Jesuit, artist, teacher
Marcel Lapointe, S.J.
The Archive of the Jesuits in Canada holds a comprehensive collection of artworks by Fr. Marcel Lapointe, S.J. It is comprised of abstract and figurative works realized between 1962 and 2001. The collection includes paintings, lithographs, woodcuts, linocuts, and etchings that attest to Fr. Lapointe’s lifelong passion for artistic creation.
The copious writings and course notes in his fonds d’archives illustrate his profound conviction that the best way for him to answer to his religious calling would be by making art and teaching art.
Born in Magog in 1928, Marcel Lapointe studied at Séminaire de Sherbrooke and Montreal’s Collège Sainte-Marie before joining the Society of Jesus in 1952. He was ordained in 1963. In 1966 he enrolled in the Montreal School of Fine Arts, where he studied printmaking. Fr. Lapointe went on to teach art at Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf until 1995. He subsequently devoted his time and energy to his own printmaking and to accompanying artists studying at the print studio at the Gesù – Centre de Créativité. He was appointed curator of the French Canadian Jesuit Province’s art collection, and also made a member of the Montreal Diocese Committee for the Safeguarding of Religious Heritage. His works were shown as part of group and solo exhibitions, notably at the Gesù, where a retrospective exhibition was held in 2005 in his honour.
Exhibition Modules
Artworks
Artistic Approach
Paint is not my only medium.
I was primarily a painter until 1965.
You do not have to study painting: you can always just start painting ON YOUR OWN.
In 1966, I discovered printmaking.
I see myself as a printmaker rather than a painter.
Why printmaking?
I believe I can express myself better through printmaking. You have to learn printmaking.
Wood engraving, for example, requires thought, requires reflection, especially engraving by addition, by subtraction.
Wood is engraved slowly, but gets printed rather quickly.
A lithograph is made quickly through gestures, with great freedom. But then printing the lithographic plate is a slow process.
Marcel Lapointe, S.J.
Translation from original text in French