Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre

Rita Letendre, painter, printmaker (b at Drummondville, Qué 1 Nov 1928). After study at the École des beaux-arts de Montréal, Letendre was influenced by Paul-Émile BORDUAS and the AUTOMATISTES. In 1962 she travelled in western Europe and Israel. Her new interest in more structured composition and simpler shapes was seen in her 1965 outdoor mural commission in Long Beach, Calif, where she lived (1965-70) with her sculptor husband Kosso ELOUL before moving to Toronto. There her painting became more austere, with large geometric forms and vibrant colour. Letendre is well known for her monumental interior and exterior murals. Her work has been included in the exhibitions "Achieving the Modern," at the Winnipeg Art Gallery (1992), and "La crise d'abstraction, les années 1950," at the National Gallery of Canada (1992). In 2003 she was the subject of a major retrospective exhibition at the MUSÉE DU QUÉBEC.

In 2002, Rita Letendre was awarded the ORDER OF QUEBEC and in 2005 was made an Officer of the ORDER OF CANADA. She was named a winner of the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts in 2010.