistently inventive."This never-ending questing and boundless invention are the sources of the innovative character of his work, which has won him international recognition and renown.

Over the course of his 67-year career, Barbeau has participated in more than 80 individual exhibitions and more than 250 collective exhibitions in Canada and abroad. His corpus of some 4500 works, both sculptural and pictorial, figures in 100 public and 30 corporate collections. His career and artistic approach have been extensively documented in a wide range of monographs, catalogues, articles and documentary films.

Marie-Ève Tanguay