Armand Vaillancourt is a French Canadian artist best known for his monumental urban sculptures and abstract paintings as well as for his social and political activism. Renowned internationally, his work has been featured on the cover of Newsweek and in Time magazine. Vaillancourt has created sculptures from a variety of materials, including wood, bronze, stone, iron, steel, and concrete. In 1967, he was commissioned by the City of San Francisco to design and supervise the construction of its world famous fountain at the Embarcadero Plaza. The quality and force of his paintings have been compared to the work of Riopelle and Pollock, and he has been described in the press as “Quebec’s Picasso.” When asked recently why he took time out of his hectic schedule of shows and openings to participate in live-painting demonstrations, he simply stated: “What they do here is more important than anything I can possibly put on canvas. They are painting the life of people, they are allowing young people to emerge from the grey gesso of a canvas into a vivid and colorful and hopefully satisfying future. If I can just inspire one single person in my 84th year, this is more important to me than a vernissage in Paris.”
